Robert Quinn on Sack Drought “All it takes is one snowflake"

Rams’ ‘sack city’ tries to get out of the bag
• By Jim Thomas

http://www.stltoday.com/sports/football/professional/rams-sack-city-tries-to-get-out-of-the-bag/article_9d721c4b-0c1e-5a49-9bed-c586b15e58d3.html

It’s mind-boggling to think that basically one-third of the way through the 2014 campaign, defensive end Robert Quinn has not recorded a sack. And for that matter, that the entire Rams squad has only one sack.

There was a stat produced by the NFL Network a few days ago, that the Rams have the fewest sacks through five games of any NFL team since the sack became an official statistic in 1982.

Mind-boggling.

By now, we’re all familiar with the extenuating circumstances. The team has missed injured defensive end Chris Long even more than expected. Opposing teams are getting the ball out quickly, thus neutralizing the Rams’ rush.

And yes, the Rams still have had fewer passes thrown against them — 142, or 28.4 per game —than anyone in the NFL. That’s partly because until Monday night’s contest against San Francisco, opponents have had great success running the football against them.

Even Quinn, who had 19 sacks last season, concedes: “When they know they can run the ball on you, why pick up the ball and throw it?”

Still, one sack in five games as a team? The NFL average, by the way, is 12 sacks per team this season. The Rams are a l-o-n-g way from average.

Even the Seattle Seahawks, Sunday’s opponent for the Rams in a noon kickoff at the Edward Jones Dome, are surprised.

“Surprisingly, they don’t have any sacks,” Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson said. “They have only one sack this year. But I know they get to the quarterback really well usually and they cause a lot of havoc.”

“I think they still have good pressure,” Seattle coach Pete Carroll said. “They blitz a lot, they do a lot of stuff, and they’re getting pressure and causing problems. The fact that those numbers aren’t where they have been, I have no idea.

“Ours aren’t either. We’re not rushing the passer like we did a year ago, and we’re trying to get that better, too. So I just think it’s a couple games (into the season), and by the time this season gets rolling those guys will be back on track.”

Obviously, Carroll and Wilson don’t want anything to get rolling Sunday for the Rams. But for Quinn, for the entire Rams defense, for coach Jeff Fisher, and defensive coordinator Gregg Williams, the sacks can’t come quickly enough.

“I’m sure that first one’s slowly coming,” Quinn said. “I’m not gonna stress over it. Once that first one gets out the way, hopefully the ball starts rolling. So we don’t need to stress about it. Just constantly stay focused on our playbook.”

It’s easy enough to assume that Quinn has been getting plenty of extra attention with double-, no, make that triple-team blocks from opposing offenses, especially in the absence of Long.

But as Quinn freely admits, that hasn’t really been the case.

“I wouldn’t necessarily say that,” Quinn said. “You get your normal chips and blocks from tight ends. So I wouldn’t necessarily say that. I just think this has been a slow start for us but like I said we still have enough season to go to get the thing turned around.”

Quinn has faced a murderer’s row of left tackles in the past three games. Tyron Smith of Dallas, Jason Peters of Philadelphia, and Joe Staley of San Francisco have 10 Pro Bowls between them.

For the most part, Quinn hasn’t been able to get around those guys on the edge. There have been a couple of occasions where Quinn has slipped getting off the line. He hasn’t really tried many inside moves.

The Rams haven’t used him on many stunts and loops with defensive tackles. And unlike some elite pass rushers, the Rams don’t move him around.

He never lines up at left end — Long’s spot, which currently is manned by William Hayes. And over the years, he rarely has moved inside on passing downs.

Sunday’s foe, 2012 Pro Bowler Russell Okung, is no slouch either — although he has been coping with a shoulder issue this season.

“We’ve just gotta get it going,” Quinn said. “All it takes is one snowflake to cause an avalanche. So hopefully we can get that snowflake pretty soon.”

Quinn has gotten plenty of snowflakes in the past two seasons against Seattle, enough to start packing a snowball. Beginning with the 2012 season, Quinn has had six sacks in four games against the Seahawks, including at least one in each game.

In the 2013 contest against Seattle at the Dome, a hard-fought 14-9 Monday night loss, Quinn had three sacks although Okung did not play. Paul McQuistan was the starter that evening at left tackle.

For now, Quinn insists he’s not frustrated about his slow start.

“Nothing I can do to change (what’s past), so why beat myself up about it?” Quinn said. “Just continue to work my technique like the whole D-line is.”

He does not think all the preseason hype about the Rams’ pass-rush, including the catchy #SackCity nickname, has put undue pressure on himself or the line as a whole.

“I think you should set high expectations for yourself regardless,” Quinn said. “You don’t ever want to sell yourself short. We raised the bar for ourselves. We set our bar so high, and of course we haven’t started out the season where we wanted to. But I don’t think (the hype) affected us.”

For his part, defensive coordinator Williams is trying to keep it positive for Quinn and for the line as a whole.

“We always would like to have more negative plays,” Williams said. “…. For the most part our guys are doing a really good job on pushing the pocket back. We’ve got to continue to do that.”

As for Quinn, Williams says: “He’s a prideful man. … He would love to have probably more statistics in that area, and he wants to put those things on him because he knows he can make a difference making plays here and there.”

No time like the present.