Kyle Boller’s quick hitter to tight end Billy Bajema moved the ball to the Seattle 14. On third-and-3, pint-sized receiver Danny Amendola took another quick pass, turned it inside and gained 11 yards to the Seattle 3.

He put his quick feet to work and then fearlessly took on a gang of tacklers.

After running back Steven jackson edged the ball closer on first down, Boller calmly flipped a 1-yard TD pass to Donnie Avery in the face of major pressure.

That was an excellent quarterbacking sequence by Boller, who is getting a chance to further his NFL career in place of the injured Marc Bulger. He didn’t flinch in the face of Seattle blitzes and he took good care of the ball.

Boller did nothing fancy during that TD drive, but he stayed on target with his short throws and hit a variety of targets.

The Rams defense responded with a timely three-and-out stop, with safety O.J. Atogwe blitzing on third down to swat down Matt Hasselbeck’s pass toward the right flat.

The game’s momentum turned. The Rams offense got a chance to run with that shift, literally.

Boller gunned a slant pass to Brandon Gibson for a first down. Then Boller looked deep on his next pass, but thought better of heaving the ball and scrambled for an 8-yard gain instead.

After Kenneth Darby lost a yard — spelling Jackson, who is less than 100 percent healthy — Boller fired a quick 5-yard pass to Amendola for another first down.

On the next play, the Rams ACTUALLY LINED UP WITH FOUR WIDE RECEIVERS! Boller’s pass to Ruvell Martin was incomplete, but fans got a kick out of seeing that formation.

When the Rams stalled at the Seattle 41 with a fourth-and-3 situation, Rams coach Steve Spagnuolo played it safe and ordered a punt. Donnie Jones boomed the ball into the end zone, so the Rams gained just 21 yards of real estate with that call.

Oh, well.

The Rams defense earned another three-and-out stop, giving the Rams a chance to take the lead before halftime. A blocking-in-the-back penalty on the ensuing punt forced the Rams to start that sequence back on their 12, which was not favorable.

When Boller tried to go deep to Avery, putting his long arm to use. the Seahawks were flagged for defensive holding.

Isn’t it nice to see the Rams back off a defense with some deep balls, thus making their opponent defend the whole field?

Boller then made one of his most impressive plays as a Ram. In the face of a zone blitz, he lofted a third-down pass over the Seattle defense to Martin while taking the big hit. That 33-yard completion moved the ball to the Seattle 40.

On a swing pass to Steven Jackson, which moved the ball to the Seattle 34. center Jason Brown suffered a knee injury. Given Brown’s stellar play of late, that was a big loss. John Greco entered the game at right guard and Mark Setterstrom moved from right guard to center.

On a fourth-and-4 scenario, Spags elected to go for it. Boller tried to force the ball through triple coverage to Donnie Avery and disaster ensued.

Seahawks cornerback Kelly Jennings tipped the pass and cornerback Josh Wilson picked it off and raced 65 yards for the TD.

That was a terrible decision by Boller — the sort of mistake that convinced the Ravens to give up on him. That blunder handed Seattle (which had the ball for just six plays in this quarter) a 14-7 lead.

Boller nearly fired another interception as the Rams tried to come back. The Seahawks deflected his pass at the line of scrimmage, then fought each other for the ball floating in the air. Somehow, it landed on the ground safely.

After that near disaster, Boller completed a series of short passes to move the Rams back down the field.

They got to the Seattle 37 with four seconds left in the half. Josh Brown made up for his earlier miss, crushing a 55-yard field goal as time expired to cut the Seahawks lead to 14-10.

The Rams trailed at the half despite outgaining the Seahawks 213 to 111 yards on offense.