For the many faults to be found in the St. Louis Rams losing effort against the Arizona Cardinals this week, the defense still managed to play a pretty solid game. They did nearly everything you could ask of them to keep the Rams in the game. Ultimately, they didn't get much help from their offense or the coaches (I'm thinking in particular of the decision to leave Larry Fitzgerald covered by a linebacker on his fourth-quarter touchdown).
There were any number of power plays to be found, but I'm going to credit defensive end Chris Long with this week's power play. After the Rams' ill-fated fourth-and-one attempt with less than two minutes, the Cardinals had a chance to drive into field goal range and end the game.
On second-and-ten at mid-field, Chris Long came up with a big, drive-killing sack. He also forced a fumble which John Skelton recovered, but the third-and-26 was just too much. The Rams got the ball back, got their field goal blocked...and you know the rest.
Hats off to Long though. He picked up his seventh sack of the season, one-and-a-half sacks away from his career high of 8.5 last year.