Tag: troy hill

Watch: Troy Hill scores 84-yard pick-six to give Rams halftime lead

Troy Hill has his second pick-six of the season against the Cardinals.

With Jared Goff and Cooper Kupp out, it’s been the Rams defense carrying the team against the Cardinals in Week 17 – a potential must-win game depending on the Packers-Bears result.

After already scoring a safety for two points, the Rams defense added six more points to the board with a pick-six. This one was once again courtesy of Troy Hill, who now has three defensive touchdowns on the year.

It went 84 yards after an ill-advised throw by Chris Streveler, which Hill initially bobbled before gathering himself and breaking upfield toward the Cardinals end zone. The Rams carried a 12-7 lead into halftime thanks to Hill’s score.

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Hill sometimes catches some flak for the mistakes he makes on the field, but he undoubtedly makes more plays than he does gaffes.

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Watch: Rams’ Troy Hill takes pick back 84 yards for a touchdown

Troy Hill sent the Rams into halftime with a lead after an 84-yard Pick-6

The Rams need all sorts of help from their defense as the offense is moving against the Arizona Cardinals in Los Angeles on Sunday.

John Wolford is doing fine, running for nearly 50 yards and moving the offense. However, it can’t find the end zone.

He got a huge boost before the half when Troy Hill picked off Chris Streveler, in for an injured Kyler Murray, and returned it 84 yards for a score. The PAT made it 12-7 as LA needed a win to be in the playoffs or a Bears’ loss.

The Rams had gotten a safety earlier when the Cardinals were flagged for offensive holding in the end zone.

Rams PFF grades from Week 13: Troy Hill leads the way with career-best game

According to Pro Football Focus, Troy Hill had the best game of his career on Sunday.

For the first time since Week 5, the Los Angeles Rams scored at least 30 points as they rolled to a 38-28 victory over the Arizona Cardinals on Sunday afternoon. The game was much more lopsided than the score indicates, too, with L.A. nearly doubling up the Cardinals in total yards, 463 to 232.

The defense did its job despite allowing 28 points, 14 of which came on a busted coverage and a garbage-time touchdown. The group was led by Troy Hill, who had one of the best games of his career.

In fact, Pro Football Focus says it was the best game he’s ever had, giving him a career-high 91.3 overall grade for his performance against the Cardinals. That was the highest grade of any Rams player, and understandably so. He picked off one pass and returned it 35 yards for a touchdown, and also broke up another pass on third down.

Justin Hollins and Sebastian Joseph-Day also stood out with strong performances, as they were among the top players on defense. Take a look at some notable PFF grades for the Rams, courtesy of J.B. Long.

Statistically, Jared Goff had one of his best games of the season, completing 78.7% of his passes for 351 yards and scoring two total touchdowns. It was much better than the way he played against San Francisco last week, improving in every facet.

John Johnson and Austin Corbett continue to play at a high level for the Rams, too. Johnson is deserving of Pro Bowl honors, while Corbett was the highest-graded Rams player on offense in Week 13. Rob Havenstein’s grade is higher than we expected, though, after seeing some bad reps against Arizona’s edge defenders.

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Troy Hill has steadily improved after slow start in new role

After struggling in the slot early on, Troy Hill has bounced back and improved in recent weeks.

The stars of the Rams secondary this season have undoubtedly been Jalen Ramsey and Darious Williams. They’ve become one of the best duos in the NFL, with Williams allowing the lowest passer rating in coverage and earning the third-best PFF grade of any cornerback through Week 10.

But next to Ramsey and Williams is Troy Hill, who has bounced back after getting off to a slow start in his new role as the slot corner. Hill has had an up-and-down season in 2020, but he’s steadily improved as the year has progressed.

According to Pro Football Reference, he’s allowed a 76.5% completion rate, which isn’t great, but he’s only allowing 9.6 yards per completion and teams are targeting him close to the line of scrimmage; his average depth of target is only 6.3 yards, which is eighth-fewest of any cornerback.

Covering the slot is extremely difficult and Hill’s 85.9 passer rating allowed from the slot is the ninth-lowest in the NFL.

