{"id":737043,"date":"2026-02-08T02:22:13","date_gmt":"2026-02-08T02:22:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/737043\/"},"modified":"2026-02-08T02:22:13","modified_gmt":"2026-02-08T02:22:13","slug":"defense-mentally-shut-down-vs-seahawks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/737043\/","title":{"rendered":"Defense ‘mentally shut down’ vs. Seahawks"},"content":{"rendered":"

Feb. 7, 2026, 12:31 p.m. PT<\/p>\n

The Los Angeles Rams<\/a> didn\u2019t lose to the Seattle Seahawks<\/a> because of their offense. It was the defense and special teams<\/a> that let them down in the NFC Championship Game two weeks ago.<\/p>\n

Jared Verse fully admits that, taking the blame for Los Angeles\u2019 heartbreaking loss on the road in Seattle. He joined \u201cThe Pivot\u201d podcast and shared some shocking statements about the Rams\u2019 young defense and their mentality\u00a0\u2013 both leading up to the game, and during it.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe all hyped up all week,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019re like, \u2018Yeah, we\u2019re going to beat them again. We know what we learned from last time.\u2019 And then when we start having trouble \u2013 early on, they throw a big play, everybody\u2019s kind of like, s—-ing the bed. Like, \u2018Oh, what do we do now? This isn\u2019t going the way we thought this was going to go. They\u2019re not laying down.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s one thing to be confident going into a game. It\u2019s another to think the other team is going to lay down for you, especially in the NFC championship with a spot in the Super Bowl on the line.<\/p>\n

The Rams\u2019 defense is undeniably young, but they have enough leaders on that team who could\u2019ve set things on the right path after some early struggles.<\/p>\n

Expert NFL picks: Exclusive betting insights only at USA TODAY.<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cWhen that happened, everybody kind of started freaking out,\u201d Verse said. \u201cWe were able to kind of ground ourselves again but because of our young mindset, like, \u2018Oh yeah, we think we earned it. We think, oh yeah, this is a cake walk.\u2019 Like, this is the league. Ain\u2019t nobody going to lay down for you.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOur mindset was like, \u2018Oh, we lost to them once, we beat them once, this is for all the marbles.\u2019 And when we started having trouble, we didn\u2019t know what to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

Verse isn\u2019t pointing fingers, but he\u2019s taking the blame himself for some of the defense\u2019s issues against Seattle.<\/p>\n

\u201cSome of us on the defense, I\u2019m going to take full blame, too,\u201d he said. \u201cThere was a couple times where I’m like, \u2018Bro, they\u2019re running the other way. I don\u2019t know what to do. I can\u2019t chase him. Like, I’m not that fast. I can’t chase him on the backside. What do I do?\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cSo when we had some troubles, we just kind of mentally shut down.\u201d<\/p>\n

Those are some alarming comments from one of the Rams’ top defenders, and someone who should be viewed as a leader. Los Angeles has plenty of talent on that side of the ball, but maybe a veteran leader could do them some good.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Feb. 7, 2026, 12:31 p.m. PT The Los Angeles Rams didn\u2019t lose to the Seattle Seahawks because of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":737044,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2079],"tags":[95878,7,1014,58,2444,2611,6,424,95922,95923,95882,95946,97264,96162,95924,95944,95895,95897,95977,95883,95881],"class_list":{"0":"post-737043","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles-rams","8":"tag-accessfree","9":"tag-football","10":"tag-los-angeles","11":"tag-los-angeles-rams","12":"tag-losangeles","13":"tag-losangelesrams","14":"tag-nfl","15":"tag-rams","16":"tag-sstssportsnflrams","17":"tag-sstsnrams","18":"tag-tagamerican-football","19":"tag-tagcalifornia-gold-rush","20":"tag-tagjared-verse","21":"tag-taglos-angeles","22":"tag-taglos-angeles-rams","23":"tag-tagnational-football-conference","24":"tag-tagnfl-hub","25":"tag-tagoverall-negative","26":"tag-tagseattle-seahawks","27":"tag-tagsports-news","28":"tag-typestory"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116032631254190841","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/737043","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=737043"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/737043\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/737044"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=737043"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=737043"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=737043"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}