History and the odds may be stacked in favor of the St. Louis Rams this Sunday night when they play the Seahawks in Seattle. No 7-9 has ever won the division and made the playoffs and if Seattle is going to be the first team to do so, they need to do it without their start quarterback.

Matt Hasselebeck, who has been bothered by a sore hip since week three and re-aggravated it last Sunday at Tampa Bay is “responding” to therapy, and insists he’s going to play. Seattle head coach Pete Carroll is preparing to give Charlie Whitehurst his second NFL start.

“It’s really going to be against the odds if he can pull it off,” Carroll said, referring to Hasselbeck starting. “We’ll just go day to day.” The Rams are certainly used to seeing quarterbacks bounce back and play against them. Matt Cassel did it just 11 day after an appendectomy.

Health has not been an issue for rookie Sam Bradford. I thought it was a mistake for the Rams to take Bradford over Pro Bowler Ndamukong Suh because the Rams’ offensive line was suspect the last couple of years (Remember the beating guys like Marc Bulger took). Yet Bradford hasn’t missed a snap. Only two other quarterbacks can make that claim. Joe Flacco of the Ravens and Peyton Manning.

Bradford already has the rookie record for completions with 335, passing Manning’s 326. Bradford only need 22 pass attempts to beat Manning’s 1998 record of 575 attempts and it would take a special game from Bradford to pass Manning’s yards, who would need 383 to finish ahead of the Colts’ star. Right now, Bradford sits third and needs just 84 yards to move ahead of Atlanta’s Matt Ryan who threw for 3,440 yards in 2008.