Rams’ Week 11 studs and duds: Ramsey rises up, Goff and Kupp falter

The best and worst performances by the Rams from Sunday night’s win.

It took another dominant performance by the defense on Sunday night for the Rams to get a win, holding off the Bears 17-7 at home. The defense shut down Mitchell Trubisky and Chicago’s offense, while the Rams did just enough to win this one.

There are certainly some concerns coming out of this game, such as Jared Goff’s continued struggles, but there are also signs of encouragement. Jalen Ramsey was a star again, Aaron Donald shined as he always does and Todd Gurley got a healthy dosage of touches.

Here are our studs and duds from Sunday’s win.

Studs

Jalen Ramsey

Ramsey looked exactly like the lockdown cornerback the Rams paid up to get on Sunday night. He more or less took away Allen Robinson, holding him to just 15 yards on four catches (six targets). Ramsey also showed what makes him an elite defender, breaking up one pass, hitting the tight end on another to jar the pass loose and slamming Robinson on his back with a huge hit on the sideline. He’s completely changed the look of this defense.

Offensive line

It’s hard to overstate just how well the offensive line played. Jared Goff was only pressured on one of his 18 dropbacks, which is the lowest rate (6%) he’s ever faced in his career. This was with rookies Bobby Evans and David Edwards on the right side, and newcomer Austin Corbett at left guard. Austin Blythe was an upgrade over Brian Allen at center, too, though the Bears were without Akiem Hicks, which hurt.

Regardless, it was a great performance by the offensive line, aside from the holding penalty on Andrew Whitworth to take away an 18-yard play.

Troy Hill

Hill isn’t exactly a model of consistency, but he played well on Sunday night. In his stat-stuffing performance, he had six tackles, one sack, an interception and three passes defensed. He was called for defensive holding on a key third-down stop, but it was a questionable call so it’s hard to fault him. The Bears only had 193 net passing yards and Hill’s play is one of the many reasons why. He had a nice performance.

Todd Gurley

Gurley answered the call against the Bears, carrying the ball 25 times for 97 yards and a touchdown, adding 36 yards receiving on three catches. Without him, the Rams probably would not have won this game. He looked like his old self, taking back the workhorse role that he’s had for several years. Gurley was a huge factor in this win.

Josh Reynolds

Reynolds came up big for the Rams down the stretch. He finished the game with three catches for 55 yards, but it should’ve been much more than that. He had a 51-yard touchdown catch taken away by an illegal formation penalty on Andrew Whitworth, and on that drive alone, he had 44 yards receiving. Without that touchdown drive, Los Angeles would’ve been in serious danger of losing.

Aaron Donald

Donald had four tackles, two sacks, four quarterback hits, two tackles for loss and a batted pass, once again filling the box score with a dominant performance. The Bears tried to double- and triple-team him, which came as no surprise, but he proved to once again be nearly impossible to block.

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