Bonsignore: How Rams defense turned things around during a difficult December

How the Rams defense turned things around during a difficult December

Vincent Bonsignore

https://theathletic.com/738409/2018/12/28/how-the-rams-defense-turned-things-around-during-a-difficult-december/

Amid​ all the hand-wringing​ and concern over​ the​ Rams’ offensive​ struggles​ for most​ of​ December,​ an​ interesting development unfolded​ on the​​ other side of the ball: A defense that struggled to find an identity and consistency through most of the season is suddenly playing its best football of the season.

It could mean everything to the Rams’ Super Bowl hopes, or it could just be an impressive four-game stretch more reflective of who they have played rather than any corner they have turned. Confirmation of either possibility won’t be finalized until the playoffs.
But it is notable that, over the last four games, the Rams gave up the NFL’s seventh-fewest points per game at 17.5 and surrendered 312 yards per game (184.3 yards passing and 127.8 yards rushing) while producing nine sacks and six turnovers, five of them interceptions.

To put that in perspective, over the previous 11 games, the Rams gave up 25.6 points per game (tied for 20th) and yielded 372.5 yards per game (252.6 passing and 119.9 rushing) while forcing 17 turnovers (10 interceptions).

No matter how you dissect those numbers, there is no getting around the fact the Rams defense is trending in the right direction. The unit has cut down points per game allowed by more than a touchdown, tightened up its pass coverage and forced more turnovers per game than it did over the first 11 games.

With the postseason looming, the turnaround comes just in the nick of time.
“I said at the very beginning of the season we want to be playing our best football in December and January,” second-year safety John Johnson told The Athletic. “That doesn’t mean we go out there in the early games and just wet the bed. But we definitely wanted to steadily improve and not peak at the wrong time of the year.”

But what have the Rams done exactly to turn things around defensively? And can they keep it up?

The former question is both easy and complicated to answer, although, in conversations that The Athletic conducted with various players, it is not all that surprising. The latter remains to be seen.

Trusting the process

On Sunday, the Rams wrap up the regular season against the San Francisco 49ers and then it’s off to the playoffs. That’s when we’ll find out if the recent surge by the defense was just a fleeting uptick or a pertinent precursor of things to come.

As for how the Rams are doing it, some of the answers are fairly self-explanatory. They came into the season with six new starters — including three players new to the team entirely and three others transitioning from part-time contributors to full-time starters.
Veteran defensive tackle Ndomakung Suh signed as a free agent. Cornerbacks Marcus Peters and Aqib Talib were acquired via trade. Second-year edge rusher Samson Ebukam took over for longtime starter Robert Quinn. Matt Longacre replaced Connor Barwin at outside linebacker, albeit as the third option after Morgan Fox and Dominique Easley went down with season-ending injuries in OTAs and training camp. Third-year linebacker Cory Littleton assumed the inside linebacker spot vacated by Alec Ogletree, the Rams’ leading tackler who was dealt to the Giants.

That’s a significant defensive turnover from one year to the next, and it impacted everything from the time it took coaches to learn players’ strengths and weaknesses — and how to use players accordingly — to the transition that newcomers make to a new system and the speed with which the entire unit develops chemistry.

So while Aaron Donald has been the best defensive player in football all year, Johnson has been a steady force as one of the top young safeties in the NFL and Littleton has been mostly consistent at inside linebacker, it’s been a process getting all the other pieces around them to consistently function at a high level. It’s one that requires time, repetition and practical game experience.

And most of all, patience and belief are needed.

“I just think we had trust in the process,” Peters told The Athletic. “We knew it was going to be an up-and-down season defensively to figure out our overall style and our defensive identity this year.”

Ideally, that undertaking unfolds relatively swiftly and seamlessly. But as a Rams insider pointed out to The Athletic: “This isn’t Madden.”

Translation: It was never going to happen overnight.

To complicate matters, Talib went down with an ankle injury in Week 3 against the Chargers and missed the next eight games. Also, the Rams added outside linebacker Dante Fowler Jr. at the trade deadline to provide more push off the edge. The injury to Talib set back some of the familiarity processes and Fowler was yet another new player the Rams needed to learn and blend into the defense.

As Peters explained to The Athletic: “Communication is the key to defense, you feel me? With so many new faces being around, I just know how that shit is. What the transition is like when you go to a new place. That shit’s gonna be hard until you finally get the flow of it and get everything down. So you trust the process. You trust in your teammates that we’re all in this shit together and we’ll figure our way out of it and get through it.”

