THOUSAND OAKS — The sports market that Rams defensive coordinator Raheem Morris grew up in puts its athletes on pedestals, bestowing quirky nicknames that soon become household personas, sensationalizing any figure who sparks hope into the New York sports scene.
Take former New York Knicks point guard Jeremy Lin, for example. Lin parlayed a 25-game heater into the immortalized moniker, “Linsanity,” back in 2012.
It’s a storyline that Morris feels isn’t all that dissimilar from the one that New York Giants quarterback Tommy Devito developed this season, turning his success, and Italian background into marketable fruit in the tri-state area.
“Watching the phenom of Devito and being from the New York area, I really felt that Linsanity movement when we watched some of his games,” Morris said about Devito.
The Rams won’t dawdle on some storyline fit for Broadway theater, though. Especially now that Tyrod Taylor was announced as the starting quarterback for the Giants this week, replacing Devito.
Instead – when a win and some help this weekend would clinch a playoff spot – the Rams’ have set their sights on goals that would break the box office. But to get to this point, to be solidly sitting in the playoff picture one year after a 5-12 season, is a direct product of the newfound mindset that head coach Sean McVay and his coaching staff have adopted.
You can embody (mental toughness) and you can get better at it,” Morris said. “We watched our own head coach get better, right?”
“The ‘woe is me’ feeling, as opposed to ‘I’m going to attack this situation, that’s who I am,” he added. “That’s the difference between this year and last year.”
Heading into 2023, the outside forecasting of the Rams reflected the team that they were, not the one McVay knew they could become. Clearly, it was a fool’s errand to judge the Rams by their roster, the team they were “on paper.”
They’ve hopped on the shoulders of a coach who foresaw a window for success and pounced on it; and a quarterback whose mental and physical toughness reminds Morris of only a handful of people. Mike Tomlin, and Morris’ Pop Warner coach Rob Steele, to be exact.
“I can’t tell you how many times we’ve come off after a big play, touchdown drive, a long drive, he just looks at me like, ‘I got you,’” Morris said of Stafford. “That is reassuring as all get-out. It’s one of those things where you want to be able to repay him. You know, it’s like, we got to make this play for him.”
This week the defense can “repay” Stafford by applying enough pressure on Tyrod Taylor, preventing him from playmaking with his legs, and finding a way to contain elite running back Saquon Barkley.
“We have to find a good way to slow him down,” defensive tackle Aaron Donald said of the challenge Barkley presents.
