INGLEWOOD, Calif. — Los Angeles Rams right tackle Rob Havenstein sank into his chair in the locker room Thursday at SoFi Stadium after helping to beat the Minnesota Vikings 30-20. It was the second of two physical, intense games against strong defensive lines in just five days and Havenstein was exhausted.
He was also beaming.
The veteran right tackle and team captain could hardly walk to the adjacent sports medical room to get postgame treatment after Sunday’s 20-15 win over Las Vegas without a cushion supporting his feet. That game, Havenstein and a cobbled-together cast of linemen that currently includes a rookie center and undrafted free agent rookie left guard, kept game-wrecking star pass-rusher Maxx Crosby from doing just that. The offensive line allowed only five pressures on quarterback Matthew Stafford, and one sack. Havenstein, who drew Crosby’s rush frequently, allowed only one pressure.
Four days later against Minnesota, Havenstein allowed just one additional pressure in a game against the typically assertive, pressure-diverse Vikings front (the Rams allowed eight total pressures, inclusive to skill players assigned to blitzes according to TruMedia). Stafford wasn’t sacked once.
So Havenstein hobbled to his chair after the celebrations were over, after the miles of athletic tape holding together his ankle joints were cut and peeled away from his cleats and calves, and sank into it. He started chugging bottles of Gatorade — Havenstein had gotten a not-so-subtle compliment of his play from the NFL. A notice for a drug test was posted inside his locker and he was too dehydrated to take it just yet.
“It wasn’t easy sledding out there, by any means,” Havenstein said. “I thought we had a really good focus on what we wanted to do, how we wanted to attack. … (and) we’re taking as much (time) as we can — for as many minutes of the meetings as we have, even — turning our bodies over and trying to get ready for a Thursday Night Football game which is not the easiest thing to do.”
Of anybody, Havenstein knew the stakes entering the two-game week because he has seen rosters change dramatically over the years. He is 32, and one of just two players left from the Rams’ St. Louis days. Even the Rams’ Super Bowl roster of the 2021 season has turned over dramatically, with Havenstein one of its few remaining members. The Rams entered Week 7 with a 1-4 record. Any more losing, and there was a real possibility changes would be made to a roster with one foot into its new era — young drafted players developing into key starters — and one foot still in its previous iteration.
Winning on Thursday felt significant for that reason, but it also indicated a shift toward better football. Getting star receiver Cooper Kupp and second-year receiver Puka Nacua back in the lineup after their respective injuries obviously helped, not just to impact the passing game but as blockers in the run game and in pass protection.
It also was the best eight quarters the offensive line has played this season.
Injuries at the position compounded immediately as the season began and impacted the quality of football the Rams played (not having Kupp or Nacua obviously did, too). Havenstein, battling an ankle injury that kept him out of most of training camp, missed Week 1. Then he anchored a front that initially was without starting left tackle Alaric Jackson (suspension) and soon lost starting left guard Steve Avila (knee) and center Jonah Jackson (shoulder). Right guard Kevin Dotson, who pushed through a toe injury early in the year, has been the other stalwart of the offensive line and it was a quiet relief for such an embattled position group that he and Havenstein play next to each other.
Ahead of the Week 6 bye, Stafford had been sacked 16 times (the fifth-most in the NFL through that span) and pressured 65 times (seventh-most).
Havenstein met with head coach Sean McVay before players took their break to talk through adjustments.
“We were kind of looking for some different answers,” McVay said, “and just seeing the way that he pours into guys and some of the input he was able to give to me that we’ve tried to have be reflected in the way that we’ve approached certain things, I certainly think it’s helped.”
Minus Avila (who McVay said Monday may not yet be ready to return), the Rams had 2022 third-round pick Logan Bruss at left guard from Weeks 3 through 5. After the bye, they started undrafted free-agent rookie Justin Dedich there in Weeks 7 and 8. Dedich could potentially keep the role until Avila returns, even with veteran depth lineman Joe Noteboom likely getting back this week after an injured reserve stint.
“I’ve been really pleased. I think (Dedich has) done an excellent job each of the last two weeks starting against the Raiders and the Vikings, two really formidable defenses,” McVay said. “You know what a big deal it is to me, especially as it relates to those guys up front to establish a rapport with one another.”
Beaux Limmer, a sixth-round pick last spring, has started at center since substituting in during the Rams’ Week 1 overtime loss to Detroit.
“He’s getting better and better. I think he’s getting more comfortable and confident with his rapport with (Stafford) and then those guys that he’s playing next to,” McVay said. “Really since the bye, I have seen some improvement in terms of the overall communication, the command, and I think that’s been reflected in the way that he’s played and the way those guys around him have played.”
McVay also praised position coach Ryan Wendell and assistants Zak Kromer and Mike Munchak for their game planning and preparation.
But it’s Havenstein who has especially become a voice McVay leans on similar to how he once leaned on longtime captain Andrew Whitworth — a player who can communicate the nuances of a position group to the head coach, but also of the locker room overall.
“Rob’s been awesome. He’s been that way. I think what’s been really cool too is he’s always been a leader in his own right and then obviously the torch was kind of passed when Whitworth retired (after the Super Bowl),” said McVay. “He has really come into his own and figured out how to lead (in a way that is) authentic to himself while also learning from some other great ones like Whit and (former Rams lineman) John Sullivan … He’s special and I really love working with Rob.”
After Sunday’s ugly win against Las Vegas — only their second of the year, and with so much about the team’s future still in question at that time — Havenstein, sitting in his chair at his locker, was who he always is.
Reflective, but blunt before turning his mind to Minnesota.
“(Earlier this year), someone asked me a question of, ‘If you start the season 0-3, statistically, season is done, you can go nowhere,’ and it’s kind of the same thing, I looked at it like, ‘What do you want me to do, stop playing? Turn my pads in?’ ” he said, scoffing. “‘Ah, s—, we’re 0-3 boys, pack it in. We’ll work on next year.’
“That might be the statistics or that might be what media and things like that will say. But at the end of the day, we still got to go out there and do it every single week.
“At the end of the day, there is no ‘too late.’ It’s ‘figure it out.’ ”
(Top photo of Havenstein: Brooke Sutton / AP Photo)
