Tim Walton explains it all

"What we have to do is really about what we have to do."

The thing about football is that it's pretty simple. Untangle the route trees, strip away the jargon and you're essentially doing one of two things: moving the ball toward the goal line or preventing the ball from getting to the goal line.

"What we have to do is really about what we have to do."

Those words belong to Rams defensive coordinator Tim Walton, muttered with some degree of certainty at his Tuesday press conference. Maybe we're not giving him enough credit. Somewhere over the plains of Oklahoma on the flight home Dallas, Walton had his moment under the Bodhi tree.

"What we have to do is really about what we have to do."

So what does Walton's defense have to do? Buddha walked away from his revelation with Four Noble Truths. The Rams' coordinator did the same for playing winning defense.

"Do the little things that we need to to get better."

Little things usually add up to big things. Big things combine to make a whole. Sometimes the truth is hard to grasp because we want it to be more complex than it needs to be.

"We've just got to go play fundamental football."

Moving the ball, and preventing the ball's movement. For Walton, it's the latter. He's definitely hit on a powerful idea. Tackling, for instance, is THE fundamental. The Rams missed 11 tackles against Dallas. They've missed 25 on the season, according to Pro Football Focus.

"We're going to put it behind us."

Release, the final and more important truth. It's the simplest, but most difficult truth of all. The Rams had a week to put the Atlanta game behind them prior to another one in Dallas. Can Tim Walton and his defense really put it behind them and start over Thursday night?

"What we have to do is really about what we have to do."