Even without Aaron Donald, Rams’ new defense looks strong

Even without Aaron Donald, Rams’ new defense looks strong

By RICH HAMMOND

IRVINE — The Rams also play defense, and perhaps quite well.

While the focus during this training camp has been on the offense – Jared Goff, Todd Gurley, Sammy Watkins, Andrew Whitworth, et al – the surest path to improvement for the Rams in 2017 will be on defense, particularly if coordinator Wade Phillips can continue to be a first-year miracle worker.

The two biggest talking points involving the defense have been negatives: the absence of holdout Aaron Donald – and no, there’s still no clear indication when he might show up – and the season-ending knee injury to fellow lineman Dominique Easley. Yet there are plenty of positives about this new-look defense.

They were on display Saturday in the Rams’ preseason opener against Dallas. The defense, as a whole, limited the Cowboys to one touchdown, one field goal and 248 total yards. In the first quarter, with the Rams’ first-string defense on the field, Dallas totaled 13 yards (and zero first downs) in nine plays.

“I was really pleased with how we performed, going out there for the first time as a group,” linebacker Alec Ogletree said after Tuesday’s camp practice at UC Irvine. “We definitely have a lot to work on, but I thought we got off to a good start.”

There’s an asterisk. The Cowboys played without their top quarterback (Dak Prescott), running back (Ezekiel Elliott) and receiver (Dez Bryant). Then again, the Rams also played without Donald, linebackers Robert Quinn and Mark Barron and cornerback Kayvon Webster.

That’s a lot of missing pieces, but in general, the puzzle looked good. The Rams were aggressive in their new defense, which is nominally a 3-4 but looks different on almost every snap.

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