Originally published Sunday, November 20, 2011 at 8:38 PM

Seahawks have the advantage in battle of battered lines

Compared to the Rams, the Seahawks' patched-up offensive line looks pretty good, even after losing their first two picks from April's draft to knee injuries last week.

By Danny O'Neil

Seattle Times staff reporter

PREV of NEXT

DILIP VISHWANAT / GETTY IMAGES

With tackle Breno Giacomini looking on, quarterback Tarvaris Jackson, center, loses control of the ball amid contact with Rams defenders Chris Long and James Hall.

Top comments Hide / Show comments

I thought the Hawks would have less penalties w/o Moffitt or Carpenter playing. McQuist... (November 20, 2011, by Cosmo K) Read more

The silver lining here may be that Seattle is developing experienced OL backups. This... (November 20, 2011, by t-bar) Read more

The picture attached to this article says it all. Tavaris just needs antlers on his... (November 21, 2011, by TheKing III) Read more

Read all 3 comments > Post a comment >

ST. LOUIS — An injury at tackle undermined the offense Sunday.

The Rams' offense, that is.

St. Louis was already without left tackle Rodger Saffold, who suffered a season-ending chest injury last week. Then the Rams lost his replacement, Mark LeVoir, in the first half of Sunday's game, and they were down to playing Kevin Hughes, who was promoted from the practice squad on Saturday.

"Not to make excuses," coach Steve Spagnuolo said, "but we had another tackle in there that hadn't even practiced during the week as a tackle."

The Seahawks' patched-up offensive line looks pretty good in comparison, even after losing the team's first two picks from April's draft to knee injuries last week.

Breno Giacomini started at right tackle in place of James Carpenter, and he played with a mean streak. Paul McQuistan started at right guard in place of John Moffitt and was called for three penalties.

The flags were what coach Pete Carroll mentioned when asked how the right side of the line played.

"The penalties distract me," he said. "We had a couple of flinches and stuff like that. We had a bunch of penalties against us today, and we were trying like crazy not to do that."

The Seahawks' line did show improvement after struggling early. Seattle allowed four sacks in the first half, none in the second.

"We just got together at halftime and said, 'Hey, man, let's go,' " Giacomini said. "We weren't playing like we were expected to play, and we just had to turn it up a little bit."

At one point in the first half, offensive line coach Tom Cable came onto the field during a timeout and called McQuistan and left guard Robert Gallery over as he tried to make a point.

"We just weren't coming off the ball in the run game like we normally do," Gallery said. "In the flow of the game, you have to fight through that."

Marshawn Lynch averaged 2.9 yards per carry in the first half, and 3.6 in the second as he finished with 88 yards rushing.

The Seahawks finished with 126 yards rushing, the third consecutive game they've reached triple digits. They had more than 100 yards rushing in just two of their first seven games.

Danny O'Neil: 206-464-2364 or doneil@seattletimes.com. On Twitter @dannyoneil.