It’s always a slugfest when the Los Angeles Rams and San Francisco 49ers square off. The score may not always be close for one reason or another, but every time those two teams step on the field, it’s a physical battle for 60 minutes.
George Kittle has faced the Rams 12 times in his career and though he’s 8-4 against them, they’re a team that gets his attention each time they play.
During an appearance on “This Past Weekend” with Theo Von, Kittle perfectly explained what makes the Rams so tough to go up against. It obviously starts with Aaron Donald, but their scheme makes it tough for the 49ers to run what they typically want to.
“The Rams. That’s a big one for us because they play us the exact same way every time. And then at the end of the day, they have Aaron Donald,” Kittle said. “Trent Williams and Aaron Donald are the two best football players in the NFL. Not even close. Patrick Mahomes, Aaron Rodgers, Tom Brady, they’re rather good players. For dominance at their position every single snap, Trent Williams and Aaron Donald. And Nick Bosa’s getting there, too. He’s gonna be really good. Aaron Donald, like, eight-time All-Pro. That’s insane. His whole career, he’s All-Pro.”
As every team does, the 49ers game plan for Donald each time they meet. Keeping one offensive lineman isn’t enough because he makes his way into the backfield so easily and quickly.
Then behind Donald, the Rams try to funnel everything to the middle of the field and limit the damage the 49ers can do on outside zone runs, a staple of Kyle Shanahan’s offense. Much to the chagrin of fans, Raheem Morris deploys a “bend, don’t break” style of defense that limits big plays with softer coverages, but Kittle mentioned that as a reason the Rams are tough to face, too.
“So when you play the Rams, you have to game plan for Aaron Donald because if you only put one guy on him, the likelihood of him blowing up a play and hitting the running back or quarterback in the backfield and making him fumble significantly increases,” Kittle continued. “So you have to completely game plan for him. And then the way they play their defense is, they just try to bottleneck us as much as they can so it makes our outside zone a little bit more difficult. And then they play this kind of a quarters thing where they keep everything in front of them. It’s kind of bend but don’t break. You can give up some small stuff but you’re not gonna get anything past us and they’re gonna be very violent and they’re gonna come up in the run game.”
The Rams have had some talented edge rushers in recent years, and while they’re a bit thin at that position now, Kittle described why blocking their outside linebackers is a challenge. When they’re in a wide 9 front with their edge rushers wider than the tight end, Kittle has to get out and block them as they’re bearing down on him at full speed.
“So playing a team like that where I’m in my three-point stance and the line of scrimmage is right here, they have an outside linebacker who’s wider than you are and in a tilted stance, like a sprinter’s stance, and the second we say hike, he’s trying to run right through my face as fast as he can, that way to not let me reach him,” he added. “And not every team does that but it’s very difficult to go against because at that point, it’s me kind of saying, ‘All right, who’s gonna hit who harder?’”
The 49ers have owned the Rams, winning eight of the last nine meetings. But that doesn’t mean Los Angeles isn’t a test twice a year. Kittle perfectly explained what makes Rams-49ers such a challenge each season.
