In their win over the Minnesota Vikings on Monday night, the Los Angeles Rams turned in one of their best defensive performances of the year – and statistically, one of the pass-rush showings in postseason history.
They sacked Sam Darnold nine times for a playoff-record 82 yards lost, also returning a fumble for a touchdown and stopping Minnesota three times on fourth down. It was a dominant effort from Chris Shula’s group, but Eagles left tackle Jordan Mailata was apparently unimpressed.
He was bothered by how good the Vikings made the Rams look, indicating Los Angeles’ defense benefitted from facing a bad Minnesota offensive line.
“The Vikings pissed me off. I’m not going to lie to you. That made them look like they were otherworldly,” Mailata said, via NJ.com. “I mean they’re a … great defense, but if you really watch it, you’d say, ‘Man, this is a poor plan by them’ and (the Rams) play tough and they just weren’t matching the physical battle, which I tip my hat off to the Rams. You could see from the jump it was clash, clash, clash and when it came to pass protection it wasn’t anything but technique and then unblocked blitzes, which is something we’re taking a keen eye on this week and making sure we’re all on the same page.”
The Rams used Dan Campbell’s “see you in two weeks” comment as bulletin board material last week and you can bet they’ll use this as motivation, too – if they catch wind of Mailata’s shade.
The Eagles have the best offensive tackle tandem in the NFL with Mailata and Lane Johnson, who combined to give up 24 total pressures all season. To put that into perspective, Alaric Jackson allowed 24 pressures alone this year, which is still an impressive number for a starting left tackle.
In their Week 12 meeting, the Rams had just 14 total pressures as a team, which is 29 fewer than they had on Monday night against the Vikings. Johnson gave up two pressures and Mailata allowed one, helping keep Jalen Hurts upright with just one sack allowed to Braden Fiske.
“This is where we have to give them credit but also understand we are good players, too,” Mailata said. “So we’re going to be put in situations where we are one-on-one and you have to win that block. When you look at those continuous waves of guys who were just successful at getting sacks, that’s what you get paid to do. You get paid to block those guys and unfortunately there are going to be plays where you have to block them one-on-one and there won’t be a plan.”
It’s going to be a battle on Sunday afternoon in Philly between one of the best pass rushes in the game and arguably the best offensive line. The winner of that matchup might just win the game, too.
