from PFF: Contenders vs. Pretenders among 8 undefeated teams

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CLEAR CONTENDERS

Los Angeles Rams

Why fans should be hopeful

While many were worried about a potential Super Bowl hangover for the Rams, that hasn’t been the case through three weeks. Wide receiver Cooper Kupp is off to a great start, ranking fifth among all receivers with at least 20 targets with an average of 2.58 yards per route run.

Aaron Donald has just one sack through three games, but he has still been dominant, registering 14 total pressures on 111 pass-rushing snaps. Four of his five solo tackles have resulted in a defensive stop, highlighting his work against the run, and it shouldn’t come as a shock when his sack numbers rise again in the coming weeks.

Why fans should be concerned

If there is a weak spot on the Rams offense right now, it’s the offensive line. Left tackle Andrew Whitworth is the highest-graded player on the line, but even he has a PFF grade of just 60.0 so far this season. That itself isn’t a bad grade, but it’s not what you’d be looking for from your best player on the offensive line. Through three weeks, the group has allowed 49 total pressures, something they’ll need to improve upon as the season goes on.[

”People are suffering, people are dying, entire ecosystems are collapsing. We are in the beginning of a mass extinction and all you can talk about is money and fairytales of eternal economic growth.” Watch Greta Thunberg speak at the UN Monday morning. https://t.co/Akkxm9sXdr pic.twitter.com/ahHKlhbYaE

— WIRED (@WIRED) September 23, 2019

wv wrote:

I expected those two to be good early. But I’m always expecting them to be in trouble as the games pile up.

I don’t expect them to wear out.

It’s not like Donald where peak physical effort is the key to their games. They’re playing on smarts and veteran savvy.

Whatever they are now I expect them to be all year.

PLUS it’s not just those 2. The D is better this year for a load of reasons, all of which apply.

* Wade knows how to use Peters now.
* The Talib/Peters combo is working.
* Johnson is one year better than he was and he was already good.
* Fowler had a full off-season with the team.
* Littleton moved to the other ILB spot which he is perfect for.
* No matter who plays NT he is better than Suh was during the regular season last year.
* Brockers is healthy unlike last year.
* Wade has a ton of good DBs–in fact it’s crazy how deep they are–and is going nutz scheming up ways to use them. Listen to analysts praise how brilliantly the Rams used subpackages in the Browns game.

Plus Donald.

This D is as good as if not better than the last top Rams D, which was 99. In the end it may just rank with some of the great 70s Ds.

This is excellent defense. There wasn’t one route that had a chance. https://t.co/REU3jcsFxr

— Dustin Fox (@DustinFox37) September 23, 2019

Lindsey Thiry@LindseyThiry
The Raiders have signed LB Dakota Allen off the Rams practice squad
.

Rams will need to adjust to this Wide 6 look soon and it means running inside when they see it. pic.twitter.com/pIbbXaUDIR

— Matt Waldman (@MattWaldman) September 23, 2019

Rams adjust to wide 6 on first play of second half with success. pic.twitter.com/ErzgcU3niZ

— Matt Waldman (@MattWaldman) September 23, 2019

One more pic.twitter.com/yzSCjfAlWQ

— Matt Waldman (@MattWaldman) September 23, 2019

Here’s another pic.twitter.com/g9Egiufln2

— Matt Waldman (@MattWaldman) September 23, 2019

We back. 😩@AqibTalib21 joins in on the @CooperKupp fan club. pic.twitter.com/AGjEttvJQz

— Los Angeles Rams (@RamsNFL) September 24, 2019

In a twist, the Rams’ defense plays ‘big boy football’ and picks up for the offense

Vincent Bonsignore

https://cdn.theathletic.com/app/uploads/2019/09/23014918/GettyImages-1176467938-1024×683.jpg

CLEVELAND — Eric Weddle would be lying if he claimed he was happy it all came down to an epic defensive stop Sunday night against the Cleveland Browns. The Rams’ veteran safety might be crazy, in the most wonderful of football and athletic ways, but he certainly isn’t stupid or reckless.

In a perfect world, Weddle would have been chilling on the sideline in the closing minutes, baseball cap pulled tight over his head and basking in a comfortable Rams road win.

