The Los Angeles Rams’ stud defensive tackle Aaron Donald was none too pleased with the officiating from this past Monday’s game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
NFL fans are used to seeing Los Angeles Rams defensive tackle Aaron Donald light up the stat sheets on a weekly basis. However, the past two weeks have been rather barren for Donald, as he’s been held without a single tackle. That’s a sentence we’d never thought would be written throughout the prime of Donald’s career. Yet, here we are.
Even though he didn’t log a single tackle in Los Angeles’ games against the Seattle Seahawks and Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Donald said that he doesn’t feel like he’s playing “bad football.” Rather, he feels that he’s still being equally as disruptive. However, if there’s one problem that he does have, it’s that referees are missing blatant holding calls against him.
Aaron Donald would like some holding calls
“All the damn time I talk to them,” Donald said, via Sports Illustrated. “I’m like, ‘You’ve got to see that holding call,’ and they say they don’t see it. The guy’s got me around my neck, pulling my shirt and I just the beat the guy with a clean rush.
“But it’s all right. Hopefully I’m going to get one sooner or later, and it’s going to help us big-time. I just got to keep playing.”
Donald did say that he felt the Buccaneers got away with some “blatant” holding calls. But as you can see in the final quote, Donald isn’t exactly losing sleep over it, because his teammates are making plays around him. Not only that, but he knows a sack or a pivotal tackle for loss is coming in the very near future. Do you seriously doubt this man? Because we certainly don’t!
In Los Angeles’ Week 10 matchup against the Seahawks, Donald didn’t have a sack or a tackle. However, he did record two hits on quarterback Russell Wilson, so there’s that. As for this past Monday’s game against Tampa Bay, Donald didn’t record a single statistic, but the Rams did go on to win 27-24.
Even with these two uncharacteristic performances by Donald, he still holds the third-most sacks in the league (nine) and has 35 quarterback pressures to his credit. He’ll look to break his tackle-less streak this upcoming Sunday in Los Angeles’ rivalry game against the San Francisco 49ers. A motivated Donald is the last thing the 49ers needed. Good luck to Nick Mullens, because he’s going to need it.