RENTON, Wash. — On the surface, this might seem like the perfect get-well game for the Seattle Seahawks — as perfect as any road game might seem, anyway — heading to St. Louis to play the struggling Rams.

On top of the fact that the Rams are 1-4 this season, Seattle has also had its way with the Rams of late, winning 16 of 18 meetings dating to the 2004 season.

But the won-loss record belies the type of games Seattle has played with the Rams the past two years since Jeff Fisher took over as St. Louis’ coach, all of which have been pretty tense, including a 14-9 win last year at St. Louis that wasn’t decided until the final play.

So Seattle coach Pete Carroll isn’t reading much into St. Louis’ record while remembering the physical games the two teams have played in recent seasons.

“They’re a really aggressive team, Jeff has always coached a really physical team and an aggressive style of play and they’ve always been tough on us when we go there and here, too,” Carroll said. “We’re expecting the same; they’re loaded with speed, they’re the youngest football team in the league, but they’re loaded with a bunch of guys that can fly in a lot of positions, and it really shows up on special teams where they have such great athleticism there – returners, all across the board. They are always an aggressive, disruptive type of team; that’s how they play.”

What Carroll really wants to see, though, is a return to form from his team.

Seattle fell to 3-2 with a surprising 30-23 loss at home to the Dallas Cowboys last Sunday, a game in which the Cowboys outgained the Seahawks, 401-206.

Of Seattle’s 11 drives, only three went for longer than 14 yards, and only one longer than 39, as the offense couldn’t find a rhythm, held to a season-low 80 rushing yards on 18 carries.

On the other side of the ball, Seattle allowed Dallas four drives of 71 yards or longer, three of exactly 80 yards, as the Cowboys wiped out an early 10-0 deficit.

While much of the post-game post-mortem centered on the fact that running back Marshawn Lynch got just 10 carries for 61 yards, Carroll said no area of the team escaped blame for the defeat.

“It’s all connected,” he said. “How we’re playing defense, how we’re running the football, and how we’re converting on third down on both sides of the football has a lot to say about what happens. In the games that we’ve won, we’ve almost average 37 carries a game and the passing has been 26-28 (attempts) and in the games that we’ve lost, we’ve passed the ball about 25-28 times – right in there too, but we’ve ran it way less.

“You can see where we’re losing our attempts is because we’re not converting or we have three plays in the second quarter – those kinds of quarters can take the ball out of the offense’s hands. So it’s not an alarming situation to me, it’s unfortunate that we’ve had to suffer through two tough losses that way and the games have gone in kind of the same pattern – we need to keep that from happening and not let the game go that way.

“It’s not just a question of calling more runs though; we have to make our first downs. So it really is connected and we have to play better across the board to stay out of those situations.”

Carroll hopes that starts this week or the Seahawks could start to really lose some traction in the NFC West with Arizona at 4-1 and this week playing at winless Oakland.

SERIES HISTORY: 32nd all-time meeting. The Seahawks lead it 20-11 and have won 16 of 18 dating to 2004. That includes the last three in a row with the last Rams win coming in St. Louis in 2012, 19-13. Seattle won both games last season, including a 14-9 victory in St. Louis in a contest that ended with the Rams throwing an incomplete pass in the end zone on the final play.

MEDICAL WATCH: C Max Unger, who strained his foot against Washington and missed the Dallas game, has been rules out for the St. Louis game. He will again be replaced by Stephen Schilling. … MLB Bobby Wagner, who suffered a turf toe injury against Dallas, will be out against St. Louis and could be out for a few weeks after that, coach Pete Carroll said. K.J. Wright will move from weak-side linebacker to middle linebacker to take his place with Malcolm Smith stepping in at WLB. … CB Byron Maxwell suffered a calf strain in Sunday’s game but may be able to play against the Rams. However, Maxwell did not practice on Wednesday. … DL Jordan Hill missed practice on Wednesday with an ankle injury. … TE Zach Miller remains sidelined after having ankle surgery following the Denver game Sept. 21.

GAME PLAN: Run, run and run some more. Seattle’s game plan against the Cowboys is receiving lots of criticism locally after the Seahawks rushed on just 18 of 48 offensive plays, with Marshawn Lynch carrying the ball just 10 times for 61 yards.

Seattle coaches said they intended to run the ball more but the game plan simply got away from them when the Seahawks ran just 15 offensive plays in the first half and they fell behind.

St. Louis could prove a good team to get back on track against as the Rams are allowing 139.8 rushing yards per game, 26th in the NFL, though they are coming off a game in which they held the 49ers to 89 yards on 30 attempts. Still, it’ll be a surprise if the Seahawks don’t try to get back to basics against the Rams and pound the ball early and often to set up better play-action pass options than they got last week against Dallas.

Defensively, the Seahawks are beginning to be bitten a bit by the injury bug, with middle linebacker Bobby Wagner now out for at least a few games and starting cornerback Byron Maxwell also uncertain with a calf injury.

But that is unlikely to change what Seattle does defensively. The Seahawks have just seven sacks this season. But a struggling St. Louis line has allowed 16 and the Seahawks may try to get more aggressive than usual against the Rams and young quarterback Austin Davis, who has thrown four interceptions.

MATCHUPS TO WATCH:

Seattle’s secondary against St. Louis QB Austin Davis: Davis, who will be making just his fifth start, has thrown three interceptions returned for touchdowns this season. In one of the odder stats of Seattle’s year, the Legion of Boom has just two interceptions — one each by Kam Chancellor and Byron Maxwell. Seattle has had its hands on a few others but uncharacteristically hasn’t made the catch. Maxwell, for instance, dropped one near the goal line last week before Dallas scored its first touchdown. Seattle needs to turn into a play-making defense again and this game would seem to afford some good opportunities for that to happen.

St. Louis defensive end Robert Quinn against Seattle left tackle Russell Okung: This is a battle of two struggling big-name players. Quinn, the NFL Defensive Player of the Year last season with 19 sacks, has none this season. Okung, a Pro Bowler in 2012, isn’t 100 percent healthy following off-season toe surgery and then a shoulder injury suffered against Denver. He has seven penalties this season, second-most in the NFL, all either holdings or false starts. St. Louis coach Jeff Fisher said this week that Quinn has been moved around some to handle some different roles but that he may revert to playing primarily his usual spot against the Seahawks.

Seattle RB Marshawn Lynch against St. Louis’ front seven: The story in Seattle this week is that Lynch got just 10 carries against the Cowboys. Expect him to get a lot more than that against the Rams as the Seahawks are likely to force the issue to get their offense back on track. Lynch, though, struggled last year against the Rams with just 23 yards on eight carries in a game Seattle was lucky to win, 14-9. He did better when Seattle beat St. Louis at home to end the regular season with 97 yards on 23 carries. Seattle needs Lynch to have a big day as he has 63 carries for 270 yards in Seattle’s three wins and just 16 carries for 97 yards in the two losses.