There once was a time where the Seattle Seahawks could routinely pencil in at least one win a year over the Rams when the schedule was released. From 2005-2009, the Seahawks won 10-straight over the then-St. Louis Rams, and from 2005-2014 they had 10-straight wins over them at Qwest/CenturyLink/Lumen Field. Although the Rams would prove to be a thorn in the side of Seattle’s during the Legion of Boom era, they could always be plucked, and were never a legitimate hindrance to their goals.

Those days ceased to exist the moment Sean McVay was hired prior to the 2017 season. Since then, the balance of power in the NFC West decidedly shifted south down the west coast. McVay clearly has the secret sauce to beat the Seahawks and outright owns them. Overall, McVay’s Rams are 11-6 against Seattle. If these games were all played in a 17-game season, that record would have been good enough to win three divisions last season.

Unfortunately, the 11-6 record is somehow rather “charitable” to the Seahawks, and in reality, could look a lot closer to 16-1 instead. Let’s examine those six Seattle victories, shall we?

• October 8th, 2017 – Seahawks defeat Rams 16-10 thanks to rookie wide receiver Cooper Kupp dropping a game-winning touchdown in the end zone. We can all probably count on one hand the amount of times that’s happened since, and I bet we would still have fingers to spare.
• October 3rd, 2019 – Seahawks defeat Rams 30-29 thanks to Greg Zuerlein missing the game-winning 44-yard field goal wide right. This was the night Tyler Lockett had his incredible toe-tap touchdown, and the night the Seahawks chose to honor the late Paul Allen.
• December 27th, 2020 – Seahawks defeat the Rams 20-9 to clinch their first NFC West title since 2016, which remains their most recent division crown. Unfortunately, two weeks later, this same Rams team dominated Seattle 30-20 in the Wild Card round. This is also the only double-digit win over McVay.
• December 4th, 2022 – Seahawks defeat the Rams 27-23 as Geno Smith engineers a game-winning drive with under a minute to go to narrowly defeat a Los Angeles team led by backup John Wolford.
• January 8th, 2023 – Seahawks defeat the Rams 19-16 in overtime against Baker Mayfield. Los Angeles finished the season 5-12, completing the worst Super Bowl defense season in NFL history.
• January 5th, 2025 – Seahawks defeat the Rams 30-25 as Los Angeles started Jimmy Garoppolo and the rest of their backups, as they had already clinched the division and eliminated Seattle from postseason contention. This game still came down to a 4th-and-3rd stop by the Seahawks’ defense with under 30 seconds left in order to end the 2024 campaign with a win.

Of those six wins, five were narrow won score wins… three against backups (with one being completely devoid of any meaning for either team), one featuring a rookie mistake from a future Hall of Famer, and one where the ghost of Paul Allen may have intervened with the wind (can’t rule it out!). Not exactly a convincing resume, in my opinion.

So here we are, folks, another game where the Seahawks need to take on the Rams in a crucial scenario. One where both teams genuinely need the win as it will have direct implications for their seasons – and possible postseasons – moving forward. Can Seattle finally figure out a way to take down their bullies in the City of Angels? History tells us no. Then again, this is a new era with Mike Macdonald at the helm.

Still, I think for a lot of the 12’s out there (me included) seeing is believing, and we’re going to need to see the Seahawks rise to the challenge of the Rams.

This article originally appeared on Seahawks Wire: Seahawks vs Rams: Sean McVay is Seattle’s kryptonite