Rams focus on redemption against Cardinals in ‘get it back’ game – Daily News

LOS ANGELES – Playing in front of a home crowd after back-to-back road games and the opportunity to clinch the NFC West and a playoff spot are major motivating factors for the Rams this week.

But according to defensive end Kobie Turner, those considerations aren’t the main topic of the week.

The Rams (9-6), who lost 41-10 to the Arizona Cardinals in Week 2, are preparing for what Turner calls a “get back” game.

“I have no doubt that SoFi will rock and that we have a chance to send ourselves to the playoffs. All of this is cool and is added behind the scenes. But really the biggest thing is that I’m coming back for a week,” Turner said after Tuesday’s walkthrough.

In the blowout loss in Week 2, the Rams gave up 231 rushing yards, the second most they had allowed this season.

Cardinals running back James Conner totaled 122 rushing yards and a touchdown, while quarterback Kyler Murray added 59 yards on the ground.

But the Rams are a different team now than they were in mid-September.

“That wasn’t the type of ball we wanted to put out, that’s not who we were,” Turner said. “We’ve grown a lot from there, whether we’re talking about run design, whether we’re talking about rush lanes and pocket integrity. Whether we talk about how we attack. We have grown tremendously and are excited to have the opportunity to show it.”

The Rams have walked their talk, winning four straight games and eight of their last 10 games.

But there may be no more accurate evidence of that growth than Saturday’s matchup with a Cardinals team that shellacked the Rams the first time around.

And it starts with stopping the run, whether it’s Conner, Murray or the handful of other options Arizona has in the backfield.

“They have a lot of backers who are able to do a lot of different things the way they plan,” Turner said. “If we go one-on-one on the sidelines, we won’t do a good job. If we fly off the ball in double teams, we’re not going to do a good job no matter who it is.”

Conner, who left Sunday’s game between the Cardinals and Carolina Panthers with a knee injury, was assessed as a limited participant in Tuesday’s walkthrough, according to the Cardinals’ injury report.

Rams defensive coordinator Chris Shula said Conner is one of the best running backs in the league and the key catalyst for Arizona’s offense.

“He’s a guy, if he gets a stitch, you have to be careful. When he gets a seam and can run vertically, he breaks tackles. He’s the guy where all the energy of his offense comes through,” Shula said Tuesday. “As long as he’s wearing a helmet, we expect to see the normal James Conner, and we’re prepared for that.”

“(No.) 6 is an incredible back. Apparently he’s really hard to tackle, especially when running downhill. “He’s one of the best defenders in the league when things go downhill, so we have to be able to stop that,” Turner said. “If we unsettle the picture in the backfield, he has no chance to really accelerate and we can stop him. But if he really accelerates, it becomes even more difficult.”