3 takeaways from Los Angeles Rams 30-22 win over Dallas Cowboys in Divisional Round

3. Defense steps up for Rams

Facing a Cowboys’ offense consisting of weapons like Ezekiel Elliott and Amari Cooper for Dak Prescott to work with meant the Rams were going to be in for quite the challenge on the defensive side of the football.

Yes, Dallas was able to put together some impressive scoring drives as expected, but from an overall perspective, Los Angeles deserves credit for holding them to scoring just 22 points, especially when seeing some of their performances from the regular season.

Between their inability for the most part to stop the run along with allowing big games on offense from opponents like the Kansas City Chiefs and Minnesota Vikings, the Rams had reason for concern on defense about facing the Cowboys.

Turns out, that extra week off to prepare for Dallas seemed to pay off in a big way when looking at the improvement displayed on the defensive side of the football by Los Angeles, whether it was holding Elliott to 47 rushing yards or keeping Cooper mostly in check after that early touchdown.

No one needs to explain to the Rams just how much of a disappointment their defense has been overall this season when looking at the previous expectations, but at least they came up big when needed the most.

With a performance like this, let’s hope this was the confidence boost Los Angeles needed on defense since the unit is going to be a key factor the rest of the way.