THOUSAND OAKS, Calif. – Leonard Floyd had been searching for his first sack of the season.
In Week 8 against the 49ers, it finally came for the Rams outside linebacker. And not just one sack, but two.
"It feel good, man, to the touch quarterback," Floyd said postgame last week. "I wish we would've won, though, it would have been even better. But yeah, man, it felt good to touch the quarterback, I ain't going to lie to you. But the loss takes a little bit out of it. Got to get better."
For Floyd, it was his 12th multi-sack performance of his career and first since recording two against the Texans in Week 7 last year – a game that also happened to take place on Halloween weekend. Both of those sacks came on same 49ers drive, each resulting in a loss of four yards. While they didn't prevent San Francisco from scoring, it still stalled San Francisco enough to cause it to settle for a field goal at the end of the possession.
"Oh, he's a playmaker," Rams defensive lineman Aaron Donald said. "They gave us an opportunity to win, so continue to do that. We got to continue to play. The guys that played well got to continue to do that. The guys that didn't, we got to pick it up, because we got a good team (we're) playing this week."
Donald played an important role in that production as well, according to defensive coordinator Raheem Morris.
"I wouldn't say I got Leonard Floyd going, I'd say Leonard Floyd found a couple of good opportunities in that first half, got a couple of good rushes playing off of AD. I think AD got him going. If you look at the rushes AD got off, had a real good get off, ran a nice little game with those two guys that executed a natural and Flo came to the right level and hit the quarterback. We had a really good first half with those guys rushing the passer and got those guys going."
The mere mention of Buccaneers quarterback Tom Brady underscores the importance of getting pressure and affecting the quarterback in Sunday's game in Tampa Bay. Floyd had one sack and QB hit in the Rams' home win over the Bucs in Week 3 last season, then contributed another sack and another QB hit in their Divisional Round win over the Bucs in Tampa in the playoffs.
Floyd said his performance last week would've been better had the Rams won the game. Now, he'll look to accomplish that this week in Tampa Bay.