By Cedric Williams
Even though his team hadn’t been winning much since he took over as the starting quarterback a little over a month ago, St. Louis Rams’ signal-caller Austin Davis was still drawing high praise from league observers for his individual play in his first three NFL starts.
St. Louis won only one of those three outings, but Davis was fantastic, passing for 937 yards and six touchdowns, with only two interceptions. Davis also set a franchise record, becoming the first Rams quarterback to post a 98.0 or better passer rating in each of his first three starts.
But all that changed this past Monday night, when the St. Louis faced the San Francisco 49ers and their second-ranked defense.
The Niners pressured and harassed Davis all night, sacking him five times, hitting him another five times just as he threw the ball, which included a play late in the fourth quarter, when the pass rush heat forced the Rams’ QB into a tough throw that was intercepted and returned for a touchdown to ice the game.
It was without question Davis’ worst performance as a pro (21 completions on 42 attempts, 236 yards, one TD, one INT, and a 65.2 passer rating), and he admitted as much during a conference call with the media on Tuesday.
But Davis also explained that his confidence has not wavered. He believes they just simply needs to improve on some things.
“Yeah I think they probably brought a little extra pressure because it kind of knocked us off of what we were doing,” Davis said. “So, it’s something that I’ve got to get better at handling because obviously every team is going to do that until we show an answer for it. At times we did and at times we didn’t. So we’ll have a plan for it this week.”
And the Rams will likely need a better plan this week, as the defending Super Bowl champion Seattle Seahawks, whose defense is known as the “Legion of Boom”, will be in town on Sunday, for another NFC West Division showdown at the Edward Jones Dome.
“They’re just really good players,” Davis said. “They’re good at what they do, they know what they’re doing. They’re in the right spots, it seems like they’re never out of position.
It’ll be a challenge our O-line is looking forward to.
“I think it starts with the secondary. It’s just a really good group. They come up and press your receivers. Kind of plays like man on the outside. The linebackers are athletic and fast and move. D-Line’s really the same way. Like I said earlier, no one’s going to feel sorry for us. This is a really, really good defense and we’ve got to be ready to play.”
Seattle will come to town with the ninth-best defensive unit in the league based on yards allowed. But those numbers are a bit skewed, as the Seahawks boast the second-best run defense in the league, but are only 19th in pass defense, with 252.2 pass yards allowed per game.
That number is only a slight bit under Davis’ personal average of 273 pass yards per game.
That’s why the former Southern Miss star believes he and his teammates can get some things done on Sunday. The only question is, can they do it while facing another top-ranked defense for the second week in a row.
“Well it’s a short week,” Davis said. “So, we came right in yesterday and got to work. I think the good thing is schematically they’re a pretty simple group. But the challenge is they’re really good at it. Being familiar with them, we play them twice a year, we know what they’re going to do and we’ve got our work cut out for us.
“What else could you really ask for? As a competitor you want to go against the best to see how you stack up. I think for this offense it’s the way we need to look at. It’s a great challenge and we’ve continually progressed and I think we’re going to begin to see some results before long.”
Kickoff on Sunday at Dome is scheduled for noon.
For more Rams news and updates, visit Rams Central.
Cedric Williams, a lifelong St. Louisan and proud UMSL alum, has been a freelance reporter/photographer covering St. Louis area sports for nearly two decades. Most recently, he has been working as a credentialed beat writer covering the Rams and small-school college sports for Examiner.com and other outlets from around the area. Please share any comments, questions, or feedback with Cedric at cedricwilliams510@gmail.com. His work can be found on Examiner.com.
