Ram Defense Needs Foursome to Get More Fearsome
As he promised he would, Ram defensive end Robert Young chased down New Orleans quarterback Jim Everett, and it was time to plant him in the Superdome Astroturf.
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But just as Young got to him, Everett pulled a fast one and slipped away--another potential sack gone sour.
The Rams’ defensive front has watched films of Everett slipping from their grasp all week, stirring memories of him completing his first eight passes en route to a 17-for-26, 206-yard performance in the Saints’ 37-34 victory Oct. 23.
This was Jim Everett, the former Ram quarterback and victim of the Phantom Sack in the 1990 NFC Championship Game against San Francisco. The Rams couldn’t sack a guy who once sacked himself?
“In the past, Everett might have gone down when Robert was chasing him on that play, who knows?” defensive end Fred Stokes said. “Instead, he fought his way out of it and made the completion.”
Stokes and Young watched Everett time after time avoid the rush, get rid of the ball at the last second and taunt them behind near-perfect protection, spotting New Orleans a 14-0 lead with two long drives.
Before the Rams could get to those “happy feet,” as safety Anthony Newman called them, Everett was dancing all over the sideline in celebration. The Rams barely made him shuffle in the pocket, with Young dropping him for a harmless 10-yard loss in the second half.
The defense prepares for Sunday’s rematch in Anaheim Stadium with only eight sacks in the last six games--tying the Rams with Tampa Bay and Seattle for 27th in the league during that span.
“We know we have to get to him quick,” Young said. “Jim’s having a great year, and you can’t take anything away from him. But we know if we get him rattled up, we can change the course of the game.”
The Rams haven’t done much of that lately. They are 2-4 in their last six games, and the defensive front--tackles Sean Gilbert and Jimmie Jones, and ends Young and Stokes--has produced only 5 1/2 sacks in that span.
This is the same front four that ESPN compared to the Rams’ legendary Fearsome Foursome in the fourth week of the season.
What has happened to a pass rush that once showed so much promise?
“We’ve been kind of quiet,” defensive coordinator George Dyer said. “It’s something we’re working on every week, because we have to get it rolling.
“There’s a lot of little things, basically we have good pass rushers, but we just have to get back in sync, where we’re dominating and rushing the passer.”
While the Ram defense has given up only five rushing touchdowns this season (first in the NFC), it is tied with Buffalo and the Jets for 19th in the league in sacks with 22.
“It’s not like we haven’t been trying,” Stokes said. “We’ve been getting to people, we just haven’t been getting them down. We’ve had a ton of hurries, but people don’t look at that.”
Instead, they look at sacks:
* Gilbert, the right tackle, has only one sack (last week against San Diego) since missing the Giants and New Orleans games because of tendinitis in his shoulders.
* Stokes, the right defensive end, has one sack this season, matching the total by rookie free agent D’Marco Farr.
* Jones, the left tackle who was lured away from the defending Super Bowl-champion Cowboys with a four-year, $7.5-million deal, has four sacks for 35 yards in losses. He’s the leading tackler on the starting front with 40, which ranks seventh on the team.
* Young, the left defensive end, leads the team in sacks with 6 1/2 for 30 yards in losses. Although he got off to a great start with four sacks in his first three games, he has only 1 1/2 in the last four.
“We’ve been playing against some pretty good offensive lines--San Francisco, the Raiders, New Orleans,” Young said. “And teams don’t get worse at pass protection as the season goes on, they get better.
“We’re not Supermen, we can’t get there all the time. We’re doing some pretty good rushing, sacks are just hard to come by.”
Sunday, the Rams go against a Saints offensive line that has allowed Everett to be sacked only 14 times for 119 yards in losses, tying them with Miami for third in the league with fewest sacks allowed. In contrast, Ram quarterbacks have been sacked a combined 27 times for 193 yards in losses.
“They’ve done a tremendous job of protecting Jim right now,” Dyer said. “He’s getting the ball off and the receivers are getting open. He’s not getting rattled, and he’s hanging in there.
“It’s going to be a real challenge to get back there because of the timing of their passing game and their line.”
The Rams know Everett can be rattled. They watched him self-destruct last year when he was sacked 18 times in nine starts. But which Everett will they see on Sunday--last year’s version or the confident one who beat them six weeks ago?
“I’ve watched film of Jim and he was really pumped up against us,” Stokes said. “He wanted to go out and prove something.
“I don’t think he’ll be that pumped up this time, because he won. He knows he can win against us, and that may work to our advantage.”
In a Rush?
The Rams’ defense is 19th in the league in sacks this season with 22, and the starting defensive front of Sean Gilbert, Jimmie Jones, Fred Stokes and Robert Young have produced only 5 1/2 sacks in the past six weeks. A look at the Rams’ defensive front:
STARTERS
Player Tackles Solo Sacks YL Robert Young 27 24 6.5 30.5 Sean Gilbert 34 26 3 20 Jimmie Jones 40 30 4 35 Fred Stokes 16 12 1 5
RESERVES
Player Tackles Solo Sacks YL Gerald Robinson 15 12 1.5 5.5 D’Marco Farr 11 9 1 7 David Rocker 5 4 0.5 3 Brad Ottis 1 1 0 0
Source: Rams