Rams claim to have seen good things on defense Monday

Rams claim to have seen good things on defense Monday, but it’s time for that unit to fulfill its reputation

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By THOUSAND OAKS >> The Rams will have a great defense someday.

That, of course, can be a promise without end.

Greg Norman was going to win the Masters someday. Healthy bacon was going to come along someday. Heck, pro football was coming back someday. The Rams fixed that, but they have brought it back to a notably impatient place.

The defense was one thing we knew about this unfamiliar team with the familiar name that returned to our lives Jan. 12. If nothing else, the Rams could stop you. They had four first-round picks on defense and, in some eyes, the best player in the NFL in Aaron Donald.

During those years, they also had to carry around the Rams’ offense like a box of anchors.

Then came Monday night: San Francisco 28, L.A. 0.

“We played very strong in that ballgame,” said defensive coordinator Gregg Williams Friday, indicating that the strain of keeping that promise might be getting to him.

But he elaborated.

“We have to do a better job in the red zone,” he said. “That’s something we’ve always done well in the past. We extended some of their drives with penalties. And we got our hands on three balls that legitimately hit us in the hands and should have been interceptions, and two of them would have gone for touchdowns. Our guys know that and they’ll come back. And I was very pleased with the way they responded at halftime.”

The Rams were second in the league last year in preventing red zone touchdowns, at 41.3 percent, and fourth in 2014.

“The worst part was giving 28 points, and it doesn’t matter how the offense did if you are going to give up points,” linebacker Alec Ogletree said. “We had some missed reads in the red zone, some missed tackles. Things happened really fast.”

San Francisco scored four touchdowns in four red zone trips and the Rams lost a net 92 yards in penalties. The 49ers had three touchdown drives that took 10, 10 and 11 plays. Etc.

“We had a couple of short fields,” Williams said. “We’re usually good on sudden change, making people kick field goals. One of those drives we had a second-and-15 and we had pass interference, and another time we had second-and-13 and the guy (Blaine Gabbert) threw it right in there. ... What I liked was that before I could say anything, the guys were coming up to me and they were bringing it up. That’s when you know things are going well, when they take ownership.

“They extended some plays with their quarterbacks, and that’s when you don’t want to be reading my lips on the sideline. But otherwise we held their running game down pretty well.”

Still, the Rams are holding onto someday a little too long.

In 2015 the Rams ranked 12th in the 32-team NFL in yards allowed per play. They were sixth on third-down defense, seventh in passing TDs allowed, 13th in touchdowns allowed. The year before they were 24th in yards-per-play defense, and 18th the year before that.

That is good but not dominant, and their ambition is dominance. A glimpse came in Week 16 last year, when William Hayes sacked Russell Wilson three times (for 24 1/2 yards) and the Rams won in Seattle, 23-17. Three of Seattle’s 10 losses in 2014-15 have come to the Rams, and one of them came with Nick Foles posting a quarterback rating of 115.8.

Now Wilson drags a bad ankle into the Coliseum Sunday.

“We’re preparing as if he’s going to be 100 percent,” Williams said. “We know how tough he is. He’s one of the few players who could come over and play defense. He does things on instinct, does things you can’t coach. He’s the best quarterback there is when it comes to extending plays.”

The Rams allowed Wilson to run 15 times for 51 yards in those two games, with one gain of 20. They can live with that, provided they can find a way to squeeze Todd Gurley through Seattle’s front seven. “We might have to throw it deep to do that,” coach Jeff Fisher said, which invites its own problems.

“We’ve been preaching the same thing for three years,” Ogletree said. “as far as becoming the best defense. We’re looking forward to this year and spreading our reputation around the league. We’re not looking to wait until next year to do that, because things change. What better time than now?”

Sure beats someday.