It’s that old cliche: defense wins football games. That was no lie for the Los Angeles Rams in Sunday’s 37-10 victory over a very bad Atlanta Falcons team.
Their big-play, fearsome defenders showed up to harass and stifle Matt Ryan and the Falcons weak offense. The Rams defense, after all, clearly has the talent and scheme to shut down any team on any giving Sunday. And this is a different defense than the one we saw a few weeks ago.
Out are Aqib Talib, John Johnson, Marcus Peters and Clay Matthews, either due to injury or trade (in Peters’ case). Replacing them are Troy Hill, Marqui Christian and Taylor Rapp, Jalen Ramsey and Samson Ebukam – all of whom played well against the Falcons.
It was the Rams’ defensive unit that carried its weight as it held the Falcons to 38 rushing yards and 224 total yards – 75 of which came in garbage time with the Rams’ backups in the game. Atlanta was limited to 108 total yards in the first half as Los Angeles got out to a 13-3 lead.
It was the Rams’ defensive unit that thwarted the Falcons offense, which only added to the frustration – particularly for Devonta Freeman, who was ejected from the game after attempting to punch Aaron Donald.
Donald got under Freeman’s skin, and ossified into beast mode. Donald had a sack and a forced fumble, moving into sole possession of third place on the Rams’ all-time sack list. And it wasn’t just Donald who came up big.
How good was Jalen Ramsey, the newest member of the team? In his debut, he collected four tackles and one forced fumble, shadowing Julio Jones with great coverage.
But no one was bigger than Dante Fowler Jr., who finished with three sacks and a forced fumble, leading the team with seven total tackles.
There is a lot to be said in praise of the defense that kept the Falcons in check for much of the game. It was, once again, a friendly reminder that defense wins games.
