The Rams are trying very hard to make Kirk Cousins uncomfortable and are succeeding at a pretty good clip early. Los Angeles pressured Cousins on three of his first six dropbacks. The closest any of those came to a sack was Los Angeles linebacker Nate Landman, who left Atlanta in the offseason.
The Falcons didn’t aggressively pursue Landman because of a change in their defensive philosophy, head coach Raheem Morris said. Landman has flourished in L.A., where he leads the Rams with 124 tackles.
Landman “did a nice job as a starter in our base look. We made some changes to the fundamental, core beliefs of what we wanted to do with our linebacker position, and it leaned more toward Divine Deablo,” Morris said.
Cousins has handled the pressure well so far, though. He’s 4-of-7 for 50 yards and started the scoring with a 4-yard scoring toss to Bijan Robinson.