Hard hitting is in LA Rams defensive back Nick Scott’s DNA

Scott serves notice

Picking on a young and inexperienced player in a game plan can have three outcomes: On one hand, the offense can confuse the young man and help the team to win the game. On the other hand, the young man can hold his own, and make the offense work harder than it expected to. Finally, on the rare occasion, the young man can step up in such a dramatic fashion, that he can be one of the defensive stars that actually helps to determine the outcome of the game.

Nick Scott appears to have been the latter.

He made the highlight reel of three consecutive playoff games. The first highlight was a bone-jarring (and legal) hit on Arizona Cardinals veteran wide receiver A.J. Green that separated the player from the football. That created the down and distance, third down and seven yards to go, on Cardinals quarterback Kyler Murray to toss an interception on the very next play. That interception by David Long was a pick-six and put the LA Rams up by a score of 21-0.

Last pick of legendary QB Tom Brady’s career

The next week, Scott was back at it once more. On a second down and 17 yards to go from the Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ own eight-yard line, Scott intercepted a pass from QB Tom Brady intended for TE Rob Gronkowski. That would become the last interception of Tom Brady’s NFL career.

The next week, Scott was making magic once more. The Hit happened on a second down and eight yards to go with the San Francisco 49ers lined up at their own 46-yards line. 49ers QB Jimmy Garoppolo threw to his favorite weapon, WR Deebo Samuel. Only this time, Nick Scott closed on Samuel just after the football arrived. The result? The Hit.

Not only did Scott break up the pass play, but Deebo Samuel was ineffective for the rest of the game. That hit alone qualified Scott to start in Super Bowl LVI for the Rams.

Huge games for the Rams translated into huge hits by DB Nick Scott.  Scott allowed just two completions out of five targets. He made 12 tackles and hauled in one interception in 240 defensive snaps in the playoffs. That was good enough to earn him an impressive 73.6 grade for the playoffs from Pro Football Focus. I’d like to say that he will be competing for a starting role in the Rams secondary in 2022, but that’s probably too much to ask for.

We can say that hard-hitting is in LA Rams Nick Scott’s DNA, and he will be back in 2022 to fill up the highlight reel with more bone-jarring tackles.