by Team Del Genio
Tuesday, Dec 31, 2024The Los Angeles Rams went into the second-to-last week of the NFL season with an opportunity to clinch the NFC West title. After dealing with injuries early in the season, they rebounded from a 1-4 start by winning eight of ten games to get their record to 9-6. The Rams hosted Arizona in the finale of the three-game card on Saturday riding a four-game winning streak. They beat the New York Jets on the road, 19-9, as a 3-point favorite in their previous game.
Getting wide receivers Cooper Kupp and Puka Nacua healthy and back on the field for quarterback Matthew Stafford has played a big role in turning their season around. Yet it has been the play of their young defense that has been the critical difference. In their previous ten games before playing the Cardinals, they held six of their opponents to 20 points or fewer, and they held four of those opponents to 15 points or less.
Since week 10 of the regular season going into week 17, the Rams defense ranks tenth in expected points added per play allowed. They are the only team in the league with three players who have 50 or more tackles and ten or more hits on the quarterback. Bryon Young, Kobie Turner, and Braden Fiske all have at least 17 hits on the quarterback this year. Only sixteen other players in the NFL have 10 or more hits on the quarterback and 50 or more tackles this season.
Credit goes to general manager Les Snead for his outstanding selections in the NFL draft the last two seasons to completely transform the defensive unit. Young was an outside linebacker taken in the third round from the University of Tennessee in the 2023 NFL draft. Snead then snagged defensive tackle Kobie Turner from the University of Syracuse with his second pick in that third round. In last spring’s NFL draft, he picked defensive tackle Braden Fiske from Florida State in the second round. These players do not even mention Fiske’s teammate at Florida, Jared Verse, as the edge was drafted by Snead with his first pick in the first round. Verse has made the retirement of future Hall-of-Famer Aaron Donald far less bumpy than expected.
Head coach Sean McVay is leaning on his running game to help keep this unit fresh. In the last four games, running back Kyren Williams had run the ball 96 times for 421 yards. His 4.4 yards per carry average helps to keep time burning off the clock. Williams running the ball more than 20 times per game is putting less pressure on Stafford. The veteran has thrown only one interception in his last 136 throws after the win against the Jets.
This Rams defense might have bent a bit against Arizona, yet they did not break in their low-scoring 13-9 victory. The Cardinals gained 396 yards against them, with 113 of those yards coming from 22 rush attempts. Quarterback Kyler Murray completed 33 of his 48 passes for 321 yards. Yet he threw two interceptions. Arizona’s offense was on the field for 36:55 minutes. The Cardinals' near-400 yards is tempered by them averaging 5.35 yards per play, which was below the 5.5 yards per play Los Angeles is giving up this season and far below the 6.0 yards per play that Arizona is now averaging.
The Rams sacked Murray four times in the game, guess who got these sacks? Fiske got two of the sacks, with Young and Turner registering the other two sacks. Los Angeles has held three straight opponents to single digits, and they clinched the NFC West crown with last week’s win.
With the young but ever-improving defense and quality rushing attack, the Rams are a dangerous team in the postseason since Stafford is likely to be taking snaps in the fourth quarter in a one-score game.
Good luck - TDG.
Getting wide receivers Cooper Kupp and Puka Nacua healthy and back on the field for quarterback Matthew Stafford has played a big role in turning their season around. Yet it has been the play of their young defense that has been the critical difference. In their previous ten games before playing the Cardinals, they held six of their opponents to 20 points or fewer, and they held four of those opponents to 15 points or less.
Since week 10 of the regular season going into week 17, the Rams defense ranks tenth in expected points added per play allowed. They are the only team in the league with three players who have 50 or more tackles and ten or more hits on the quarterback. Bryon Young, Kobie Turner, and Braden Fiske all have at least 17 hits on the quarterback this year. Only sixteen other players in the NFL have 10 or more hits on the quarterback and 50 or more tackles this season.
Credit goes to general manager Les Snead for his outstanding selections in the NFL draft the last two seasons to completely transform the defensive unit. Young was an outside linebacker taken in the third round from the University of Tennessee in the 2023 NFL draft. Snead then snagged defensive tackle Kobie Turner from the University of Syracuse with his second pick in that third round. In last spring’s NFL draft, he picked defensive tackle Braden Fiske from Florida State in the second round. These players do not even mention Fiske’s teammate at Florida, Jared Verse, as the edge was drafted by Snead with his first pick in the first round. Verse has made the retirement of future Hall-of-Famer Aaron Donald far less bumpy than expected.
Head coach Sean McVay is leaning on his running game to help keep this unit fresh. In the last four games, running back Kyren Williams had run the ball 96 times for 421 yards. His 4.4 yards per carry average helps to keep time burning off the clock. Williams running the ball more than 20 times per game is putting less pressure on Stafford. The veteran has thrown only one interception in his last 136 throws after the win against the Jets.
This Rams defense might have bent a bit against Arizona, yet they did not break in their low-scoring 13-9 victory. The Cardinals gained 396 yards against them, with 113 of those yards coming from 22 rush attempts. Quarterback Kyler Murray completed 33 of his 48 passes for 321 yards. Yet he threw two interceptions. Arizona’s offense was on the field for 36:55 minutes. The Cardinals' near-400 yards is tempered by them averaging 5.35 yards per play, which was below the 5.5 yards per play Los Angeles is giving up this season and far below the 6.0 yards per play that Arizona is now averaging.
The Rams sacked Murray four times in the game, guess who got these sacks? Fiske got two of the sacks, with Young and Turner registering the other two sacks. Los Angeles has held three straight opponents to single digits, and they clinched the NFC West crown with last week’s win.
With the young but ever-improving defense and quality rushing attack, the Rams are a dangerous team in the postseason since Stafford is likely to be taking snaps in the fourth quarter in a one-score game.
Good luck - TDG.
