Pressure Brees
On the other end of the spectrum, the Rams must create pressure on Drew Brees throughout the entire game. If you give someone like Brees time to survey the field, he’ll pick you apart.
The game this week will be played in New Orleans, where Brees has absolutely dominated this year. One fascinating stat, is that Brees has completed a jaw-dropping 83% of his passes at home.
In every stat category, Brees has been nothing short of remarkable this season. In seven games, Brees has completed 77% of his passes, thrown for 1,990 yards, 14 touchdowns and just one interception.
At 39 years old, Brees is still among the select few who are considered elite quarterbacks in the NFL. With weapons like Alvin Kamara, Michael Thomas, Mark Ingram, Cameron Meredith and Tre’Quan Smith, you have an offense that is nearly unstoppable.
With QBs like Brees, one way to hopefully slow them down is getting unwanted pressure on them. The Rams have been great at that all season.
The Rams are ninth in the NFL, with 22 sacks on the year. Aaron Donald has accounted for 10 of those, leading the league in sacks.
Donald has made his presence be felt, racking up 10 sacks in the past five games. Opposing offenses have a hard time preventing him from getting to the QB per this insane stat.
This is outrageous, via NFL Next Gen Stats… Not only is Aaron Donald leading the league in sacks (10), he's doing it while being double-teamed 70% of the time… practically twice as often as the other leaders. #LARams pic.twitter.com/r53be6M2YB
— J.B. Long (@JB_Long) October 31, 2018
Earlier this week, the Rams acquired Dante Fowler from the Jacksonville Jaguars via trade. It remains to be seen how much he will play this week, but will likely get third-down duties according to McVay.
If Los Angeles hopes to come out victorious in Week 9, they must make Brees uncomfortable in the pocket.