One Los Angeles Rams player the Chicago Bears must stop in Week 4

On her latest Making Monsters Podcast on our 2nd City Gridiron channel, Taylor Doll spoke with Greg Beacham, who covers the Los Angeles Rams for the Associated Press, to help us preview Sunday’s Chicago Bears game. Beacham, a longtime Southern California reporter, also covered USC and Caleb Williams and former Los Angeles Chargers wideout and current Bear Keenan Allen. It was a fun podcast, and here are a few quotes from the show.

Taylor asked Beacham if this Rams team is more like their week one close loss to Detroit, their week two blowout loss against the Cardinals, or more reflective of the team that beat the 49ers.

“There’s a lot of missing pieces to this Rams team that make it hard to predict like you said, I mean the way they came together in the second half of the Niners, very impressive. More defensively than offensively honestly because their defense has not played very well this year, that’s to be expected when you lose a guy like Aaron Donald, you can’t replace him and they didn’t even really try” 

“They don’t have the roster they had last year, they have some of the McVay magic, some of that overall winning mentality that can get you through games where you may not have your best guys”

And spoeaking of Rams' head coach Sean McVay, Beacham spoke of his in glowing terms.

“It’s their X factor; it’s the bedrock of everything they do, the fact that Sean McVay has consistently found ways to win in the NFL. “He has one losing season in seven years, which is astonishing considering the turnover this team has had, the contracts they’ve given out, the people who have left, the people they’ve had to cut, the turnover on his staff, which gets cannibalized every year by the rest of the NFL.”

The Rams are without wide receivers Puka Nakua and Cooper Kupp, so they've been leaning on Pro Bowl running back Kyren Williams.

Chicago Bears must limit Kyren Williams' impact.

“Yeah, I would have him on the top of the list of things the Bears' defense needs to stop, I mean, it’s very difficult; they have a decent offensive line blocking, they have some big injuries on the offensive line, but they are starting to get some cohesiveness there."

"Kyren is a relentless runner; he’s a hard worker, he’ll hit the hole, he’s elusive, he’s good in the pass game when Sean remembers to use him. He can do everything and he just doesn't give up. He's just a real tenacious running back, the kind of guy you really like to see on your team, you like to have on your team. So containing the running game would be a really good idea for the Bears in terms of forcing Matthew Stafford to beat you with the pass.”

As for what Beacham thinks the Rams will do to the Bears, he thinks they'll want to limit Caleb's improvisational plays.

“I saw Caleb Williams make so many plays off-schedule, on the run, improvising, extending plays over the last two years at USC, I also cover all the USC home games, and I can’t imagine playing Caleb Williams and not wanting to keep him in the pocket or give him a situation where he has to make those tough decisions down field.” 

 He's also concerned with Chicago's passing game now that they'll have Keenan Allen back,

“if you have Keenan Allen that’s going to make your job a lot easier if you’re Caleb Williams, I’ve also watched him for a bunch of years. I can count on one hand all the dudes I’ve covered that get open as much as Keenan Allen, he’s just such a technician.”

There's plenty more on Taylor's pod, so give her full show a listen in the embed here, or wherevener you get your podcasts.

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The 2nd City Gridiron Channels features Chicago Bears and NFL content by Lester A. Wiltfong Jr., Jeff Berckes, Bill Zimmerman, Dr. Mason West, Taylor Doll, Ryan Droste, Khari Thompson, Jacob Infante, and more. If you're looking for quality football content, they've got you covered!