LOS ANGELES—Rashaad Penny was coming off of back-to-back big games heading into Sunday's game against the Rams, but unfortunately for the Seahawks and their second-year running back, his 2019 season appears to be over due to a knee injury.

Penny's first play of the game was a productive one, with him taking a short pass 16 yards for a first down, but Penny injured his knee at the end of that first-quarter play, and the news from Seahawks coach Pete Carroll wasn't encouraging.

"He's got an ACL sprain, and we don't know how serious it is, but it's significant," Carroll said following his team's 28-12 loss to the Rams.

Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson talked to Penny after the game and said the running back was upbeat about the recovery ahead of him, but said, "Obviously it's disappointing losing Penny, I feel for him. He's such a great competitor, he's been tremendous the past couple of weeks. That's just unfortunate. It's part of the game, unfortunately."

Penny was just starting to become a big part of Seattle's offense of late as a complement to starting running back Chris Carson, rushing for a season-high 129 yards and a score two weeks ago against the Eagles, and running for 74 and a touchdown while also adding 33 receiving yards with a touchdown catch in last week's win over Minnesota.

His absence will likely mean a bigger role for C.J. Prosise going forward, and the Seahawks also have rookie running back Travis Homer, who has been a big contributor on special teams throughout the season.

"The obvious thing is that C.J. steps up," Carroll said. "We were able to get C.J. up this week. He hasn't played in quite a while now, so we're very fortunate to have C.J. coming up. And Homer is still available to us."

Two of Seattle's three linebackers, K.J. Wright and Cody Barton, briefly left the game with injuries, but both were able to return, "so both those guys were all right," Carroll said.

Barton was starting at strongside linebacker for the first time in place of Mychal Kendricks, who was inactive with a hamstring injury. Carroll said it was too soon to know if Kendricks will be back for next week's game in Carolina.

Also inactive due to injury was defensive end Ziggy Ansah, who was able to practice during what was a light week of practice coming off a Monday game, but wasn't cleared to play due to a stinger sustained in last week's game.

"He was close enough because he practiced all week, but he just didn't have full strength," Carroll said. "And he was able to practice because of the mode that we were in all week and get the work. But he just wasn't capable of mustering the strength he needed to pass the test at the end of the week. We didn't know from one day to the next if he would, but he just couldn't make it. So it wasn't safe for him to play."