Swarming St. Louis Rams Defense Arrived Late but Provides Promise for Future

At first it may feel easy to casually shrug off the St. Louis Rams defense, even after back-to-back shutouts for the first time since 1945. That’s when they weren’t the St. Louis Rams at all, but rather the Cleveland Rams.

Between absolutely suffocating wins over the Washington Redskins Sunday and the Oakland Raiders in Week 13, the Rams have outscored their last two opponents by a margin that doesn’t seem real: 76-0. But even though the twin consecutive shutouts span both time (nearly 70 years) and geography, it could be tempting to blindly slap an asterisk beside the latest ones. After all, the blankings came against the 26th- and 30th-ranked scoring offenses in the league.

And I’m here to tell you that matters, just not much. Though the challenge clearly would have been stiffer against more talented offenses with less dysfunction, how much you should care about the opponent decreases the longer a zero remains on the scoreboard.

Going eight full quarters without allowing a single point in today’s NFL—a league with fields slanted toward the offense due to modern rules—feels like a mythical campfire story, something you listen to and nod while grandpa speaks.

It feels like a lie, and it definitely doesn’t feel possible. Yet here we are, trying to mentally compute a Rams defense that hasn’t allowed a point since the 8:21 mark in the fourth quarter of Week 12.

The Rams defense is a swarming, quarterback-punishing unit that’s finally arrived now after a sluggish start.

If you’re a Rams fan whose glass isn’t holding any liquid at all and is instead filled with tears, you’re wondering where exactly this defense has been all season and lamenting a lost opportunity for playoff football. Going back a little further beyond these two latest shutout efforts, St. Louis also held the Denver Broncos to a mere seven points in Week 11.

Over their last four games then, the Rams have allowed only 34 points. That’s a stark contrast to their first four games to start this season, in which opponents scored 34 points in a single game three times (all losses).

Period of season	Total points allowed	Average yards allowed
Weeks 1-5	121	344.8
Weeks 11-14	34	314.3

Overall the Rams have allowed 30-plus points six times, four of which came over a stretch of oddness to start the season in which they had recorded only one sack after Week 6, a record low during a five-game period. That pass-rush disappearance was mysterious, a vanishing fit for a certain yellow-coated caper-solver.

Since then, the Rams have introduced an opposing quarterback to the turf 34 times. Really take a moment to process the extent of that revival.

The Rams played over a quarter of their season and recorded only one sack, which led to an inevitable ranking as the league’s worst pass rush. Now? They’re seventh, and during this unfathomable shutout streak the Rams’ pass rush has accomplished its stated goal 12 times, including 4.5 sacks from defensive end Robert Quinn.

One came Sunday, and it was part gift (early snap), and part unfair speed.

The shutout streak has also featured swarming of a different kind, and four interceptions from a defense that entered Week 14 with eight picks on the season. The Rams did that while allowing only 362 passing yards, and 450 yards overall.

But here’s the most remarkable number from the two flawless games: Of the 131 plays the Rams defended, none took place in their red zone.

The Rams have done more than just deny points. They've wiped out even the opportunity to score, and as ESPN.com’s Nick Wagoner notes, Sunday marked the third time over the past four games that their 20-yard line was sealed off entirely. If it hasn’t already, this is when any discussion of the Rams’ shutouts being solely a product of their woeful opponents should end.

But the most impressive feat of strength from this Rams defense that’s suddenly reaching juggernaut status isn’t tied to the pass or planting quarterbacks. No, instead look to the ground, and to a run defense that did this over a half of football Sunday…

Redskins running back Alfred Morris is in the midst of a fine season and was averaging 74.7 rushing yards per game prior to Week 14. And he did that while getting little support from a passing game that’s wildly inconsistent at best.

Yet over two quarters he was held to only a single rushing yard on six attempts. Morris didn’t get many opportunities to salvage his dignity in the second half with the score quickly rising and passing becoming a priority, so his end result wasn’t much better: six yards on eight carries.

But look a little closer, and you'll notice something that makes the Rams’ dominance even more impressive: Morris' first carry was a 12-yard gain, yet his total on the day was six yards less. Huh?

Length of run	Number of runs
Negative Yards or no gain	5
1-4 yards	2
Over 10 yards	1

Over half of Morris’ carries ended either at or behind the line of scrimmage, which was in the far distance on one particularly awful failure to launch. An early second-quarter run was doomed before his hands even touched the ball.

As he does so often, Rams defensive coordinator Gregg Williams dialed up a blitz. Williams has always had a deep love for exotic blitzes that put constant pressure on quarterbacks and bring more defenders to fill running lanes.

On this play the blitz helped, with safety T.J. Mcdonald providing backside pursuit and in position to eliminate any cutback possibilities for Morris. But the real push came from defensive end Chris Long.

Long had the pleasure of being matched up against Redskins tight end Jordan Reed. At the moment Morris received the ball, Long had already gained full ownership over the movements of his assigned blocker.

Below, Reed is already standing directly upright; he's lost his entire base and leverage:

Credit: NFL Game Rewind

He’s cooked, and Morris hasn’t even had an opportunity to find a hole or advance forward to minimize the damage on this play.

Every potential hole was shut down by fast-moving bodies wearing white shirts—so many white shirts—and Long led the pursuit by pushing Reed five yards into the backfield.

Morris could only run laterally. That leads to the death of a play. Fast.

Credit: NFL Game Rewind

Long returned in Week 13 and has provided another menacing presence off the edge for a team that's already overflowing with defenders to fear among its front seven.

But much of the recent defensive improvement can be tied simply to time. Williams is now winding down his first season in St. Louis, and his aggressive style requires an adjustment period.

Now with the pass-rushing boom since Week 7 and a run defense that’s allowing only 104.8 yards per game (10th, and a steep improvement from 155.0 over the first three weeks), we’re seeing the havoc Williams can bring.

The primary pieces of his defense are young, too. Long is the oldest among them at 29, Donald is a rookie, Quinn is in only his third season and linebacker Alec Ogletree is finishing his second.

That’s plenty of youth and plenty of reasons to be excited for the future. Once more with feeling, then: The St. Louis Rams will be a playoff team in 2015.