With Aaron Donald leading the charge, the Rams’ pass rush is typically a strength of the team each and every year. It was one of the primary contributors to their Super Bowl run last season, helped by the addition of Von Miller.
Outside of Donald, the pass rush has been very average this season. As a team, they have just 12 total sacks, the seventh-fewest in the NFL. According to Pro Football Reference, their pressure rate of 12.9% ranks 31st.
Leonard Floyd has zero sacks and Terrell Lewis and Justin Hollins have just one each. Bobby Wagner, Jalen Ramsey and Cobie Durant have combined for five sacks themselves. By most measures, the Rams’ pass rush has been a weakness.
But in Sean McVay’s mind, it’s been good, and he explained why on Wednesday.
“I think it’s been good. I think similar to what we’ve talked about before, I think in a lot of instances the flow of the game dictates opportunities,” he said. “If we’re playing from a lead, you’re forcing people to be a little bit more one dimensional, and I think that’s a team thing. We’ve got to do a good job offensively of sustaining drives, scoring points to be able to get some leads and then offer the opportunity for our guys. I did think that, even the last time we played against these guys (the 49ers) or even in the Carolina game, they took a little bit, not the Niners, but Carolina, maybe a little bit more of a conservative approach where the ball was coming out quickly and some of the things that they were activating. But I’ve been pleased with it and I’m looking forward to hopefully creating more opportunities as a result of the way that we play as a team.”
The Rams probably won’t have many opportunities to rush the passer on Sunday against the 49ers with the way Jimmy Garoppolo gets rid of the ball so quickly. He has the fifth-quickest time to throw in the NFL, according to Next Gen Stats, and in Week 4, the Rams pressured him just five times all game long.
If the coverage can force Garoppolo to hold the ball longer, it’ll allow Donald, Floyd and the other pass rushers to collapse the pocket and force him into mistakes. The Rams do have the sixth-best pass-rush win rate, per ESPN, so the pass rushers are winning their reps. They’re just not getting home for sacks.