The Los Angeles Rams are on a current three-game stretch of their worst tackling performances on the season, according to Pro Football Focus (PFF) grades and metrics.
I flagged this issue ahead of last Thursday night’s loss to the Seattle Seahawks:
While the Rams have won their last two games by a combined 35 points, they are also fresh off their two-worst tackling performances of the year according to Pro Football Focus (PFF):
We have to go back to Week 5’s brutal loss to the San Francisco 49ers to find a comparable outing for Los Angeles. They drew a 57.2 tackling grade in this game and missed 12 tackles.
If we zoom out across the entire NFL, the Rams rank 10th in overall tackling grade. Earlier this season, however, they were leading the league. It’s a troubling concern that likely helps explain LA’s recent regression on defense. They haven’t felt as dominant since their Week 12 rout of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
While the Rams slightly improved in terms of how many tackles they missed from their benchmark set over the last two weeks, it was still their third-worst outing of the year.
Updates after Week 16
Los Angeles earned a 50.0 PFF tackling grade in Seattle. This isn’t a new low bar, but it’s still worse than one of their bad performances from the early going (Week 5 vs 49ers).
In Thursday night’s loss, Nate Landman and Kamren Curl led the defense in missed tackles. Landman missed three of six tackle opportunities and Curl came up empty on two of six.
The struggles of these two defenders is symbolic of the rest of the defense. Landman and Curl were two of the best tacklers in the NFL at their respective positions before this downhill slide by LA. They are now leading the charge in regression.
Nate Landman coming back down to earth?
Before the Rams’ Week 8 bye, Landman recorded 47 tackles (6.7 per game) with only two misses. After the bye he’s making fewer tackles and missing more often: 39 tackles (4.8 per game) versus 11 misses.
LA’s defense felt stifling early in the season. They shut down the Eagles through two quarters in Week three and then forced Daniel Jones into his worst performance of the year the next.
From late October:
Now the defense seems to be trending in the wrong direction. The Panthers ran through the Rams and copied the 49ers’ blueprint by controlling the clock. The Lions scored nearly at will, though Matthew Stafford and the offense kept pace. Kenneth Walker gashed LA’s defense over the first half before Sam Darnold picked apart the secondary into overtime.
It all starts and ends with Landman. The Rams need him to be more sure-handed and restore their sense of physicality.
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