Vinny B: Rams defense plays 'big boy football"

[theathletic.com]

In a twist, the Rams’ defense plays ‘big boy football’ and picks up for the offense



By Vincent Bonsignore Sep 22, 2019 1

CLEVELAND — Eric Weddle would be lying if he claimed he was happy it all came down to an epic defensive stop Sunday night against the Cleveland Browns. The Rams’ veteran safety might be crazy, in the most wonderful of football and athletic ways, but he certainly isn’t stupid or reckless.

In a perfect world, Weddle would have been chilling on the sideline in the closing minutes, baseball cap pulled tight over his head and basking in a comfortable Rams road win.

Instead, he was on the field with his defensive teammates, trying to pick up Rams quarterback Jared Goff after the awful interception he threw late in the fourth quarter of a game the Rams led by only seven points. That error gave the Browns one more chance to pull even and send the game to overtime. That looked likely when Baker Mayfield drove the Browns to the Rams’ 4-yard line to set up a first-and-goal situation with 43 seconds remaining.

Weddle is all about challenges. As are Aaron Donald, John Johnson, Clay Matthews, Cory Littleton, Aqib Talib and everyone else on what is emerging as a very good, very smart and uniquely talented Rams defense.

But this was pushing it.

“I’d much rather have the game in hand than living like that,” Weddle said, his mischievous smile wide and affable.

So, happy? No.

Maybe appropriate is the best word to describe the situation, given the way the Rams’ defense rose to the challenge all night inside the bedlam of FirstEnergy Stadium. And also, for that matter, through the first three weeks of the season.

With the Rams’ offense still searching for consistency, the line not yet clicking completely, Goff following two good throws with one curious one, Todd Gurley on a load-management program and Sean McVay not yet satisfied with his play-calling, the Rams increasingly have needed to lean on their defense to survive their first three games.

That included their 20-13 win on Sunday, in which the Rams had to dig as deep as they could — both in terms of athletic ability and intelligence — to deal with all the pressure presented by Mayfield and a loaded Browns offense.

And as Rams already have shown this year, this defense is as smart as it is talented.

“And that’s what makes it so much fun,” Weddle said. “It’s amazing to be able to think on the fly and be able to check and make calls that maybe we didn’t go over (in practice) that we can still do on the fly if I see something. And the guys understand and they trust me to say, ‘Hey, let’s make this check, let’s make this call and we’ll get through it because I think it might be better.’ And that is so much fun.”

And that’s precisely how Weddle and his defensive brothers held a powerful Browns offense to 270 yards, including only 175 through the air. They battered Mayfield into 18 of 36 passing and allowed star receiver Odell Beckham Jr. just six catches for 56 yards.

Aaron Donald recorded his first sack of the season while tormenting Mayfield and the Browns all game long, practically taking up residence in the Browns’ backfield. Matthews had two sacks, which was particularly special given that his father, Clay Jr., was inducted into the Browns’ Ring of Honor on Sunday.

Most important, they took the burden off Goff and the offense in the best way possible, by allowing just three points off three Rams turnovers.

“You can’t say enough about the defense,” McVay said.

“We were executing like a mug, baby!” Talib said. “We had a great game plan. And we were out there executing that thing.”

Never more so than when Mayfield and the Browns inched close to the Rams’ end zone and set up a very simple mathematical equation with 43 seconds remaining. The Browns had four plays to pick up four yards. The Rams’ defense needed to make four stops.

The clarity of it all was something to behold.

It’s a point Weddle echoed in the huddle.

“We got four shots to do this,” is what he remembers telling his teammates. “So let’s just worry about this play. Don’t worry about the next play. Let’s win the down in front of us and move on to the next.”

“Big boy football,” is how outside linebacker Dante Fowler put it. “It’s time to be stout. It’s time to bow up. The game was on us and we were fine with that.”

Or as Johnson explained: “Four stops. One at a time. Boom. Boom. Boom. Boom. Let’s get off the field and go home.”

There was no anger over the situation the offense created for them. No worry or concern or a focus on anything other than the immediate play.

“We don’t make excuses,” Weddle said. “We don’t worry about what had happened to that point. We just gotta nut up, play our game and play through the down. We move on, instantly.”

With Donald, Fowler and Matthews creating push up front to force Mayfield off his spot, Mayfield threw errantly on first, second and third downs. That set up fourth and goal with 33 seconds left.

“One play!” Johnson said. “One play. You can’t survive for one play? You shouldn’t be in this league.”

Johnson had been oh-so-close to a couple interceptions throughout the game, which is why it seemed appropriate that he dove in the end zone to come up with the game-deciding pick on fourth down.

“I just kept telling him don’t worry, it’s all good, you’re gonna get another chance at one,” Weddle said Johnson. “And man, we needed that right there. But I didn’t even know he got it. I just turned and I saw him wrestling with it on the ground and I was like, ‘Oh my God, what happened?’ So it was epic that it came down to the secondary.”

And the defense as a whole, really.

At some point, you figure the Rams’ offense will join the party for four full quarters. For various reasons, that has yet to happen. In past years that would have been a problem. Maybe somewhere down the line it will cost the Rams a win.

Three games into the season, though, the Rams’ defense has made sure that hasn’t happened.