Welcome to Sack City, home of Quinn, Long and more

Welcome to Sack City, home of Quinn, Long and more
• By Jim Thomas

http://www.stltoday.com/sports/football/professional/welcome-to-sack-city-home-of-quinn-long-and-more/article_8a83dc46-f32e-5b6e-8d28-8b51a526ec49.html

While driving home from his son’s baseball hitting session three days before Christmas, Kevin Carter was bombarded with text messages from former Rams teammate D’Marco Farr.

“You’ve got to watch this game! You’ve got to watch this! He’s about to break your sack record.”

Robert Quinn did just that. With three sacks against Tampa Bay last Dec. 22, Quinn had 18 sacks — he’d get No. 19 the following week in Seattle — breaking Carter’s St. Louis Rams record of 17 set in 1999.

Was Carter sad? Mad? Disappointed?

None of the above.

“I was proud. Proud to be a Ram,” Carter said. “I didn’t even know that the record was still there. It has been a lot of years.”

Carter, who lives in Tampa and works as a college football analyst for ESPN (mainly ESPNU), was surprised when he watched Quinn play. Oh, Carter knew Quinn could rush the passer. But it was his all-around play, use of hands, leverage against the run that was eye-opening.

“He’s got a great motor as well,” Carter said. “A pass rusher’s always hunting. You look at his demeanor and you look at his production on the field.”

He then paused for a moment, and added, “They’ve got two really good ends.”

He was referring of course to Quinn, who finished with an NFC-leading 19 sacks in 2013, and Chris Long.

Some national pundits are calling Quinn and Long the best defensive end tandem in the NFL. After Quinn’s breakout season he was named the NFL’s defensive player of the year by the Pro Football Writers Association. Nineteen sacks in one season is rarefied air; it’s not far off from Michael Strahan’s single-season mark of 22½, set in 2001.

Then there’s Long. The former No. 2 overall draft pick from Virginia had some doubters early in his pro career. But Long has silenced almost all of that group with consistency and productivity. Over the past four seasons he has 41½ sacks, an average of 10-plus per season and more than all but nine players in the NFL.

But that dynamic duo is only the start of it for the Rams’ defensive line. Just ask new defensive coordinator Gregg Williams.

“This is the best front I’ve had a chance to be a part of,” Williams said. “Not only the first front; it’s the second front.”

The Rams have pedigree, with four first-round draft picks on their defensive line. They obviously have talent. Good coaching in the ex-Marine, Mike Waufle. And they have depth.

Beyond starters Quinn, Long, Michael Brockers and Kendall Langford, the Rams have a pair of backup ends in William Hayes and Eugene Sims who could start for a lot of teams.

With all that firepower, teams would be foolish to pay too much attention to Quinn.

“If you focus on me, your offense is gonna be getting pretty messed up,” Quinn said. “I think that’s what makes this defense so much fun. There’s so many moving parts you never know what’s really going on and it can be your big-play moment at any given time.”

But there’s more. The team was very excited to add unsung Alex Carrington in free agency from Buffalo, adding quality depth to their defensive line rotation. And finally, the cherry on top: 2014 first-round pick Aaron Donald of Pittsburgh.

In his work with ESPNU, Carter couldn’t help but be impressed watching Donald.

“When I come across a defensive lineman that has it figured out, so to speak, I tend to take notice,” Carter said.

The most impressive thing about Donald in Carter’s mind was how developed he was technique-wise as a college player. His get-off, his use of hands, and just his overall understanding of defensive line play were rare on the college level.

“Someone got a hold of him,” Carter said. “He must have had a great defensive line coach that really helped him along. He must have been watching NFL film.

“When you watch college games, you earmark the guys that either A.) have talent to go on to the next level, or B.) they have a profound understanding of the game. And for him it was both.”

After reviewing game film from the 2013 season, Rams coaches were pleased with what they saw from starting D-tackles Brockers and Langford. But they wanted more of an inside pass-rush presence.

Over the course of the ’13 campaign, they figured they lost 10 sacks on plays in which Quinn or Long steamed around the end, but the quarterback scrambled up the middle on a run or pass.

With the ultra-quick Donald rotating in on passing downs, quarterbacks will have no place to run, no place to hide, when that happens. At least that’s the theory.

With strong edge rushers in Quinn and Long, coupled with the interior rush of Donald, the 2014 Rams defensive front brings back memories of Carter and Grant Wistrom on the edge with Farr in the middle on the Rams’ Super Bowl XXXIV championship team. Farr sees the similarity.

“Yeah, I do,” he said. “I do. The only difference is Donald just got here. I knew what Grant could give you. I knew what Kevin was gonna give you. So we had a good feel for what the other two could do.”

Not only did the ’99 Rams have the single-season sack leader in Carter (17), they tied for the overall league lead with Jacksonville (57). The current Rams are in similar company, tying for first with Denver in sacks (52) in 2012 and finishing third in sacks (53) last season. Quinn was the NFC sack leader in 2013, and just half a sack shy of Robert Mathis of Indianapolis for the overall league lead.

With another year of maturity across the board, plus the addition of Donald, who knows what kind of pass-rushing these 2014 Rams can produce?

“I think the sky’s the limit,” Farr said. “But let’s start with sack No. 1. I hate putting it like how many sacks are they gonna get or how good can they be? To me, they’re the envy of the league, defensive line-wise. Now you just have to play like it.”

The hype has been consistent, to the point where nicknames for the front four have begun to spring up. Yes, some have suggested Fearsome Foursome II. But in these days of social media, the one that seems to have stuck is #SackCity.

Welcome to St. Louis, home of the Gateway Arch, toasted ravioli and quarterback sacks. Sack City.

“There’s a lot of talk out there about our unit and all this stuff,” Long said. “We take pride in that, but at the same time we tell the guys don’t believe that hype. You gotta go make it happen.”

So is he, or is he not a resident of #SackCity?

“I’m not big on nicknames,” Long said. “You know, you might have fun with a nickname, but really we have to go and earn stuff like that. We’re confident we can play it out on the field and be one off those well-known units. But you have to do it year in, year out.”

With that in mind, there’s no place to start but the present.