NEW ORLEANS – Early in the first half, Rams outside linebacker Jared Verse was inches away from knocking the ball out of Saints quarterback Derek Carr's grasp.
In that moment, Carr got the ball out in time for a completion. But when Carr dropped back to pass with 1:13 left in the fourth quarter, Verse got there in time on 4th-and-3 from the Rams' 13.
Game over.
"You just gotta keep pressing," Verse said. "You don't gotta do anything extra, you don't gotta get out of your position. Just keep pressing."
Verse finished with three quarterback hits, five total tackles and one pass defensed in Los Angeles' 21-14 win over New Orleans, the product of himself and his teammates holding Verse accountable this week after being very hard on himself for his Week 12 performance.
Against the Eagles, he had 19 pass rushes but generated just one pressure, according to Next Gen Stats. That pressure rate of 5.3% was by far his lowest of the season; he had hit at least 13.2% in every game previously and at least 20% in five of those games. In fairness to him, though, he was also going against one of the best and most experienced offensive lines in the league.
Against the Saints, Next Gen Stats charted 29 pass rushes for Verse, generating a team-high seven pressures. That translated to a pressure rate of 24.1%.
"It was just a hard week of work," Verse said. "I had everybody hold me accountable. From B.Y. (Byron Young) to Kobie (Turner) to (Michael) Hoecht, everybody was holding me accountable on everything I did, whether it was, 'oh, you gotta do this faster,' whatever it was."
Clearly, the tough love worked.
"Accountability to himself, to his teammates, to playing within the framework of what he can do to make an impact on this game," McVay said, when asked what he noticed about the way Verse approached this past week. "I love this guy, and he is growing, he's maturing, but I do love the coachability, I love the accountability. I think (outside linebackers coach) Joe Coniglio does a great job. I think he's got some great veteran guys to lean on in that room, but that's what we need, consistency. And I thought it was poetic that he was able to close out that game. I thought he played really hard. You see the way this guy pursues to the football, and I thought he played within the framework of the system and off some of the play opps that he had within the game. And usually those good things end up happening. The football gods always do it right."
