The L.A. Rams are lucky that their offense is so potent because their defense nearly cost them a win over the Detroit Lions and first place in the NFC. The Rams have now given up 82 points in the last three games alone and if it were not for the fact that the offense is first in scoring with 114 points in that same period of time, L.A. would already be in danger of falling to a wild card spot because their corners have been abused over and over again recently.
If cornerback play does not improve by
Thursday against the Seattle Seahawks, the Rams could end the night falling from the 1-seed to the 5-seed or lower.
Check out some of these stats from Next Gen Stats in Week 15.
Week 15 cornerback stats
Cobie Durant
Durant gave up two touchdowns against the Lions.
- 5 targets
- 4 catches
- 68 yards
- 2 TD
- perfect passer rating allowed: 158.3
Durant has given up a passer rating over 80 in each of the previous two games too. Durant was in the top-10 for cornerbacks Pro Bowl voting last week.
Emmanuel Forbes
Forbes allowed the most yards of the game.
- 8 targets
- 6 catches
- 92 yards
That’s the sixth-most yards allowed by any corner in Week 15. Forbes is on a “cold-er” (the opposite of a heater) as he’s been terrible over the last few games. He gave up 110 yards and 2 TDs to the Panthers for a perfect passer rating allowed and 35 yards with a touchdown to the Cardinals even though Arizona is one of the worst offenses in the league. That’s now 237 passing yards allowed by Forbes in the past three games.
The comeback tour is over.
Josh Wallace
Jared Goff still saw fit to target Wallace more than Forbes or Durant.
- 10 targets
- 6 catches
- 83 yards
- 1 TD
- 120 passer rating allowed
Chris Shula started increasing Wallace’s playing time in Week 11 and 12, and his stats were decent, but this is a reminder that Wallace is a former undrafted free agent without much experience.
Other Defense
Darious Williams played 43% of the snaps and was targeted twice. Jaylen McCollough played 64% of the snaps and allowed two catches for 35 yards.
It didn’t help that pressures and sacks were hard to come by for L.A.‘s front-7. Jared Verse had only two pressures and he has no sacks in the past three games. Byron Young had three pressures and no sacks; after a hot start, Young has two sacks in the past seven games. Braden Fiske is a few games away from probably finishing the season with fewer than half the number of sacks he had in 2024.
So while Puka Nacua was amazing again, the Lions countered L.A.’s one weapon with two: Amon-Ra St. Brown and Jameson Williams were two of the best receivers in the NFL in Week 15. They both finished top-5 in yards and top-10 in receiving EPA.
That’s the biggest concern going on for the Rams right now because it’s been an all-season problem with few exceptions but many of those good games also came against bad teams that won’t be in the playoffs.
This Thursday, the Rams face a Seahawks team that will be in the playoffs and features the league’s leading receiver in Jaxon Smith-Njigba. Who will matchup against JSN and what sort of success will that cornerback have — especially if L.A. can’t get a pass rush going on Sam Darnold?
It’s the number one problem that the Seahawks will look to exploit with their offense against L.A.‘s defense. What does Shula have planned to avoid a repeat of Week 15 in three days?
