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Rams Focused on Improving Run Defense

Myles Simmons

It’s been a constant question since the final whistle on Sunday: Why did the Rams surrender so many rushing yards to Washington?

The visitors had 229 yards rushing, averaging 5.9 yards per carry. Three different Washington running backs tallied at least 67 yards on the ground. And because the ground game was so effective, Washington led time of possession 36:19 to 23:41.

In other words, the question isn’t a secret. And that’s probably why defensive coordinator Wade Phillips began his Tuesday press conference by saying, unprompted, “What’s wrong with the run defense, right?”

“We didn’t play the run very well and we’re upset about that, but we’re going to do something about it,” Phillips said. “I did think we fought back in the second half and played a lot better run defense than we did — obviously, the first quarter kind of shocked us.

“And they have a good running game,” Phillips continued. “I don’t want to take away anything from them, but that certainly hurt us.”

According to Phillips, there were a number of contributing factors to the Rams’ struggles against the run. One of them was Washington effectively running plays that have worked against teams Phillips has coached in the past — plays that Washington may not have shown on film.

“We’ve seen them — I’ve seen them — but it’s a copycat league. They tried to copy all the plays that had any success against Denver, or Texans, or Philadelphia, or New Orleans. or Houston or…where else have I been?” Phillips said with a chuckle. “They were successful on those.”

But another part of it was that in some ways, the Rams are still getting adjusted to their new defensive scheme. For instance, outside linebacker Robert Quinn has played as a down lineman in the past, which requires a different type of technique for playing against the run. Conversely, outside linebacker Connor Barwin played in Phillips’ system in Houston and doesn’t quite have to make those adjustments.

“I think just the feel of where everybody is, especially for linebackers — how to set the edge for the outside backers,” Phillips said. “Connor’s done it before, but Robert Quinn has never played outside linebacker so I’m talking about him in the running game, he’s always rushed the passer and we had him rushing the passer quite a bit.

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