Week 5 Fan Q&A: Defensive Struggles and Mike Thomas’ Fit

That happened after halftime last week.

What I saw was the Rams forcing the Cowboys into third and 7+ situations. That allowed the pass rush to be a bit more aggressive and force three consecutive punts to start the second half. It’s an elementary football concept, but one that the Rams defense had struggled with up until the second half last week.

It’s not just you. Maurice Alexander was tagged by many as a breakout candidate for this season. He was finally going to see extended playing time and seemed poised for a big season. Unfortunately it hasn’t worked out that way. Hopefully the defensive resurgence we saw last week will carry over and boost Mo’s play.

Check out Sosa’s latest injury recap here.

If I had to speculate, I would say that Thomas’ role would be limited this week. I’m not saying he doesn’t grow in to a more pronounced role as the season progresses, but I’ll think he’ll be eased in. That said, McVay has shown a desire to spread the ball around so I wouldn’t be surprised to see Thomas make a big play or 2 Sunday either.

Treyvas is just loaded with questions this week. I see Mark Barron and Alec Ogletree really struggling with gap assignments and it has really shown in the Rams run defense. If the ILB misses an assignment, it blows the hole open for 70 yard Alfred Morris runs.