Rams Pro Football Focus tidbits heading into Week 10

[CGI_Ram]

Rams Pro Football Focus tidbits heading into Week 10

A look at some of Pro Football Focus' key Rams evaluations as the second half of the season gets underway.

www.therams.com

Rams Pro Football Focus tidbits heading into Week 10

Pro Football Focus (PFF) has a team of more than 300 staffers evaluating every NFL play from the Hall of Fame game to the Super Bowl. After each game, players, as well as each team's offensive, defensive and special teams units, are graded on a scale of 0 to 100; the closer a player or unit is to 100, the better. A full explanation of their evaluation process can be found here for additional context.

Here's a look at some of the noteworthy Rams-centric assessments as we turn our attention toward the second half of the 2019 season.

MOST DEFENSIVE RANKINGS RISE AFTER BYE WEEK

In our midseason recap, we highlighted how well the defense graded out in four of the five categories evaluated by PFF. Even with the bye week, that's still the case – and in some instances, its rankings rose.

L.A.'s defense stands as the fourth-highest graded overall defense entering Week 10 after entering the bye week at fifth. Its run defense moved up one spot, from seventh to sixth, while its coverage moved down one spot from seventh to eighth. Its pass rush remained at third.

Regardless of the movement, the point remains that the Rams' defense is still a top 10 unit even with the performances across the league in Week 9.

OFFENSE MOSTLY UNAFFECTED BY BYE WEEK PERFORMANCES

While the Rams' defense saw a few increases with their rankings, the Rams' offense pretty much stayed the same.

The overall ranking for L.A.'s offense dropped one spot from 16th to 17th, but its run game remained in the top nine, sharing ninth with the Saints.

They'll get a good test in Pittsburgh this week against the league's second-highest graded defense in the Steelers.

DONALD STILL TOP INTERIOR DEFENSIVE LINEMAN

Rams DT Aaron Donald maintained his place as PFF's top-graded interior defensive lineman after the bye week.
A glance over top 10 interior defensive linemen active in Week 10 shows several solid performances, but not enough to dethrone Donald. The former Pitt standout has posted an overall grade of 81.5 or better in six of the Rams' eight games this season.

 

[shovelpass]

 

[Memento]

This is exactly why I hope we keep Littleton. It'll be hard to replace his production on the inside of our defense if we don't retain him.

 

[Faceplant]

Interesting.... Kind of. My eyes don't tell the same story when I'm watching, but who knows.

 

[BonifayRam]

If I were Snead/Demoff I would making every effort to extend Cory Littleton now & NOT let him hit Free Agency...if Cory does he will be lost to the Rams defense to the many very rich salary cap teams. An inside LB'er who grades out so high in coverage is rare.

Plus CL is a home-grown product who started in a new WS/ILB'er position this season. CL was our starting MLB'er in 2018. In 2017 CL he started 5 gms @ both ILB'er positions as top reserve. 2016 as an UDFA DE rookie made the conversion to a 43 D OLB'er playing both WS & SS OLB'er posts as a reserve.

I also believe that CL will get even better now that Wade has Ramsey & Hill as his starting corners that will let CL play an even larger bigger role for the second half of this season.

 

[BonifayRam]

Wade Phillips: "He’s having another sensational year."

The Rams are getting a lot out of a Little...ton. Get it?

www.turfshowtimes.com