Getty Sebastian Joseph-Day celebrates after a defensive stop against the Indianapolis Colts on Sunday, September 19.
Looks like Pro Football Focus got on the bad side of one Los Angeles Rams defender on Monday, September 20 even after he put together his best performance of his career.
Statistically, Rams nose tackle Sebastian Joseph-Day delivered a dominating day in the trenches against the Indianapolis Colts. His final stat line on Sunday, September 19? Nine tackles, six solo stops, one tackle for a loss, one sack and two quarterback hits in the 27-24 road win over an AFC wildcard playoff team from a season ago. The nine and six represent his highest single NFL game totals yet.
Any defender – especially in the thankless nose tackle spot where it becomes more about taking on centers and guards to clear room for others – would be recognized as a potential NFC Defensive Player of the Week with that kind of production. Or, in the case of PFF, statistics like the one Joseph-Day produced should give him a 90 grade or higher.
But PFF ended up giving him a questionable grade…which prompted a tweeted response.
What did PFF Give Joseph-Day?
The fourth-year nose tackle from Rutgers Joseph-Day received a head-scratching grade by the national analytics site: 44.0.
After reading that grade, “Bash” went on to bash PFF at 8:04 a.m. PT. Monday morning by responding to one tweet on Twitter with his name attached to it.
The 44.0 rating marks Joseph-Day’s lowest grade by the national site since he was given a 29.8 rating in week five of the Seattle Seahawks game from the 2019 season.
Here’s what’s perplexing about Joseph-Day’s Colts grade and why “Bash” has every right to question the analytics behind his rating: Against the Chicago Bears, Joseph-Day posted two tackles including one solo stop in the 34-14 romp to open the year.
“Bash” had a relatively quiet day against the Bears. But his PFF grade after that night? 75.3…placing him higher than Jalen Ramsey (70.3 overall rating) and David Long (66.2), the latter snatching his first interception in that contest and finishing with more tackles (five) than Joseph-Day.
In this latest contest against the Colts, Joseph-Day and safety Taylor Rapp tied for the Ram lead in total tackles. Joseph-Day put together his production in 47 total defensive plays versus Indy. He was also one of three Ram defenders who got a sack of Carson Wentz, captured here by the Rams Twitter account:
But the 44 grade given to Joseph-Day after his career-best day has got to be more confusing in L.A. than seeing no traffic on Interstate 405 at 5 p.m. during the weekday. Even more odd: Joseph-Day was given the third worst grade among Ram players against the Colts.
Fans Defend “Bash”
Following Joseph-Day calling out PFF, Ram fans began to tweet out encouragement to their starting NT.
One fan sent this to Joseph-Day’s mentions:
Another fan sent him this tweet of support.
One more Rams fan gave this prediction to Joseph-Day in a tweet response here.
By 4:30 p.m. PT, Joseph-Day’s PFF response received more than 130 Twitter likes. Among the people who hit the like button? His Ram teammates Tremayne Anchrum and Jake Funk. He also got a retweet from the offensive lineman Anchrum plus got retweeted by his ex-teammate Morgan Fox, who is now with the Carolina Panthers.
“Bash,” though, chose not to fully entertain the thought of the poor and questionable PFF rating he was given, and is clearly shifting his focus to the defending Super Bowl champions on Sunday.