McCleod not fined

Rams defense becoming physical force

By Jim Thomas

http://www.stltoday.com/sports/football/professional/rams-defense-becoming-physical-force/article_ce7381e6-ab6a-56a3-bfe9-01ac934871d0.html

It may not have been the key play of the game, but it certainly set the tempo. On the very first play for Peyton Manning and the Denver offense last Sunday, defensive end Robert Quinn scooted around Broncos left tackle Ryan Clady and knocked Manning to the ground. Hard.

Clady got a holding penalty on the play; the hit on Manning altered the course of the pass, which fell incomplete.

It was as if Quinn, on behalf of the entire St. Louis defense, was leaving a calling card: “How’s it going Peyton? This is the kind of afternoon it’s going to be.”

By the end of the 22-7 Rams victory, the pass-rush had accounted for 17 quarterback hurries, six QB hits, and two sacks. Although he didn’t get a sack, Quinn accounted for four of those hurries and four of those hits.

Quinn can’t remember exactly what play, but later in the game, he got Manning with another one of those QB hits.

“I just smiled and he looked at me and kind of smiled,” Quinn said. “He’s one of the best to ever play. I don’t want to put words in his mouth, but I think it was just kind of a respect factor.”

As if Manning was saying to Quinn: “You again?”

It was that kind of day for the Rams’ defense. When Quinn, Aaron Donald, William Hayes, and blitzing linebacker James Laurinaitis weren’t buzzing around Manning, linebacker Alec Ogletree and safeties T.J. McDonald and Rodney McLeod were wreaking havoc on the back end.

Winning locker rooms joke around, and so it was that McLeod got the business from his teammates about his third-quarter hit that ended wide receiver Emmanuel Sanders’ day.

“These guys around here are jokesters,” McLeod said. “They’re calling me ‘Assassin,’ ‘Murderer,’ everything.”

But McLeod quickly added, “I’m glad to see that Emmanuel Sanders is OK.”

McLeod also was glad to see that there was no correspondence from the National Football League in his locker stall on Wednesday. That’s usually the day players are notified if they have been fined.

“I think they’ve already passed out all the fines,” McLeod said, smiling. “So nothing came to my locker.”

McLeod was flagged for unnecessary roughness during the game, but the apparent lack of a fine was the league’s way of saying it was a clean hit.

“I think so,” McLeod said. “When you actually go back and review the tape, I think you could just see that I leveled my shoulder and (didn’t lead) with my helmet.”

At 5-10, 195, McLeod is on the small side for a safety and isn’t necessarily known as a big hitter. Perhaps playing alongside McDonald, and now Mark Barron, is rubbing off. Both are known as thumpers.

“Those are bigger guys,” McLeod said. “But even though I’m a little smaller, I still have to let ’em know that I can hang with them.”

By the way, McLeod says he doesn’t want a nickname.

“I was just out there trying to make a play,” he said.

When all is said and done, the Rams’ defense is literally hitting its stride — and anything else in its path. Over the past few weeks, defensive coordinator Gregg Williams’ unit has become a physical force. For opposing quarterbacks, especially ones with sore ribs such as Philip Rivers of Sunday’s foe, San Diego, this isn’t a defense you want to be playing right now.

“We’ve been somewhat consistent,” coach Jeff Fisher said. “We’re playing very hard. We’ve been efficient against the run, (getting) some turnovers, pressuring the passer. We have to keep doing that. You can’t afford at this time of the year to have an off-day defensively.”

Consistency has been AWOL at Rams Park for years, especially with such a young team. Just as Fisher seems to have a way of bringing the Rams back after a tough loss, he tries to keep them level-headed after a big victory. He’s had much less practice at the latter.

A few good performances doesn’t mean this defense has arrived. Fisher has been around this game too long to fall into that trap. So about as far as he would go on the subject Wednesday was this:

“The production that we got out of our defense last week was very good,” he said. “We have to continue that.”

Good defense, he added, “It’s not an assumption. You have to go out there and do it every week.”

Team leaders such as Laurinaitis are trying to get that message across this week as well.

Speaking of the defense’s recent improvement, Laurinaitis said: “It wasn’t any magic fairy dust. We all stuck to script and just kept practicing the way we knew how to. And we’ve just gotten better results.”

While stating that the unit’s confidence should be high, Laurinaitis added that he’s not going to let this defense pat itself on the back in any way, shape or form.

“I mean, if you look, we’re still 4-6,” he said. “So that’s a below-average football team on paper. We’ve got to be able to string games (together) one at a time. And quite frankly, I’m not gonna let this team get complacent.

“We’re gonna have to come out here and really raise our expectations. Denver’s touchdown came on a busted coverage. You don’t survive very long in the NFL in games with busted coverages. Especially against a quarterback like Peyton Manning. The same with Philip Rivers.”

(Earlier this week, Fisher put the blame on the coaches for the breakdown that led to Sanders being wide open for a 42-yard touchdown. Not the players.)

Even so, top-flight defenses don’t give up “freebies” on a consistent basis. And even though the Rams are heading in that direction as a defense, they aren’t there yet. Again, you don’t get there in a few weeks. You get there doing it week after week.