The Los Angeles Rams surrendered a 57-yard touchdown to Deebo Samuel in Week 4 as a result of Derion Kendrick trying to jump the route. Even though Kendrick came up short of intercepting Jimmy Garoppolo’s pass, Jalen Ramsey wants the rookie cornerback to remain aggressive.
“He’s just got to keep taking them chances. You don’t grow unless you fail sometimes, right? If he was out there playing scared that isn’t going to do him no good. He’s never going to have the confidence to make them plays. You learn from mistakes like that. I don’t even call it a mistake, he just shot his shot, but it didn’t work out, right? It happens, it’s football,” Ramsey said. “It was a good player that made the play and you chalk it up, really. But we don’t trip about it. You can’t be scared of failure or you just won’t ever do anything. You won’t ever accomplish anything in life, in the sport, whatever it may be. We are good with how he’s playing, how fearless he’s playing.”
The Rams trailed the 49ers 7-6 late in the second quarter of Monday’s loss when Garoppolo delivered a pass to Samuel on the left side of the field. Kendrick was able to diagnose the play and he aggressively tried to jump the route to secure an interception.
Instead of Kendrick coming up with the interception, Samuel was able to snag the pass from Garoppolo and he proceeded to break a few tackles before finding the end zone. If the rookie sixth-round pick was able to come away with an interception, it could have changed the outcome of the game.
Ramsey has always been a confident cornerback and it’s helped him develop into one of the premier cornerbacks in the NFL. Given his experience in making aggressive plays, Ramsey wants Kendrick to put his play involving Samuel behind him and continue to play with confidence for the Rams.