Without Aaron Donald, Rams’ defense makes NFL history Week 1 against Colts

Give the defense of the Los Angeles Rams credit for shining against the Indianapolis Colts in Week 1, and making NFL history, even without Aaron Donald.

Even though the Los Angeles Rams received amazing news the day before their season opener against the Indianapolis Colts with Aaron Donald ending his holdout, the defensive superstar was still inactive for the game, and could possibly even miss Week 2 against the Washington Redskins. Normally, the absence of a standout player like Donald would be a crushing blow for any defense at the NFL level, but give Wade Phillips credit for how his unit looked against the Colts in the opener.

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Los Angeles entered the game knowing they would have an extra advantage since Indianapolis would be playing with Scott Tolzien over Andrew Luck as the former No. 1 pick continues to recover from a shoulder injury. However, not even the Rams could have predicted the defense would play well enough in the 46-9 win over the Colts to make their mark in NFL history.

That’s right, Phillips deserves all of the credit in the world for coaching his boys to earning their place in NFL history by becoming the first defense to return two interceptions (Trumaine Johnson and Larmarcus Joyner) for a touchdown along with recording a safety in the season opener. Sure, this sounds like the most out random record for a team to earn, but the Rams will take anything they can get after only winning four games all of last year.

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Not to mention, Los Angeles recording four sacks along with limiting Indianapolis to nine points is quite the accomplishment as well. If the Rams’ defense can play at this high level, even if it was the Colts, on a weekly basis, just imagine how scary this unit will look once Donald is ready to go.