A battle of DT's and red zone production keys to Rams-Bengals/Wagoner

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RamBill

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A battle of defensive tackles and red zone production keys to Rams-Bengals
By Nick Wagoner

http://espn.go.com/blog/st-louis-ra...-and-red-zone-production-keys-to-rams-bengals

EARTH CITY, Mo. -- The St. Louis Rams and Cincinnati Bengals kick off Sunday at 1 p.m. ET at Paul Brown Stadium. Here are three things to watch in that matchup:

1. Dueling D-tackles: In a normal week, we don't put individual players on this list, especially ones that don't actually face each other on a down-to-down basis but in this case we'll make an exception for two of the elite 4-3 defensive tackles in the NFL in Cincinnati's Geno Atkins and the Rams' Aaron Donald. Both players were considered undersized coming out of college but have offered outsized production.

Donald leads the Rams with seven sacks and is aiming for his seventh game in a row against an AFC opponent with a sack. He's been on a tear lately, too, even without end Robert Quinn there to help out.

Atkins also has seven sacks and a forced fumble to his name as he leads a defense that is tied for ninth in the NFL in sacks. And Atkins could really benefit from the Rams' inexperience on the interior where guards Cody Wichmann and Demetrius Rhaney are making their second and first career NFL starts, respectively.

Whichever defensive tackle fares better won't necessarily determine an outcome but it'll be fun to watch regardless.

2. Strength vs. strength in the red zone: The Rams have made a habit this year of keeping teams out of the end zone when they manage to get deep in their territory. The Rams are second in the NFL in red zone defense, allowing a touchdown only 35.7 percent of the 28 opponent drives that have gone inside their 20-yard line.

Of course, the Rams haven't faced an offense as productive as the Bengals when it comes to cashing in such opportunities. Cincinnati is second in the NFL in red zone efficiency, scoring a touchdown on 70 percent of their 40 trips inside the 20 this season. The Rams offense is probably going to have trouble scoring again this week (the Bengals defense is good in the red zone, too, tied for third in the league) so the St. Louis defense is going to have to be especially stingy when it comes to touchdowns if the Rams are going to keep this one close.

3. Rushing woes: Rams coach Jeff Fisher talked all week about getting the running game rolling again and how the offense will try different things to make that happen. It can start by simply blocking better but don't be surprised to see a few new wrinkles, either.

The Bengals don't have many weaknesses but if there's one to be found, it could be in defending the run which might mean an uptick in production for Todd Gurley & Co. Cincinnati is 27th in the league in yards per carry allowed at 4.54 and it has struggled in allowing yards before contact as well, yielding 2.9 yards before contact per attempt. That could be dangerous against Gurley, who has the ability to break tackles after getting past the first line.

We know the Rams offense doesn't have much firepower and we know opposing defenses are selling out to stop Gurley. But the reality is, the Rams passing game is nowhere near good enough to win a game when it's been dared to do so. Which means Gurley and the Rams must find a way to get it going in a fairly favorable matchup.