Another week, another preseason loss for the Los Angeles Rams. Though hardly concerning, the Rams lost their second straight exhibition game on Saturday night, falling to the Cowboys 14-10 in Hawaii.
The offense performed much better than it did in the preseason opener against Dallas, while the defense carried over its strong play from the second half of last week’s game.
Here are five takeaways from the loss, beginning with the depth in the secondary.
Cornerback depth is a huge strength
The Rams have one of the best secondaries in the NFL, and further down the depth chart is a crop of young cornerbacks with immense potential. Dont’e Deayon had an interception on Saturday night, Kevin Peterson broke up a pass and Darious Williams broke up two of his own.
There will be some extremely tough decisions made when final roster cuts come because the Rams have a boatload of talent at cornerback. Peterson, Williams and Deayon are all in consideration for a roster spot, and that’s with David Long assured a position on the 53-man roster.
Young pass rushers are stepping up
A host of edge rushers really stood out against the Cowboys. Ogbonnia Okoronkwo, in his first NFL game, drew multiple holding penalties and got a hit on the quarterback, showing the potential that excited the Rams last year in the draft. Natrez Patrick had a sack and a quarterback hit, making three total tackles in the game. His impact was felt on seemingly every snap he played.
Additionally, Landis Durham added his second sack of the preseason while Josh Carraway nearly had a strip-sack late in the game. The performance of these young pass rushers has to make the coaches feel good after there was so much worry about the backups at OLB.
Tough decisions to be made at RB
Todd Gurley, Malcolm Brown and Darrell Henderson are all essentially guaranteed roster spots. John Kelly and Justin Davis will battle for the fourth position on the depth chart, assuming the Rams go that deep at RB. Kelly made a strong case to be RB4 this season with a strong performance against Dallas, even though his numbers (five rushes, 11 yards) don’t indicate that.
He was shifty in the open field and made multiple defenders miss, proving to be difficult to tackle. If the Rams do keep four running backs, as they’re expected to, Kelly looks like the best choice. Davis’ 22 yards on only five carries are worth noting, too.
Penalties continue to be a major problem
Sean McVay is not going to be happy about the Rams being flagged for 18 penalties. It was a huge issue in the preseason opener, but some leeway was given for first-game jitters and inexperience. There was little excuse for 18 penalties to be called on the Rams in this one.
It was much of the same as last week, too: false starts, holding, illegal touching on a punt. The laundry list of infractions goes on. Fortunately, it’s backups who are committing these fouls, not the starters. But still, it’s not encouraging to see so many penalties in a two-week span. The discipline simply has to be better in the future.
Returner situation remains unsettled
The Rams still don’t have a surefire punt and kick returner. JoJo Natson was expected to be that guy, but he’s dangerously close to losing the job. Nsimba Webster has some nice juice to his game and had a 23-yard kick return, but it’s clear the Rams are trying several players at each spot. Natson muffed a punt, Austin Proehl had one return for zero yards and Alex Bachman showed some speed on his 16-yard scamper.
This position battle will cost a few players their jobs in Los Angeles because all of the guys competing to return kicks and punts are reserves on offense and defense. Webster has a good chance to stick around as the primary return specialist.
