Thursday night is going to be a night to forget for Jalen Ramsey and the Los Angeles Rams. The defense was torched to the tune of 31 points leading to Josh Allen and Stefon Diggs reaffirming themselves as one of the deadliest duos in the NFL.
Part of that was at the expense of Jalen Ramsey, who was regularly talked about on the broadcast as one of the best corners in the NFL. The box score, however, told a different story.
According to Marcus Mosher of Pro Football Focus, Ramsey was targeted seven times and gave up six completions for 124 yards and two touchdowns Thursday, including a 53-yard touchdown pass to Diggs in which the star receiver snuck behind Ramsey in the secondary.
.@STEFONDIGGS TOOK THE TOP OFF THE DEFENSE.#Kickoff2022 #BillsMafia
📺: #BUFvsLAR on NBC
📱: Stream on NFL+ https://t.co/LlxLdqcZb3 pic.twitter.com/mxWVapv13s— NFL (@NFL) September 9, 2022
That play resulted in Diggs getting up and jawing with Ramsey. At that point in the game, there wasn’t much Ramsey could say back.
In 3 games, Josh Allen has absolutely torched whatever team Jalen Ramsey is on, whether it be the Jaguars or the Rams.
Holding a 3-0 record, Allen has thrown for 768 yards, rushed for 163 more and scored a combined 11 touchdowns.
It’s possible Allen has just exploited the opposing defense, but it’d also make sense that the Bills QB would have extra motivation against Ramsey.
Why?
Simply, Ramsey called Allen ‘trash’.
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What did Jalen Ramsey say about Josh Allen?
When Allen was drafted by the Bills four years ago, Ramsey had some strong words about the Bills’ No. 7 selection.
“I think Allen is trash,” Ramsey said to GQ at the time. “I don’t care what nobody say. He’s trash. And it’s gonna show too. That’s a stupid draft pick to me.”
It goes without saying Ramsey was impossibly, miserably wrong about his prognosis on Allen, a preseason frontrunner for MVP this year.
They certainly haven’t aged well.
And Allen seems to have taken those comments personally.
It hasn’t seemed to affect Ramsey, though, keeping this energy for everyone, to his credit(?). After Diggs praised Ramsey leading into Week 1 this week, Ramsey brushed it off.
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“He’s good,” Ramsey said this week about Diggs, per Sports Illustrated. “But like I said I’m not here to blow smoke and talk about how good this person may be or may not be … They probably feel confident. They probably feel the same way that we feeling, but when Thursday comes it’s football. I don’t want to really be nice to nobody. I’m not boosting nobody up.”
Diggs didn’t look like he lacked any competitive spirit after his touchdown either.
For the Rams, it’ll be back to the drawing board for the defense, but there are legitimate signs of concern around Ramsey, particularly his struggles against the deep ball in recent games.
Jalen Ramsey has allowed a deep TD in four his last six games, including playoffs. Ramsey had gone the previous 65 games without allowing a single one.#BUFvsLAR | #RamsHouse
— Next Gen Stats (@NextGenStats) September 9, 2022
After going 65 games without giving up a deep touchdown pass, Ramsey has given up one in four of his last six. Even if you remove the one in the Super Bowl, in which Tee Higgins got away with a facemask, that’s still 50 percent of his last six games in which he’s given up a long TD. Not what the Rams want from their premier corner.
It’s still early in the season, so the situation can be remedied. However, Ramsey is going to have to turn things around quickly. The Rams showed a lot of holes on Thursday. They can’t let one of their stars become one of them.