LA Rams News: Defense ready to make a statement in 2020

LA Rams News: Defense ready to make 2020 their statement year

After years of playing in the shadows of one of the NFL’s best offenses, the LA Rams defense is smoldering. A talented part of NFL teams that have been content to protect leads, stop drives, chalk up another win and move on to the next game. That system worked for several years.

But in 2019, the rules of the game changed.  A fragile offensive line struggled to move the ball on the ground.  Without fear of a running game, other defenses could pin their ears back and rush the passer. Now running for his life, QB Jared Goff began to throw nearly as often to defenders as to his own players in the endzone. The defense was called upon to do more.

New ‘tude from Rams D

Ready Set Go! 2019 showed the LA Rams defense that the game would be more often up to them to decide. A game of inches indeed!  The Rams defense once built to stop the pass exclusively is reworking to stop both the pass and the run. That means the defensive line is not just about getting to the passer but stopping anything that moves dead in their tracks. So that’s exactly what the team is training to do.

We’d mentioned before how the Rams defense for 2020 will depend mightily upon the defensive line. Right now, it appears that they are taking that responsibility seriously.  Led by workout warriors DT Aaron Donald and S Taylor Rapp, the Rams defense has the look of powerlifters preparing for the Mr. Universe competition. That’s pretty remarkable, considering players have been pretty much left to their own devices so far in terms of preparation for the new NFL season.

NFL game victories are often described in post-game summaries in terms of which team wanted it more. The LA Rams are demonstrating just how much they want to win already.