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Game slowing down for Rams' McDonald
Nate Latsch
http://stl.scout.com/story/1450684-game-slowing-down-for-rams-mcdonald
ST. LOUIS — Rams coach Jeff Fisher had strong praise for second-year safety T.J. McDonald at his press conference on Monday, the day after the team’s season-opening loss against the Vikings.
“T.J. made some plays, had a couple misses but everybody’s going to have misses in space with ‘AP’ (Adrian Peterson),” Fisher said. “But I thought T.J. played better than he played at any time last year.”
McDonald got the Vikings running back twice on Minnesota’s first series, dropping Peterson for a 5-yard loss on a first-down play and then holding him to a 1-yard run on a third-and-long play to force a punt.
It was just the start of a strong game for the 23-year-old safety, who was the Rams’ third-round draft pick (No. 71 overall) in 2013 out of USC. McDonald finished with a career-high eight tackles, just one behind safety Rodney McLeod for the team lead, and one pass defensed.
Not bad for just his 11th NFL game.
“The game slows down for me as I get older, but I’ve got a lot of work to do,” he said. “I feel like I’m just scratching the surface as far as getting into this defense and whatnot and getting into this league. So for me I just have to make sure I stay on it, keep working hard and get better every week.”
The 6-foot-2, 217-pounder has a bit of a different role this season in new defensive coordinator Gregg Williams’ aggressive scheme.
“I do a little bit of everything,” McDonald said. “I line up everywhere in this defense. I line up a lot of different places. Last year I didn’t move around as much. I did some similar things, but it’s a different scheme, so I’m all over the place.”
There is also an increased emphasis on how McDonald and the rest of the Rams’ young secondary performs, a group that is considered a question mark in comparison to the more established defensive linemen and linebackers that make up the team’s front seven.
The young St. Louis defense got even younger with the preseason knee injury to cornerback Trumaine Johnson, a third-year player who has been replaced by rookie E.J. Gaines in the starting lineup.
But for as disappointing as the Rams’ 34-6 loss to the Vikings was, it would be unfair to place a majority of the blame on the secondary.
The returning starters, McDonald, McLeod and Janoris Jenkins (seven tackles), played well, particularly in run support. A sixth-round pick, Gaines (five tackles, two passes defensed) also performed well in his NFL regular season debut.
“The effort wasn’t bad,” McDonald said of the defense. “The effort was good and everything. It was just a few plays. Those few plays you have to eliminate, you can’t give them up, because it looks more lopsided than what it was. I feel like you contain a guy with Adrian Peterson, 75 yards, you’re happy with that. But then at the same time you let a guy like Cordarrelle Patterson go off. Those are things we can’t do as a great defense.”
That loss should motivate the Rams going into their Week 2 game at Tampa Bay on Sunday. They want to show that they are better than they looked in that disappointing season-opening defeat.
“I think we put together a good week of practice,” McDonald said. “Everybody is eager to get back and show that that first game isn’t indicative of who we are as a defense.”
