Pro-Football-Focus2. Los Angeles Rams
Total Defense Grade: 89.0Very much like Chicago, this has been a tale of two defenses for Los Angeles. The defense that existed when Aqib Talib was healthy and the one that has existed since. In the first three weeks of the season, they earned three single-game defense grades above 70. In the last five weeks, they’ve only earned three more. Talib had a 77.7 overall grade before being sidelined while his replacements Sam Shields and Troy Hill have grades of 67.9 and 60.6 respectively.
Also, very much like the Bears, this is a one-man pass-rush. While they have earned the fifth most pressures of any defense in the NFL, over a third of them have come from Aaron Donald alone. The defensive tackle is playing the best football of his entire career and his 28.4 percent win rate as a pass-rusher would be the highest we’ve seen from any player – interior or edge – for a single season.
