The Los Angeles Rams' defense has been run over this season, including giving up 190 rushing yards last week to the Seattle Seahawks.
"Terrible, without question," Ndamukong Suh said of the Rams' run D the past two weeks, via ESPN's Lindsey Thiry. "That's my personal opinion... It's terrible just from a standpoint of how much run yardage we gave up."
Through five games, the Rams have given up 534 rushing yards, thrice they've allowed more than 95 yards on the ground, and twice that number was above 140.
"I can't think back to many times to defenses that I've been a part of that have been [at] 191 yards, let alone many times over 100 ... I've been a part of some great defenses where we've, in a year, not allowed but maybe one team to get close to 100 or over 100," Suh said. "So that's what I pride myself on and want to maintain that and we have all the tools to be able to be that type of defense."
You'll excuse Suh if his memory is a bit hazy. His early-career Lions teams were torched on the ground, giving up an average of 100-plus rushing yards his first three seasons. Given his propensity to get up-field fast, offenses consistently wham-blocked Suh for big gains early in his career. During Suh's first two years in Miami, his defenses gave more than 2,000 yards on rushing, per Pro Football Reference. Heck, just last year, the Dolphins allowed 294 rushing yards in one game to the Carolina Panthers (201 from running backs).
So maybe Suh hasn't been part of some of the stingiest ground defenses in the NFL; stuffing the run isn't exactly why he's been paid millions of dollars. Teamed with Aaron Donald in L.A., however, the duo knows the Rams' defense can be better against the rush.
"We've got to play better in certain situations," Donald said. "Just might be out of our gap here and there and then you get hit and they hurt you, so it's just little mistakes, things we need to fix, man, and we just got to keep working."
The L.A. defense is predicated on stopping the pass first and foremost and grabbing the tailback on the way to the quarterback. In a pass-happy league, the priority is slowing the QB, especially if an offense is trying to keep up with Sean McVay's scoring machine.