He still hasn’t been perfect, and teams tend to target him before Ramsey and Williams, but Hill has definitely improved since the start of the season. His deflection-turned-interception against the Bears was one of his best plays of the year, mirroring the receiver perfectly in the end zone for the pass breakup.

Taylor Rapp was in perfect position to pick it off, too, making a good play even better.

If Hill can continue to play at a high level the rest of the way, quarterbacks will have few choices when attacking the Rams secondary.

Watch: Rams’ DBs combine for dazzling interception in end zone

Troy Hill deflected the pass into the hands of fellow DB Taylor Rapp for a Rams interception.

Teamwork came into play for the Los Angeles Rams’ secondary as the Chicago Bears got inside their foe’s 10-yard line for the first time Monday night at SoFi Stadium.

Watch as Taylor Rapp comes down with the pick of Nick Foles after Troy Hills breaks up the pass and deflects the ball to his fellow defensive back.

The play set up the Rams for a drive that went 80 yards in eight plays and 80 yards with Jared Goff hitting tight end Gerald Everett for a 12-yard TD. After the PAT, it was 24-3.

Watch: Troy Hill and Taylor Rapp combine for tip-drill INT in end zone

Teamwork makes the dream work.

As the saying goes, teamwork makes the dream work. And that certainly applies to almost all phases of football.

The Rams secondary proved that on Monday night against the Bears as Troy Hill and Taylor Rapp combined for a tip-drill interception. Hill was in great coverage on the receiver, and he tipped it back to Rapp for the easy interception.

It took points off the board for the Bears, ending what was their most encouraging drive of the night. Take a look at the great play by Hill and Rapp below.

Troy Hill, not Jalen Ramsey, among 3 Rams to make TD Wire’s top 101 players

Jalen Ramsey was left off of Touchdown Wire’s top 101 players, but three other Rams made it.

The NFL pulled back the curtain on the Top 100 Players of 2020 this week, revealing who the players themselves voted as the best of the best. The Rams had three representatives on the list, the highest being Aaron Donald at No. 4.

Jalen Ramsey checked in at No. 37 – down 10 spots from last year – and Cooper Kupp made his top 100 debut at No. 89. Jared Goff, Robert Woods and Andrew Whitworth all fell out of the top 100 after being voted in for 2019.

Touchdown Wire’s Doug Farrar and Mark Schofield released their own list of the best players in the NFL, going to the top 101 instead. And once again, three Rams made the rankings. However, there was one surprising difference: Troy Hill made the top 101, but Jalen Ramsey did not. Here’s where each Rams player finished in Touchdown Wire’s rankings

CB Troy Hill: No. 97

Slot WR Cooper Kupp: No. 93

DT Aaron Donald: No. 4

There’s no denying Hill was solid last season, better than Ramsey, even. However, it seems short-sighted to put him ahead of Ramsey on this list – and questionable to leave Ramsey out of the top 101 altogether. He wasn’t even among the players who just missed the cut, as Tyler Higbee was.

Kupp’s ranking feels fair, though, as does Donald’s. Based on last season’s performance, Russell Wilson, Stephon Gilmore and Patrick Mahomes were all better than Donald. But going by their entire careers, Donald would clearly be ahead of Gilmore.

At this point, the top five players in the NFL is splitting hairs. It’s near-impossible to separate those players, which makes these lists so difficult to lay out. But most Rams fans would probably agree that Ramsey is one of the 101 best players in football – even if he did struggle last season.

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One impact player for each Seahawks opponent in 2020 – Part 2

In part two of this two-part series, we select one player to watch out for from each of the Seahawks’ last seven opponents of 2020.

In Part One of this two-part series, I put together a list of one player from each of the Seahawks’ first six opponents of 2020 that should make a difference in Seattle’s approach to each game. Now, in part two, I detail one player from the remaining seven opponents that should have a similar impact.

Note, I chose not to select any quarterbacks, running backs, or wide receivers for this list, as the success of those positions is obviously paramount to a team’s chances of winning.

