Los Angeles Rams star Aaron Donald was named the NFC Defensive Player of the Week for his performance in the Week 5 victory over the Washington Football Team.
Donald essentially spent the whole day in the backfield as he recorded a career-high four sacks in what was a dominating day overall for the Rams defense. They had eight total sacks while allowing just 10 points and 108 total yards of offense.
In addition to Donald, Troy Reeder also played a big part in that, earning a career-high three sacks on the day to go along with a team-leading 11 total tackles.
One of the more impressive stats of the game was that the Rams defense held Washington to just 2-of-13 converting on third down, getting off the field and the ball back to the offense.
Donald has been great all season for the Rams and seems to be on his way to a third NFL Defensive Player of the Year award in the last four seasons. In five games, he leads the NFL with 7.5 sacks to go along with 17 total tackles, six tackles for loss and two forced fumbles.
He is on pace for 24 sacks, which would not only break his career-high of 20.5 but would also break the NFL record of 22.5 set by Michael Strahan. This is also coming while getting double-teamed more than any other player in the league, which is really a testament to just how great Donald is.
More than the personal accolades though, what Donald has to be most happy about is that the Rams are 4-1 and playing good football. They face a tough test in Week 6, traveling to take on the division-rival San Francisco 49ers.
