5 crucial takeaways from LA Rams Thursday Night Football game

Rams linebackers can play solid football

The LA Rams have a keener eye towards inside linebacker play than I do. Or perhaps it’s just more confidence. I can share that I was very concerned when the team announced that they would be placing starting ILB Micah Kiser on Injured Reserve for an injured knee, with the hope that he could return after the minimal three weeks period had expired.

I truly like ILB Kenny Young and Troy Reeder. But for whatever reason, it seemed that Young has not been the ‘fit’ that we’d hoped when prying him away from the Baltimore Ravens. And Reeder has the feel of unbridled energy on the field.  That is, sometimes he blows up the offense, and sometimes he blows up in the Rams faces. And so, it did not seem likely that the Rams could run their 3-4 defense with just two healthy inside linebackers.  But perhaps I was wrong.

So far, so good

The plan in Kiser’s absence was to fill the middle with Troy Reeder and maintain Young in the base 3-4 package. So far, the plan is working and I’m thrilled. Reeder started eight games for the LA Rams in 2019 and finished the season with 58 tackles. He’s started three games for the Rams so far and has 53 tackles and three sacks to show for it. He has dramatically improved his pass defense, dropping his 2019 completion rate of 94 percent to a fairly impressive 63.6 percent completion rate this year.

But this one is about ILB Kenny Young. His 400 defensive snaps are the most action he’s seen in one season over his entire career. But has he turned the corner? It’s tough to ignore the fact that Young not only has a pick-six for the first time of his career, but he followed that up with a quarterback sack as well. He accounted for six solo tackles in the game and eight combined tackles.  We’ll need more from both to sustain success this year.