Instead, he was on the field with his defensive teammates, trying to pick up Rams quarterback Jared Goff after the awful interception he threw late in the fourth quarter of a game the Rams led by only seven points. That error gave the Browns one more chance to pull even and send the game to overtime. That looked likely when Baker Mayfield drove the Browns to the Rams’ 4-yard line to set up a first-and-goal situation with 43 seconds remaining.

Weddle is all about challenges. As are Aaron Donald, John Johnson, Clay Matthews, Cory Littleton, Aqib Talib and everyone else on what is emerging as a very good, very smart and uniquely talented Rams defense.

But this was pushing it.

“I’d much rather have the game in hand than living like that,” Weddle said, his mischievous smile wide and affable.

So, happy? No.

Maybe appropriate is the best word to describe the situation, given the way the Rams’ defense rose to the challenge all night inside the bedlam of FirstEnergy Stadium. And also, for that matter, through the first three weeks of the season.

With the Rams’ offense still searching for consistency, the line not yet clicking completely, Goff following two good throws with one curious one, Todd Gurley on a load-management program and Sean McVay not yet satisfied with his play-calling, the Rams increasingly have needed to lean on their defense to survive their first three games.

That included their 20-13 win on Sunday, in which the Rams had to dig as deep as they could — both in terms of athletic ability and intelligence — to deal with all the pressure presented by Mayfield and a loaded Browns offense.

And as Rams already have shown this year, this defense is as smart as it is talented.

“And that’s what makes it so much fun,” Weddle said. “It’s amazing to be able to think on the fly and be able to check and make calls that maybe we didn’t go over (in practice) that we can still do on the fly if I see something. And the guys understand and they trust me to say, ‘Hey, let’s make this check, let’s make this call and we’ll get through it because I think it might be better.’ And that is so much fun.”

And that’s precisely how Weddle and his defensive brothers held a powerful Browns offense to 270 yards, including only 175 through the air. They battered Mayfield into 18 of 36 passing and allowed star receiver Odell Beckham Jr. just six catches for 56 yards.

Aaron Donald recorded his first sack of the season while tormenting Mayfield and the Browns all game long, practically taking up residence in the Browns’ backfield. Matthews had two sacks, which was particularly special given that his father, Clay Jr., was inducted into the Browns’ Ring of Honor on Sunday.

Most important, they took the burden off Goff and the offense in the best way possible, by allowing just three points off three Rams turnovers.

“You can’t say enough about the defense,” McVay said.

“We were executing like a mug, baby!” Talib said. “We had a great game plan. And we were out there executing that thing.”

Never more so than when Mayfield and the Browns inched close to the Rams’ end zone and set up a very simple mathematical equation with 43 seconds remaining. The Browns had four plays to pick up four yards. The Rams’ defense needed to make four stops.

The clarity of it all was something to behold.

It’s a point Weddle echoed in the huddle.

“We got four shots to do this,” is what he remembers telling his teammates. “So let’s just worry about this play. Don’t worry about the next play. Let’s win the down in front of us and move on to the next.”

“Big boy football,” is how outside linebacker Dante Fowler put it. “It’s time to be stout. It’s time to bow up. The game was on us and we were fine with that.”

Or as Johnson explained: “Four stops. One at a time. Boom. Boom. Boom. Boom. Let’s get off the field and go home.”

There was no anger over the situation the offense created for them. No worry or concern or a focus on anything other than the immediate play.

“We don’t make excuses,” Weddle said. “We don’t worry about what had happened to that point. We just gotta nut up, play our game and play through the down. We move on, instantly.”

With Donald, Fowler and Matthews creating push up front to force Mayfield off his spot, Mayfield threw errantly on first, second and third downs. That set up fourth and goal with 33 seconds left.

“One play!” Johnson said. “One play. You can’t survive for one play? You shouldn’t be in this league.”

Johnson had been oh-so-close to a couple interceptions throughout the game, which is why it seemed appropriate that he dove in the end zone to come up with the game-deciding pick on fourth down.

“I just kept telling him don’t worry, it’s all good, you’re gonna get another chance at one,” Weddle said Johnson. “And man, we needed that right there. But I didn’t even know he got it. I just turned and I saw him wrestling with it on the ground and I was like, ‘Oh my God, what happened?’ So it was epic that it came down to the secondary.”

And the defense as a whole, really.