The return of Talib in Week 12 against the Detroit Lions has coincided with the defensive improvement. And Fowler has certainly made an impact by adding the dynamic of speed and explosiveness off the edge. The influence of both players has been a key element to the defensive improvements.

“I certainly think having Aqib back has been a big factor. But guys getting more familiar with just some of the different things that we’re trying to do defensively — getting more comfortable,” Rams coach Sean McVay said. “Dante Fowler has made a big impact as well. But I think guys (are) just getting that continuity, playing as a unit and being able to do a great job, all 11 (being) on the same page.”

Defensive coordinator Wade Phillips had to familiarize himself with all of his new players.
He had to be willing to make some schematic changes to better fit their talents.

As Phillips puts it: “To try to get those guys to see what they can really do well and let them do those things and not have to do some other things. You have to learn about what a guy can do, especially if you’ve never had him before.”

One example is the decision to play more zone defense in the back end to give the secondary a better vantage point from which to observe what’s happening in front of them. That has allowed players to observe and react to what they see ahead of them rather than running stride for stride with receivers in man-to-man coverage, with their backs to the play, and then turning around at the last second to try to make a play on the ball.

The current style of play better reflects the skill sets of the players on hand. Or, as Johnson told The Athletic: “We changed our philosophy in how we get after other teams and then just built on that every game. And that’s showing now.”

The Rams, according to Johnson, have transitioned to more of a read and react defense rather than aggressively pushing the issue.

“See ball get ball,” is how Johnson describes it. “Less of attack, attack, attack.”
Peters, in particular, has benefited.

The rebound of the All-Pros

Through the first 11 games of the season — much of it playing aggressive man-to-man — Peters gave up pass plays of 72, 43, 48, 39 and 42 yards and six touchdowns. He surrendered more than 100 yards in receptions in games against the Chargers, Green Bay Packers and New Orleans Saints.

In Peters’ defense, he suffered a calf injury in the Chargers game but refused to take any time off. In fact, he came back four days later to play against the Minnesota Vikings. While he insisted he was fine physically, teammates and coaches indicated Peters wasn’t 100 percent. His willingness to play through the injury, without making excuses, earned him major respect in the locker room.

Talib’s eight-game absence left Peters responsible for the opposing team’s best receiver. Peters was still busy familiarizing himself with a new system and Phillips was still making adjustments to accentuate the former All-Pro first-team cornerback’s talents.

With improved health, Talib’s return, better command of the defense and the shift to more zone coverage, Peters has experienced a dramatic upswing in his play. He has gone six straight games without giving up a touchdown and has not surrendered a completion of more than 11 yards in four straight games. And while he has allowed nine catches on 14 targets, they have resulted in just 52 yards.

“He’s a champion. He’s a true pro,” Johnson said. “You’re gonna have those ups and downs, especially at our position and at the cornerback position, even more. You have to have that ‘next play’ mentality. And he showed that. He had that ‘next game’ mentality. He’s been bouncing back from whatever and that’s going to carry onto the postseason.”
Phillips’ ability to size up players’ strengths through the course of the season and then make adjustments accordingly is particularly reflected in the recent play of Peters. So too is Phillips’ ability to connect with his players and willingness to allow input from them.

“I think that’s the key,” Peters told The Athletic. “For us to be able to have that relationship to where we can go holla at Coach and then Coach can come holla at us and we can find that happy means of what we need to go out there and do to be successful. I think we’ve been doing a hell of a job of that, from Sean to the overall team and Coach Wade to the defense, specifically. It’s been a hell of a year for communication.”

Suh is also the benefit of Phillips’ adaptability. The former All-Pro defensive tackle was slow to find a consistent niche in a new defense, and there have been ups and downs along the way, including back-to-back games against the Seattle Seahawks and Kansas City Chiefs when his play took a noticeable dip.

But with Phillips moving him around along the defensive line to create favorable matchups, Suh has been trending up in December. Of his 37 tackles this year, 18 have come in the last four games as have six of his 31 quarterback hurries.

“Put him at defensive tackle, put him at defensive end, put him at nose guard,” Phillips said of the various ways he has used Suh. “I think being able to do that and learn when to do that with him and what positives we get from that, we’ve learned more about what to do with him, rather than him — it’s more us trying to get him in the right position. He’s been able to make plays.”

The question now is whether it’s a sign of things to come or just a four-game hot streak.
“Those small mistakes that we made earlier aren’t really happening to give up that big-play touchdown,” Johnson said. “The scores have been showing it. Hopefully, we can keep those scores down and the best football will be played (in the playoffs).”