Week 8 (Nov. 1) and Week 17 (Jan. 3, 2021): San Francisco 49ers

Impact player: TE George Kittle

Look no further than last year’s season series between the Seahawks and the 49ers to feel Kittle’s impact – the Seahawks won without Kittle on the field, and lost when he was there. Kittle, an All-Pro First Team member, was PFF’s top-ranked player at any position in 2019 after posting his second straight 1,000-yard season and leading all tight ends AND receivers in broken tackles. He is an absolute game-breaker in both run-blocking and pass-blocking, and should easily be the Seahawks’ number-one concern on defense.

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Eagles’ Darius Slay left off a ranking of the NFL’s 11 best outside cornerbacks

Philadelphia Eagles star Darius Slay left off a ranking of the NFL’s 11 best outside CB’s

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The 2020 offseason has seen a myriad of cornerback rankings from different NFL outlets with the one consistent being the snubbing of the Eagles star cornerback.

Slay is among the top-5 cornerbacks in football and yet has suffered countless disrespect this offseason when it comes to where he stands among the NFL’s elite cornerbacks. Our friends over at Touchdown Wire just released their rankings for the top-11 outside cornerbacks in the NFL and Slay was once again omitted.

11. Bashaud Breeland

10. Steven Nelson

9. Troy Hill

8. Marcus Peters

7.Ross Cockrel

6. Denzel Ward

5. Quinton Dunbar

4. J.C. Jackson

3. Richard Sherman

2. Tre’Davious White

1. Stephon Gilmore

While many of the teams in the NFL primarily play zone coverage, Slay is one of the few players in the NFL that were asked to play bump and run on the majority of their snaps.

Take this tidbit from Packers star DeVante Adams on Slay and the Lions defense last season.

Slay was impressive last year despite some down statistics on a bad team and yet his performance against some of the NFL’s best would be highlight-reel performances for some other cornerbacks.

Slay’s 85 forced incompletions since 2014 are the most in the NFL over that span as well.

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Troy Hill, not Jalen Ramsey, named one of NFL’s top 11 outside CBs

Troy Hill emerged as a top cornerback last season, even outplaying Jalen Ramsey.

Jalen Ramsey is viewed as one of the best cornerbacks in the NFL today, but he wasn’t even the best corner on his own team last season. That title belongs to Troy Hill, who stepped up in a big way after the Rams traded Marcus Peters and Aqib Talib.

Hill has emerged as an underrated defender for the Rams and someone who isn’t easily beat in coverage. Doug Farrar of Touchdown Wire ranked him as one of the best zone corners in the NFL, but this week, he took his praise for Hill even further.

Farrar ranked Hill the ninth-best outside cornerback in the league, while Ramsey was left out of the top 11 altogether. Here’s what Farrar said about Hill, praising his breakout performance in the second half of last season.

Hill may be one of the lesser-known names on this list, but the former undrafted free agent out of Oregon made a real impact for the Rams’ defense in his fifth NFL season — especially as a cornerback in zone coverage, where he allowed seven receptions on 20 targets for 118 yards, no touchdowns, one interception, and a Positive Play Rate of 35% — the fifth-best rate in the NFL for cornerbacks targeted 20 or more times. Overall, Hill allowed 20 catches on 50 targets for 263 yards, two touchdowns, two interceptions, and a Positive Play Rate allowed of 38%, which is the second-lowest among outside cornerbacks with at least 50 targets, behind only New England’s J.C. Jackson. It’s a testament to Hill’s trail ability, recovery speed, and intelligent aggression that he’s become a positive attribute in a defense that’s looking to (re)build around Aaron Donald.

Ramsey’s absence from this 11-player list is a surprise, but he didn’t have his best season in 2019. He only picked off one pass and broke up five total, making 50 tackles in 12 games between the Rams and Jaguars.

In coverage, Ramsey allowed 45 completions on 68 targets for 549 yards and one touchdown; he didn’t allow a touchdown with the Rams. He got better as the season went on, which makes sense because he was still getting acclimated to the new scheme, and hopefully he’ll carry that over into 2020.

Hill will be tested by opposing quarterbacks often thanks to Ramsey’s presence on the other side, but he showed last season that he’s up to the task of locking down No. 2 receivers. If he plays the way he did in 2019, the Rams defense will be tough to pass on.