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Rfl, I hear you. I really do.
Yesterday they absolutely blew it.
The defense infuriates me right now because, I just don’t get it. I can’t wrap my mind around it. I want answers. I want to know what the problem is. they play so well for awhile–make a big play here and there but in the end they implode.
Murray was “contained” by only rushing for 100 yards. Bryant has his moments as well and Romo looked like a a guy with an invisible shield around him who could not be touched, a little move here,there and he has wide open space.
To say that this defense has been a disappointment is an understatement. The one thing they did extremely well–getting to the passer–is not even a strength now. I don’t know what the explanation is to it all. There are theories: Greg Williams, discipline breakdowns, loss of Chris Long, whatever.
But I don’t know.
Yes–Quinn gets held on every play but SOMEONE should get through. How does Romo end up with a nice pocket space just by taking a step forward?
And I’ve been all over the linebackers–it has been one of my favorite scapegoats–but I thought they played pretty well yesterday–overall.
The one thing I don’t believe is that it’s a lack of talent. There is plenty of talent on this defense.
I guess that I have to look at the coaching–some flaw there. I just can’t understand what they’re doing, why this is happening but it is frustrating and maddening to watch.
I don’t want to hear any excuses from Fisher. I just want results.
There are no excuses.
So what do the stats say?
The Rams, right now are the 13th ranked total defense. That surprised me. 13th? I would have thought 25th, or 28th or so.
The Rams are the 5th ranked passing defense. Even without the sacks.
They are the 28th ranked rushing defense–makes sense. They just do not contain the run.
They give up the third most points in the league.
They surrender a lot of points.
So while I’d love to see sacks–this team isn’t losing games right now because of the pass defense.
They just can’t contain the run. In three games they’ve had three 100 yard rushers.
If you’re playing fantasy football make sure you start the running back playing the Rams.
So what does it all mean?
They still have to figure out first and foremost this run problem. They can’t figure it out for a quarter, or a half. It has to be for the game.
Maybe they’ll figure it out during the bye week.
It’s already a long year.
"Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away. " Philip K. Dick
Well, let’s look at this a bit at a time. You say rushing the passer is no longer a strength. I don’t look at it that way. I see teams negating the pass rush at the gameplan level. And even that’s not what hurt them, because if another team is planning that heavily around the pass rush, then, that means they are cutting back on something else. (Plus Robert Quinn has never gotten a sack against Tyron Smith. There’s a reason Smith is so highly regarded.)
So if you look at how the D played, there were several breakdowns, some not caused by the Rams. Like McCleod letting Bryant run right by him. And some very untimely penalties that had HUGE effects. Some of those were clearly bogus.
And people complain about Murray. Tenn and SF both had good defenses last year, and Murray averaged 5+ something a carry against them. In fact it’s 51 attempts, 285 yards, which is 5.6 yards a carry…Rams allowed 100 on 24 carries which is 4.17.
So you have Murray running behind one of the best offensive lines in the game, and Rams actually did better against him than 2 defenses that were ranked higher last year than the Rams were.
Dallas is THAT tough on offense this year, but it tooks some Rams breakdowns as officiating issues for Dallas to beat them.
These are just wandering thoughts. I have no Final Conclusion. As a rule, people tell you, over the years, I don’t take bad losses as badly as many others do. (And it’s not because I think I am “more rational,” or anything like that. It’s just that my emotional make-up is slightly different over this kind of thing.) So I like to chip away at the first impression picture, and see what remains. It’s supposed to help make for good conversation.
The thing I like about good conversation is, you can never predict where it will go. zn wrote:
Well yeah I think it can be defended, under the idea that they made bad mistakes last year against Dallas and improved, and will likely do the same this year. I saw breakdowns; I don’t think I saw the start to finish, every down catastrophe you did.But…you’re venting, right? So it’s not really a discussion. That’s not supposed to sound like anything. I think it was a very demoralizing loss. That doesn’t always lead to discussion. Which is fine. All part of the process.
Venting? I guess so.
But let’s not blame the victim … the disgusted fan.
Nor did I say it was a “start to finish, every down catastrophe.” That’s not the only way to badly screw up a game.
What I saw was worse. This isn’t a talentless bunch of sad sacks.
It is a team with a lot of talent vacillating wildly between results. “Breakdowns”? Yeah. I guess. Heartless, gutless, unforgivable ones. And here’s the constant:
They cannot get off the field in important drives. Case in point.
They had DAL 3 and 14 on their own 10 or so. I think it was when they had the 1 point lead.
They drop TWO interior DL into the zones and rush 2. Not a zone blitz ’cause no one else came. Two freaking guys rushing Romo.
He steps up, finds a complete vacuum, and trots for the 1 down. DAL goes on to score.
A breakdown, eh? You can call it that if you want. After almost 3 months in training, 4 PS and 3 regular season games. I guess they just weren’t sure what they were doing. They need more time, right?
You know what, man? Quality football is about being consistent. You can’t look at 1.5 quarters of containing the run, then at 2 plays which changed the game–easy 39 yards rushing–and say, “Well we contained the RB until those 2 plays …”
They count. They bloody well count. In the NFL, 6-7 big plays on offense add up to lots of points. A good defense does not simply give it up on half a dozen plays and say, “Well, we were fine apart from those breakdowns.” That’s not how the league works. You can’t do splits with stats and say, “Well, toss out those 7 plays and we were good.” That is not the way football teams learn to win. That thinking is for losers.
This defense has not yet through 7 games shown the ability to get key stops in games. It hasn’t. It stinks as a defense. It is performing at a level far below that of the offense with its 3rd strong QB and patchwork OL. It is losing games virtually on its own, and would have lost last week had Lovie not blown a time out.
Am I venting? Sure.
And part of my frustration is with the smokescreen pumped out by the HC and organization and supported by too many fans that this is a good defense that is having understandable developmental issues.
It stinks. Can we at least admit that? Can we simply say that the defensive performance yesterday, snatching defeat from the jaws of victory, was unacceptable?
Except I’m not blaming you.
You weren’t being “accused” of anything. And, you know, seeing things differently…even slightly differently…isn’t a matter of someone “not admitting” something. It’s just a difference, right or wrong. If people didn’t see things like this differently, then we would only need to nominate a poster of the week to type up the consensus view while the rest of us all agreed.
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