Rams DT Aaron Donald on DPOY talk: It’s about winning games, championships
Regardless of how well he plays individually, Los Angeles Rams defensive tackle Aaron Donald’s focus never changes.
It’s always about winning when takes the field, and that won’t be any different for Sunday’s road contest against the Arizona Cardinals.
After back-to-back games without a tackle for the first time as a pro, Donald showed up big on the stat sheet in a loss to the San Francisco 49ers.
Donald finished with five combined tackles, four quarterback hits, a forced fumble and a sack. He’s now second in the NFL with 10 sacks this year.
The Pittsburgh product reached a milestone with his latest sack, clinching his fifth season with double-digit sacks -- the second-most by an interior lineman in league history since sacks became an official stat in 1982.
His 19 forced fumbles since 2014 is fourth-most in the NFL.
Donald said the individual accolades and talk of winning his third Defensive Player of the Year award are nice, but he’s more concerned with helping to lead the Rams to a Super Bowl.
“I really don’t pay attention to it,” he said. “I don’t even think about it -- you just play the game. Like I said before, you get individual awards, it’s a blessing and a honor to be talked about and accomplish things like that, but my ultimate goal is to be playing that last game and playing to be a world champion.
“So, my main focus is trying to do everything I can to help this team to win games and get to that last dance. Whatever happens from there happens. So as far as stats and all that or what I hope that people would see, I don’t really care. I just play my game.”
Donald’s focus on Sunday will be trying to contain Arizona quarterback Kyler Murray. Donald said the Rams played a player with a similar style in Seattle Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson earlier this season, and that should help in their preparation for the cat-quick Murray.
“He’s a good football player that can do a lot,” Donald said. “Obviously, you play a lot of quarterbacks in this league that’s mobile, but he’s definitely has a lot more quick-twitch and can do things.
“You’ve got to just rush, have gap contain, don’t get up field, don’t leave rush lanes open to the point where you can step up and have a choice of running or passing. We know what to do, because we play a lot of mobile quarterbacks. We’ve got two of them, we’ve got him and Russell Wilson in our division. So, we kind of know how to handle it, we’ve just got to make sure that we rush the right way pretty much and are gap sound.”
Donald also will share the field with another all-time great player in Arizona receiver Larry Fitzgerald. The 29-year-old, L.A. defensive lineman said he watched and admired Fitzgerald growing up in Pittsburgh and attending the same college.
“We’ve got a relationship,” Donald said about Fitzgerald. “He’s a Pitt guy. I have all the respect in the world for Larry. He’s definitely one of the best to ever play the game. Been doing it a long time, plays with a lot of passion and he plays the game the right way.
“So, I’m always going to have a lot of respect for him as I grew up a Pittsburgh guy watching him at Pitt dominate. To translate it and have the opportunity to go against him is pretty cool. And then over the years, we built the relationship to the point we keep in communication with each other. So, a lot of respect for him.”
