Rams' confidence in their secondary is still high despite recent struggles

LOS ANGELES (AP) — The Los Angeles Rams remain confident in their secondary despite understanding its last impression was not a good one: allowing San Francisco backup quarterback Mac Jones to throw for 342 yards and two touchdowns in a 26-23 overtime loss last Thursday.

“There’s a lot of recency bias because of last game, but you look at, really, our first five games, like, guys have been getting their hands on balls,” safety Quentin Lake said. “I just reiterate all the time, as long as we’re locking in each and every snap, those plays are going to come.”

With a long weekend to process why the Rams (3-2) struggled in coverage, including allowing 49ers reserve wide receiver Kendrick Bourne to put up a career-high 142 yards, defensive coordinator Chris Shula expects a better showing at Baltimore on Sunday.

“I think each play, each game, is its own energy,” he said. “I think we can do a better job as coaches, putting them in some better positions. I think we’ve had some tough matchups, some isolations sometimes where whatever you’re doing on defense, you got to maybe win a one-on-one here and there. But we’re really happy with how they’re playing.”

Shula’s belief could be helped out by the floundering Ravens, especially if two-time MVP Lamar Jackson misses his second straight game because of a hamstring injury. But the absence of a a starting quarterback didn’t help the defensive backs in their previous outing.

Bourne’s unlikely showing was just the second 100-yard game of his career, and it followed the success Philadelphia’s A.J. Brown and the Indianapolis duo of Michael Pittman Jr. and Adonai Mitchell had attacking the secondary without Ahkello Witherspoon, who was the only cornerback on the Rams’ active roster over 6 feet tall prior to breaking his collarbone against Tennessee in Week 2 and being placed on injured reserve.

“And it’s a matchup-based league,” Shula said. “Ahkello was a great player for us and obviously still will be. And just like when anybody goes down and any week you’re playing, it’s different matchups, different receivers, obviously.”

Defending a bigger body like Bourne is the kind of assignment that would have gone to Witherspoon, and his injury also takes the most identifiable cornerback out of what Lake admits is an unheralded defensive backs corps.

“And I think a lot of people, they look at our secondary, we have no big names. There’s not a lot of guys that pop out, but I look at us, I’m like, man, we’re really good,” he said. “I feel like we have had some good performances, but there’s always room to improve, no matter what.”

Whatever issues the Rams have had with size in the passing game are less likely to be an issue this week, though the Ravens (1-4) do have a pair of 6-foot-1 receivers in DeAndre Hopkins and Rashod Bateman. Zay Flowers, who is 5-foot-9, leads the team with 28 receptions for 377 yards.

Instead, the test for Shula and his coaching staff seems to be about preparing for the remote possibility Jackson returns from injury while also accounting for the likelihood Cooper Rush gets the start.

The gap between the two was evident, with Rush throwing for 179 yards and three interceptions in a 44-10 loss to Houston on Sunday.

“You got to be ready for everything, and that’s our job as defensive coaches, is we got to put our guys and have the preparation to put them in the best spots,” Shula said. “And it’s definitely a challenge, definitely different styles, and you’re going to treat them differently depending on who’s playing. So you got to be ready for both, and if that means us kind of staying late and doing some extra work, then we’re definitely going to do that.”

___

AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/nfl