ST. LOUIS - Last January, when the St. Louis Rams played the Seattle Seahawks for the NFC West title, Chris Long wanted to play his best. No regrets, no what ifs.

After the loss, Long was motivated. Not haunted.

"I'm not that type," Long said. "Some people say, 'Well, you should be that type.' That's why I try to play really hard, so those things I can leave them on the field."

Set to face the Seahawks for the first time since, that philosophy still applies for a player who's developed into one of the NFL's top pass rushers. Although for a much different reason.

Each team is having a stinker of a season.

Seattle (3-6) vs. St. Louis (2-7) long ago was slotted for a late afternoon marquee start. Instead, their total of five wins is the lowest among this week's matchups.

There's only so much any one player can do about that.

Long's play has been a key to the Rams' surge, most of it on defense, the last few games. Although it's too late to save a season long gone sour, St. Louis finally bears some resemblance to the team that made a six-victory improvement in Year 2 under coach Steve Spagnuolo.

Since getting manhandled by the Packers and Cowboys by a combined 58-10, the Rams have two wins and an overtime loss. Long got three sacks in an upset over the Saints and is among the league leaders with eight, blossoming as a force against the run, too, in his fourth season since being taken with the second overall pick of the 2009 draft.

With seven games to go, the son of Hall of Famer Howie Long is a virtual lock for his first double-digit sack season.

"I don't know what I'd have to do to validate that. I got picked pretty high and I get paid a lot of money," Long said. "I think I'd have to have about 20 sacks a year to validate that.

"I just try to be the best player I can be, maximize what I can do."

Long has plenty of experience playing in games that aren't crucial, leaving the field a winner in just 12 of 57 chances. This week is another opportunity.

"It doesn't matter what your record is, there should be the exact same elan every Sunday," Long said. "To me, it's a competition. And the beautiful thing about it, it doesn't matter where you are in the standings, your pride's on the line every Sunday."

The Seahawks lost three of four to start the year, then dropped three of four again. They showed surprising life last week with a 22-17 upset of the Ravens, but are four games behind the 49ers in the West.

Time for a little commiserating from coach Pete Carroll, whose team has also been ravaged by injuries. Carroll referenced the Rams' brutal early schedule and the Cardinals' also-ran status.

Carroll thinks the Seahawks are a better team than last year's 7-9 division champs, just a bit young. Nearly half of the roster is in its first season with the franchise.

"I think we've all started slowly, other than the Niners who got off to a racehorse start, and we didn't," Carroll said. "So we'll see what happens. There's a lot of ball left, a lot of games out there."

Maybe, if they can keep playing like last week, when they capitalized on three turnovers and Marshawn Lynch's second straight 100-yard rushing game to beat their second division leader. Besides scoring Seattle's lone TD, Lynch had four big runs and a first-down catch in the drive that ran out the final 5:52.

"That's pretty much the way you see the game being won, running out the clock being up like that," Lynch said. "It just so happened it was against the Ravens. That one is done, now we have to get ready for this one."

Lynch has consecutive 100-yard games for the first time in his career, a big boost for a run game ranked near the bottom of the NFL.

"He has a nasty stiff-arm and he's explosive," Rams middle linebacker James Laurinaitis said. "He's looking to score every carry."

And he's about to go up against the NFL's worst team against the run, although the Rams have held two of the last three opponents below 100 yards.

The Rams' Steven Jackson can do Lynch one better. Still bowling over tacklers in his eighth season, the 240-pound Jackson has stepped up in an effort to prevent the season from total collapse, and has three straight 100-yard games.

"Steven Jackson is roaring," Carroll said.

Though he's missed most of three games, Jackson is ninth in the NFL with 707 yards rushing and a 5.1-yard average - the best of his career.

"Jack means everything to our offense," quarterback Sam Bradford said. "When Jack gets rolling, it just makes everything a lot easier for us. "

Not easy enough for Bradford, the NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year last season who's battled injuries and personnel turnover in his second season and is running the NFL's lowest-scoring offense. Since returning from a high left ankle sprain that sidelined him for two games, Bradford has one TD pass and two interceptions.

Bradford has only four touchdown passes on the year and two of his top anticipated targets are on injured reserve (Danny Amendola) or elsewhere (Mike Sims-Walker, with the Jaguars). But he offers no excuses about what's been a disappointing year.

"It's obviously nowhere near where it needs to be," Bradford said.

What to do? Just keep playing.

"You know my attitude, we can play in the parking lot tomorrow with no cameras and I'll be ready to go," Laurinaitis said. "Forget about the last one, on to the next one, looking for a win."