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Rams defense undeterred by recent performances
There's no concern from Los Angeles' defensive players despite the outcomes in Week 5 and Week 4
www.therams.com
Over the last two games, the Rams' defense has seen opposing offenses put up an average of 42.5 points per contest.
Reason to be concerned? Not for safety Eric Weddle.
“It really doesn’t matter what the outside thinks," Weddle said. "I’m not really concerned with that. We fought our tails off."
Specific to Thursday's 30-29 loss to the Seahawks, some of the situations in which Seattle's offense found the endzone were out of Los Angeles' control – and much of that had to do with Seahawks QB Russell Wilson.
Going into the contest, the Rams were very aware of Wilson's knack for executing off-schedule and keeping plays alive, and it didn't take long to show up. Flushed out of the pocket with under a minute remaining in the first quarter, Wilson ran to his left, then fired a ball toward the left corner of the endzone with his body parallel to the line of scrimmage.
At first glance, it looked like Wilson was intentionally throwing the ball away, or out of bounds, in order to prevent a loss of yards. Instead, WR Tyler Lockett made a tough catch in the endzone for the store, dragging both feet inbounds with little space to work with near the back left pylon.
If the description of how the play unfolded isn't enough, consider NFL Next Gen Stats said the pass had a 6.3 percent chance of being completed – making it the most improbable completion of the last two seasons.
“That’s what he do," Rams DT Aaron Donald said of Wilson. "I have to watch the film and see what happened, but that’s what he do. At times he got out on us, and we have to be better than that.”
Weddle described it as a "crazy play."
"You can play the coverage perfect, took him, covered him up, and he throws it up and makes a play," Weddle said. "Those things happen.You just chalk it up as a great play by Russ and a great play by Tyler. I’m not going to lose sleep over a play like that. It’s an amazing play."
In spite of those acrobatic plays, the Rams still gave themselves an shot to win at the end. A defensive stand at midfield afforded L.A.'s offense the chance to mount a game-winning drive with less than two minutes remaining that ultimately came up short.
"We had chances," Weddle said. "We got a stop late and, you know, we didn’t get it done."
Playing on Thursday instead of Sunday this week gave players the chance to take a couple days to relax and recover before starting preparation for next week's home game against a 49ers team which averages the fourth-most total yards of offense and third-most points per game in the NFL through four games.
However, there's no worry in the Rams locker room. They know what they need to fix and will be ready.
“We fine," Donald said. "It’s still early in the season. That’s nothing to panic about. There’s a lot more football left. All you can do is watch the film, learn, try to fix the things you did wrong and build up the things you did good and keep playing ball."
