After strong start, Rams defense appears to be wearing down

Defensive dip has fueled Rams’ decline

Jim Thomas

http://www.stltoday.com/sports/football/professional/after-strong-start-rams-defense-appears-to-be-wearing-down/article_05939265-9187-5892-baea-f95bb74a8c95.html

After a hard-fought overtime loss in Minnesota, the Rams nonetheless reached their apex defensively.

Despite that bitter 21-18 defeat, the Rams moved up to fifth in the NFL in total defense, looking every bit the snarling, physical unit envisioned when this season of great expectations began three months ago.

But then came Chicago, Baltimore, and Cincinnati. Three veteran, skilled quarterbacks in Jay Cutler, Joe Flacco, and Andy Dalton.

Minus Matt Forte and with a gimpy Alshon Jeffery, the Bears put 37 points and 397 yards on the Rams, including two touchdowns of 80 yards-plus.

Minus Steve Smith and with Justin Forsett out early with a broken arm, Baltimore put up 388 yards and wiped out a 10-point fourth-quarter deficit, winning 16-13 on a walk-off field goal.

Then came Cincy with 376 yards in a 31-7 shellacking of the Rams. Granted, seven of those points came on an interception return for touchdown, but the Bengals were in control offensively.

“For whatever reason, we haven’t held up our end of the bargain against Chicago and last week (vs. Cincinnati),” defensive captain James Laurinaitis said. “And like I said after the Baltimore game, we had a lead going into the fourth quarter — we gotta win that.”

And now, with the NFL’s top-ranked offense — Arizona — coming to town for Sunday’s noon kickoff at Edward Jones Dome, the Rams have fallen to the middle of the pack at No. 13 in total defense.

They have tumbled all the way to 21st in rushing defense, and given up seven touchdown passes in the past three weeks. By way of comparison, the Rams have scored only eight TD passes all season.

“We’ve been just self-reflecting in that defensive room,” Laurinaitis said. “How can we play better? Everyone individually has to do it.

“What am I doing to contribute to these losses? Am I part of the problem? Am I part of the solution? You hope that you have enough guys in there that want to be part of the solution and fix it.”

Yes, it’s come to this. The one thing the Rams could count on all season — a stout defense — seems to be wilting over the second half of the 2015 season. The players and coaches might never admit it, but the defensive unit has been carrying the burden of a struggling offense nearly all season.

The defense has been on the field for an average of 4½ minutes more per game. And nearly 80 plays more over the course of the first 11 games. Cumulatively, it’s as if they’ve played an extra game compared to the offense. As the injuries pile up, the strain may have finally caught up with defensive coordinator Gregg Williams’ unit.

“We don’t ever, ever think that,” Williams said. “We really don’t. It doesn’t make a difference if we’ve gotta play 150 snaps; if we’ve gotta play 35 snaps. That doesn’t make any difference.

“When we’re mentally strong, we understand that our job is playing no matter what the situation is, no matter how many snaps we have to play. We have to keep on doing that. So we’ll never use that as an excuse at all. No, we’ve gotta play.”

The Rams were able to withstand the loss of linebacker and leading tackler Alec Ogletree two months ago when the team first played Arizona, thanks to the impressive conversion of Mark Barron from safety to weakside linebacker.

They weathered the storm when defensive end Chris Long suffered a fractured bone in a knee-to-knee collision with Green Bay’s David Bakhtiari and missed the next four games.

But the somewhat mysterious injury woes of defensive end Robert Quinn, a two-time Pro Bowler and one of the league’s elite pass rushers, simply might be too much to overcome.

While applauding the play of Eugene Sims in place of Quinn, coach Jeff Fisher said of Quinn, “We miss him. He’s a difference-maker. He’s one of those guys that can change the game at any point in the game.”

Over the past month and half, Quinn has been variously described as having knee, hip, and back injuries. He never was seen going down with an injury, and there was not an in-game injury announcement at any time. But he hasn’t been the same since the Green Bay game Oct. 11. He didn’t practice during the bye week, nor did several other Rams veterans. At the time, Fisher said some players were merely being rested but others were banged up. With no official injury report that week, there was no way to tell which was which.

During the Cleveland practice week coming out of the bye, Quinn first showed up on the injury report with a knee injury. His playing time against the Browns and San Francisco the following week was cut back to only 28 and 38 snaps respectively. Up to that point, he had been averaging more than 50 plays per game.

Sunday’s game will mark the fourth he has missed in the past five contests. He played a mere 14 defensive snaps against Chicago — his only appearance since the Nov. 1 San Francisco contest.

Fisher, who’s hit-and-miss when it comes to disclosing injury information, said a knee injury initially was Quinn’s issue but the main problem now is a back issue.

Quinn has declined to provide any injury details and the situation may be reaching the point at which the team simply shuts down Quinn for the season. His absence has made it tougher on the pass rush, and tougher on defensive tackle Aaron Donald.

“Any time you lose a playmaker it’s gonna be tough,” Donald said. “He’s a guy that’s a leader, and a guy that makes a lot of plays for us. So other guys have got to step up and continue to do what we’ve been doing.”

Easier said than done, however, when it comes to replacing a player of Quinn’s caliber.

The Rams’ pass rush started the season with a bang, registering six sacks in a 34-31 overtime upset against Seattle in the season opener. Seven games into the season, the Rams were among the league leaders with 26 sacks.

But over the past four games, coinciding with the first game Quinn missed (Minnesota), the Rams have only four sacks. They went sackless last week in Cincinnati, snapping a 22-game streak with at least one sack dating back to last season.

Without a premier rusher on the edge to worry about, opposing teams have been able to concentrate their blocking and pass protection schemes on Donald in the middle. That has made double-teams the order of the day on Donald, the NFL’s defensive rookie of the year in 2014.

“Yeah, I’m getting a little more attention here,” Donald said.

Recently the secondary suffered a blow with the absence of cornerback Trumaine Johnson because of what’s been described as a thigh injury. Johnson was enjoying his most consistent season when he suffered the injury on an interception return against Baltimore.

Teams have picked on his replacement, Marcus Roberson, to a degree, and Johnson is expected to miss the Arizona game as well.

Tough as it’s been, everyone in the NFL copes with injuries. With five games left to play, the Rams must figure out a way to get their mojo back on defense.

“We’ve gotta find a way to get everybody on the same page, just go out there and play good football,” Laurinaitis said. “Not try to do too much. I think a lot of our problems have come from guys trying to make a play, maybe do a little too much.”

And in the NFL, trying to do too much frequently achieves too little.