Baldy’s Breakdowns: LA Rams Aaron Donald dominates Cardinals

If the LA Rams All-Pro defensive lineman can continue to play in as dominating of a fashion as he did in Week 14 against the Arizona Cardinals, the team will come out on the winning side of a few more games to finish out the 2021 NFL season. You see, it’s not how the LA Rams, or any NFL team for that matter, begins a season. It’s how you close it out that is the true difference-maker for the NFL Playoffs.

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers got hot to finish out the 2021 NFL Season with a four-game winning streak. After losing three consecutive games, the LA Rams are now on a two-game winning streak. The reason for their second win? A dominating performance from All-Pro defensive lineman Aaron Donald. And when Aaron Donald dominates, there is none better than the great one himself, Brian “Baldy” Baldinger, to give you the breakdown as only he can.

We know that as Aaron Donald goes, so goes the LA Rams defense. So far this season, Donald has been a bit less pronounced as in previous seasons, but that may be changing now. For starters, the Rams’ three-down linemen are starting to gel, as both A’Shawn Robinson and Greg Gaines are proving to be more than backups/rotational players.

Rams DL starting to gel

Robinson is a stone wall when it comes to stopping the run, and Greg “Gazelle” Gaines is proving to be incredibly fast at hunting down ball-carriers from behind. But make no mistake, the ring-leader is Donald, and he brought the circus to town to face the Cardinals.

In a game nobody believed the Rams could win, it was clear that Aaron Donald did. This was a defense, and team, that had heard enough about playing too soft. This was a gritty, not pretty, performance. When the smoke cleared, Aaron Donald proved once more why he remains the best NFL player of his time.