Seahawks must recover quickly from loss

Seattle, still the NFC West leader, plays at New England on Sunday.

KIRKLAND, Wash. -- This was one rough weekend for Seattle's young defenders. They demonstrated, in an excruciating finish for the Seahawks and their fans, why early season statistics are meaningless.

One week ago, Seattle's hard-hitting defense ranked No. 1 in the NFL, holding its first three opponents to 13 total points and allowing an average of 242.3 total yards.

Then came a 23-point rally by St. Louis quarterback Marc Bulger in the fourth quarter and overtime Sunday. Terreal Bierria was beaten on the final play, and the Rams won 33-27.

"It taught me you can't play 52 minutes in a 60-minute game," said Bierria, in his first year as an NFL starter. "You have to play the whole 60 minutes as a team to get a W."

The good news for the Seahawks, as coach Mike Holmgren emphasized to his players, is they can still reach their goals of winning the NFC West and going to the playoffs.

There's no time to dwell about what happened, either, not with another big game this week at New England (4-0).

"I'm still upset. It really stings," Seahawks fullback Mack Strong said. "But we've got to come back with no lingering effects and be totally focused on playing New England. They're a very good football team. Their record speaks for itself."

Just as Bulger began to heat up in the closing minutes, Seattle's offense stalled, unable on two late possessions to grind out two first downs that would have killed the clock when the Rams were out of timeouts.

"You definitely have to give the Rams a lot of respect," Seattle linebacker Isaiah Kacyvenski said. "They kept battling back. When you don't give up, good things usually happen. They made the plays they had to."

And the Seahawks didn't.

"It's a very sickening feeling," said defensive end Grant Wistrom, who played for the Rams last year. "We had that game fully in our control and there were any number of plays that could have been made to win it."

Rams' Little denied change of venue in case

A judge Tuesday ruled against a change of venue in the drunken driving case against St. Louis Rams football star Leonard Little.

St. Louis County Circuit Court Judge Emmett O'Brien denied the motion, saying merely that his decision was based on law. The judge had questioned about 20 people from the county's jury pool to determine if the trial should be moved due to pretrial publicity, as Little's attorney, Scott Rosenblum, had argued during a hearing earlier in the day.

Rosenblum refused to comment on the judge's decision.

Bengals' Smith pleads not guilty on DUI charge

Cincinnati Bengals defensive end Justin Smith pleaded not guilty to a driving under the influence charge.

Smith, 25 and a former University of Missouri standout, was arrested last week. His attorney entered a written plea Tuesday in Kettering Municipal Court in Ohio.

-- From wire reports