At its best, it's been great.
The Rams have allowed 60 yards rushing or fewer in three games this season — including to a team that entered the contest leading the league in rushing yards per attempt.
But against the Seahawks, the Rams performed poorly in two games.
Seattle rushed for a combined 463 yards in Weeks 5 and 10 — 38 percent of the total yards surrendered on the ground this season.
"Any team versus the Seahawks is going to struggle versus the run, because that's all they do — that's their whole game plan, is to run the ball," defensive lineman Michael Brockers said.
That's true, and it's why the Seahawks have rushed for at least 150 yards in each game since Week 4 — including their Thursday Night victory over the Packers in Week 11.
As defensive coordinator Wade Phillips said on Friday, quarterback Russell Wilson had a lot to do with the inflated rushing numbers last week, as he had 92 yards on nine carries — the most he's had all year.
And it's worth noting, as Phillips did, that L.A. played well enough to win both of those matchups with Seattle.
Still, if the Rams are going to defeat the Chiefs on Monday, L.A. has to be better against the run. While Kansas City ranks No. 13 in rushing, the club still has last year's rushing champion, Kareem Hunt. And wide receiver Tyreek Hill can also be quite effective as another rushing option in head coach Andy Reid's creative scheme.
The Chiefs high rushed for a season high 198 yards rushing against the Bengals back in Week 7 as part of their season high 551 total yards.
"He's just another athletic, tough back that we have to keep our eye on and just make sure we get him down whenever we make contact," middle linebacker Cory Littleton said of Hunt.
So how can the Rams make the corrections to do that this week?
"It's little things, man," defensive tackle Aaron Donald said. "Just need to stay in our gaps at times, it's just communications things — we need to tackle better, too. We are there missing tackles and they are breaking big runs, so just cleaning up the little things, we just got to be better at that. We've got to tackle better and that's me included, because I missed a couple plays too, so we just got to do better."
Tackling seemed to be a theme along the defense, as Donald was not the only one to mention it.
"I think it comes down to tackling, being in the right place, doing your particular job, but tackling is going to be the most important thing," defensive lineman Ndamukong Suh said.
"Everybody just do their own jobs, hold each other accountable and just play your own gaps, make tackles and that's about it," Littleton said.
"It's just about executing," Brockers said. "Some plays, everybody is doing what we have to do, some plays people are out their gaps here and there. So if everybody executes the play, and everybody does their job like we're supposed to, we feel like we should have success."
Playing gap sound. Tackling. We'll see if the Rams are up to the task on Monday night.
