Seahawks pull away for 30-13 win over Rams

Doug Baldwin picked a national stage to remind the rest of the NFL what they passed up in last April's draft.

Baldwin, an undrafted rookie out of Stanford, blocked a first-quarter punt that was returned by Michael Robinson 17 yards for a touchdown, then caught a 29-yard TD pass from Tarvaris Jackson in the third quarter as the Seattle Seahawks pulled away for a 30-13 win over the staggering St. Louis Rams on Monday night.

"As far as my expectations go, I expected to be successful. I didn't know how successful, but I expected to be able to come in here and win a job in some capacity, because if you don't have that confidence in yourself you're not going to win a job," Baldwin said. "To be where I am now, no I didn't expect this. But at the same time I'm not satisfied."

Seahawks fans threw bags of Skittles into the end zone as Lynch celebrated his ninth rushing touchdown this season, and he tied a franchise record with nine consecutive games with a TD.

"I could have caught them, that's how close they got to me," Lynch said of the flying candies.

Baldwin finished with seven catches for 93 yards and Steven Hauschka was 3 of 4 on field goal attempts for the Seahawks.

This time, Jackson disappeared in the second half -- aside from a 50-yard catch-and-run on a screen pass -- and finished with 63 yards rushing on 20 carries. He stood on the sidelines with his legs crossed during a goal-line possession in the fourth quarter while Cadillac Williams got the first crack at scoring

The Rams eventually ran five plays from the 1 without Jackson touching the ball -- thanks to a taunting penalty on Seattle's Richard Sherman. Jackson finally got a carry on a second third-and-goal and scored, but only after screaming on the sideline.

Jackson's score pulled the Rams within 23-13, but the outcome was already decided.

Baldwin's influence on the game was evident from the start, when he took a pitch from Leon Washington on a kickoff reverse and returned it beyond the 40. Seattle was later forced to punt, but it was Baldwin racing from the outside to down the punt at the Rams 6.

Then he made the biggest of his three fine special teams plays.

Coming almost entirely unblocked off the right end, Baldwin took a punt off the foot of Donnie Jones. The bounding ball hopped up into the arms of Robinson, who went the final 17 yards for an early 7-0 Seahawks lead.

Aside from a few receptions, Baldwin was mostly quiet until late in the third quarter. He snagged a 22-yard reception across the middle to convert a third-and-11 near midfield. On the next play, Baldwin faked going inside and broke to the sideline, losing Darian Stewart in coverage. Tarvaris Jackson found Baldwin and he got just inside the pylon to give the Seahawks a 14-point lead.

"We just expect that out of him now," Tarvaris Jackson said. "We expect him to go out and make plays every week."

Tarvaris Jackson wasn't his best, but didn't need to be against the Rams. He went 21 of 32 for 224 yards and connected with nine receivers.

Lynch, the focus of most of the attention after his 148-yard, two-touchdown performance against Philadelphia, never broke off a big run, but grinded his way to another 100-yard performance. He capped his night with his ninth rushing TD of the season, breaking tackles on his way to the end zone, then getting pelted with Seahawks fans chucking bags of candy, knowing Lynch's affinity for Skittles.

Seattle topped 100 yards rushing for the sixth straight game, accomplishing that feat for the first time in the same regular season since 1996. It came behind an offensive line that lost its third starter for the season a week ago when Russell Okung went down with a torn pectoral muscle.

Hauschka also hit field goals of 23, 42 and 48 yards. Josh Brown connected from 46 and 29 yards for the Rams.