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LOS ANGELES – In 2015, Dante Fowler Jr. was the best player on the draft board who wasn’t a quarterback. Even his nameplate threatened to knock the names of Marcus Mariota and Jameis Winston to the ground.
On an irritable Sunday in which the Rams and the Seattle Seahawks threatened to turn the Coliseum into Unsportsman’s Park, Fowler showed his range.
The edge rusher helped give Seattle the lead. Then he helped put the Rams so far in front that they couldn’t beat themselves.
The final was 36-31, and most of the 72,755 distributed tickets were used, which is appropriate for a team that’s now 9-1. There was major angst in the building when Russell Wilson herded the Seahawks to a touchdown with 1:56 left while he saved all three time outs. He recovered the joystick with 1:24 left. His final fling was over Tyler Lockett’s head at the sideline, with 0:26 left. A better pass allows Wilson to throw into the end zone at least three times.
“Obviously we’re happy we won,” defensive end Matt Longacre said, “You’d like to see a little more composure, but it’s hard to keep your composure at the moment. It was a little chippy, like it is whenever we play them.”
Fowler, whom the Rams picked up from Jacksonville on Oct. 30, face-masked Lockett and gave Seattle a first down in the first quarter. In the third, he bad-mouthed an official and drew an unsportsmanlike flag just after the Rams had stopped Seattle on third-and-11.
Wilson turned that into a 23-yard touchdown to Lockett and a 21-20 lead.
“Bad ball,” Fowler said. “I told him that we were getting held a lot. I didn’t call anybody anything, but I said it was a terrible call. Terrible was the bad word there. When it’s third down and we’re coming off the field, I can’t put us in that position. That wasn’t very smart there.”
No, it wasn’t, although it could have earned Fowler a graduate-transfer year at USC.
But the Rams provide their own absolution. Ndamukong Suh had a roughing-the-passer penalty that gave Seattle a first down when the Rams only led 26-21, but then he and Donald split a sack that forced the Seahawks to kick a field goal.
After that, Sebastian Jankowski uncorked one of the lamest onside kick attempts in league annals, and the Rams, faced with fourth-and-goal from the two, went with the field goal and a 29-24 lead.
That’s when Fowler hit his “erase” button.
With Seattle trying to convert third-and-3, he wheeled around the left side and attacked Wilson, knocked the ball loose and then ran it down on the nine.
.@DANTEFOWLER DOES IT ALL!
pic.twitter.com/5VnhimY3IG
— Los Angeles Rams (@RamsNFL) November 12, 2018
“I thought I might get a chance to pump up my running stats,” Fowler said. “I was just happy I was able to do my craft.”
The Rams had nine hits on Wilson and sacked him four times. Donald has 18 QB hits in his past four games.
“The edge rush hasn’t been there this year,” Longacre said. “It’s been a little frustrating for us. But Dante is a great pass rusher. We’ve seen it for the last couple of weeks. Even against the run he’s played well. He adds another layer to our defense.
“Today we didn’t start out very well against the run. Somehow we got the switch flipped at halftime. If we can shore up our run defense, we’ll be a very good team.”
Fowler played at Florida, where he had 15 tackles-for-loss and eight sacks in 2014. He was the No. 3 pick in 2015. Todd Gurley was No. 10 and Marcus Peters No. 18.
Jacksonville was so enamored with Fowler that it gave him a guaranteed four-year, $23.5 million contract. That was four days AFTER he tore up his knee in mini-camp and knew he would miss the entirety of 2015.
He came back in 2016 and got four sacks. But he was slowly squeezed out of the rotation as the Jaguars kept adding defense, and he was arrested for on battery, and the Rams got him for a third-round pick in 2019 and a fifth-round pick in 2020. The rewards for that risk were on display Sunday.
The Rams mourned the Borderline shootings last week. Several of them, including Goff, were evacuated from the fire zone. Now they head for Colorado Springs to practice at altitude, before the Monday Night game with Kansas City in Mexico City.
They aren’t coming off their two best weeks, but mistakes are an NFL constant. The Rams believe that talent forces more mistakes than it makes. That’s why both sides of Dante Fowler are here.
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