The Rams have scored 62 points in their last two games, bouncing back nicely from an embarrassing 45-6 loss to the Ravens in Week 12. More impressively, though, they’ve held their last two opponents – the Cardinals and Seahawks, led by Kyler Murray and Russell Wilson – to just 19 total points.
Of those 19 points, six were the fault of Jared Goff and the offense as he threw a pick-six to Quandre Diggs on Sunday night against Seattle.
So in the last two weeks, the Seahawks and Cardinals scored one offensive touchdown and had 13 points on that side of the ball. Again, the offense got most of the credit for those wins by scoring 34 and 28 points, but Los Angeles’ defense is truly among the best in the league.
Entering this week, the Rams ranked 13th in the NFL in scoring, allowing just 20.8 points per game. That average will drop further to 20.1 points per game with Seattle only scoring 12 points, pushing the Rams into a tie for 10th in the NFL.
Their schedule hasn’t exactly been daunting since Week 7, outside of facing the Seahawks and Ravens, but they’ve shut down most of the offenses they’ve gone up against in that span. The Rams have only allowed more than 17 points once since acquiring Jalen Ramsey, a stretch of seven games. In those seven weeks, they’ve given up just 108 points – 45 of which were scored by Baltimore alone.
Los Angeles doesn’t force many turnovers – it ranks 14th in takeaways – but Wade Phillips’ “bend, don’t break” defense is working to perfection. Teams aren’t creating big plays against the Rams, and as a result, they’re scoring very few points.
That’s been the case all season, even before the secondary was completely revamped. In 13 games, the Rams have allowed 262 points. Of that total, 110 came against the Buccaneers and Ravens alone. If you exclude those two games, the Rams have allowed just 13.8 points per game this season, which would rank second behind only the Patriots.
Stats don’t work that way, of course, but it just goes to show how those two games were outliers more than they were indications of the quality of Los Angeles’ defense.
It’s time to start paying attention to the Rams has one of the best defenses in the league, and truly the strength of this team. The pass rush is among the top units in football, Cory Littleton is playing like an All-Pro at linebacker and the secondary is headlined by Ramsey, Eric Weddle and a budding star in Taylor Rapp.
If the defense plays the way it has lately, the Rams can beat anyone at any point.
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