When you’re undefeated, you have to find motivation where you can.
For Rams defensive tackle Ndamukong Suh, he’s zooming in on their run defense.
“Terrible, without question,” Suh said, via Lindsey Thiry of ESPN.com, “That’s my personal opinion, . . . It’s terrible just from a standpoint of how much run yardage we gave up.”
The Seahawks did run for 190 last week, but the week before the Vikings had 54, and 28 of those were from Kirk Cousins. Prior to that, the Chargers ran for 141.
“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,” Suh said. “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.
“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.”
In addition to Suh, the Rams spent the offseason adding big-ticket parts to their defense, trading for cornerbacks Marcus Peters and Aqib Talib, and eventually paying Aaron Donald the long-term deal he deserved.
Early on, it worked well, as they posted six straight shutout quarters. But they have sagged in the run defense rankings, as they’re 18th in the league, allowing 106.8 yards per game. In the last three weeks, they’ve allowed 28.3 points per game, but the early results still have them sixth in the league in scoring defense.
While perhaps a few steps short of “terrible,” it’s also far from their own expectations.