At some point, you figure the Rams’ offense will join the party for four full quarters. For various reasons, that has yet to happen. In past years that would have been a problem. Maybe somewhere down the line it will cost the Rams a win.

Three games into the season, though, the Rams’ defense has made sure that hasn’t happened

Stu Jackson@StuJRams@RamsNFL
head coach Sean McVay on the status of OL Austin Blythe (ankle) and TE Tyler Higbee (chest):

“They’re both making good progress. They’ll still be day-to-day, but the anticipation and hope is they’ll be play to play this week.”

Rams24/7@Rams24_7
The Rams haven’t allowed a 100 yard WR this season. I think Talib is a huge factor. Over the past 2 seasons:

-With Talib (13 games): 3 100+ WRs
-Without Talib (8 games): 6 100+ WRs

Goff's numbers from his first 27 games under McVay were Manning-like.

Since the 54-51 shootout with Mahomes (11 games), they have been Sam Bradford-like

But the 8-3 record forgives a lot. Defense pretty good last 11 pic.twitter.com/OGW2hdOss8

— 𝐏𝐫𝐨 𝐅𝐨𝐨𝐭𝐛𝐚𝐥𝐥 𝐉𝐨𝐮𝐫𝐧𝐚𝐥🏈 (@NFL_Journal) September 23, 2019

Lindsey Thiry@LindseyThiry
Rough outing for Jared Goff in his first nationally televised game since the Super Bowl. The narrative on him is not about to improve after this.

Dan Orlovsky@danorlovsky7
Somewhat lost in the @RamsNFL game last night is the fact that @CooperKupp has become a top 5 WR in the #NFL and is as good as anyone 1) at the line of scrimmage and 2) at the top of his routes
@minakimes

PFF LA Rams@PFF_Rams
Cooper Kupp caught 91.7% of his targets yesterday, totaling 102 yards, 2 touchdowns, and a passer rating of 141.7 when targeted

This ASTOUNDING performance earned him the highest overall offensive grade for the #LARams this week!

Austin Gayle@PFF_AustinGayle
Malcolm Brown and Tony Pollard both rank inside the top-five in forced missed tackles per attempt and YAC per attempt among the 44 NFL backs with 20+ carries this season.

In line for BIG contracts, I’m sure.

—

Albert Breer, from: https://www.si.com/nfl/2019/09/23/jacoby-brissett-daniel-jones-teddy-bridgewater-gardner-minshew-mmqb-week-3
The results of the Rams’ plan to play Gurley’s situation by ear early in the season: 44 rushes, 203 yards, TD; four catches, 8 yards. By comparison, last year at this point, he had 255 yards and four touchdowns on 62 carries, and 121 receiving yards and another touchdown on 11 catches.

Lindsey Thiry@LindseyThiry
The Rams are 3-0 for the fifth time since 1999. They reached the Super Bowl in three of the previous four instances, per @ESPNStatsInfo.

—

Pictured here: Aaron Donald with a bad back. pic.twitter.com/J3FOS8dkH5

— J.B. Long (@JB_Long) September 23, 2019

“What do the Browns lack right now? Character… They are the most predictable team in the league.”@ColinCowherd reacts to Cleveland's slow start pic.twitter.com/6rCRz2wseQ

— Herd w/Colin Cowherd (@TheHerd) September 23, 2019

max

Schedule doesn’t look so daunting now

29 (Sun.) Tampa Bay 4:05 PM
10/03 (Thu.) @ Seattle 8:20 PM
10/13 (Sun.) San Francisco 4:05 PM
10/20 (Sun.) @ Atlanta 1:00 PM
10/27 (Sun.) Cincinnati 1:00 PM
11/10 (Sun.) @ Pittsburgh 4:25 PM
11/17 (Sun.) Chicago 8:20 PM
11/25 (Mon.) Baltimore 8:15 PM
12/01 (Sun.) @ Arizona 4:05 PM
12/08 (Sun.) Seattle 8:20 PM
12/15 (Sun.) @ Dallas 4:25 PM
12/21 (Sat.) @ San Francisco 1:00 PM
12/29 (Sun.) Arizona 4:25 PM

Outside our division, we have 2 or 3 tough ones. Bears and Ravens at home, and at Dallas.

Steelers are a mess, and Falcons look like their about to fire their coach.

12 wins looks very doable.