The Rams Built the Wrong Defense
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At some point, whether it’s because of great defense or just one of those days, every offense has a dud game. We spent the first seven weeks of the season wondering if the Rams would have anything even resembling a dud on the offensive side of the ball. And then they did!
On Sunday against the Packers, Jared Goff played arguably his worst half of football since he was being schooled in the ways of Jeff Fisher as a rookie. He followed it up by leading L.A. to 27 points over the team’s final seven drives against Green Bay, and (with a little help from Ty Montgomery and the Rams’ own stellar special teams unit) the storm had passed. An opponent finally got a shot at this Rams offense, and the moment slipped away.
Last week showed one way the Rams can be beaten—an off day for Goff—but it isn’t the only way: L.A. can be outscored, largely because their roster-building on the defensive side of the ball seems less than optimal considering what the offense has become.
Let’s back up and look at the way the Patriots have been built during Tom Brady’s run as the best quarterback of all time. Before Brady was Brady, New England featured an aggressive, exotic, blitz-heavy defense that took an aggressive posture. Now, with Brady able to go punch-for-punch with any offense in the NFL, they’ve gone to a conservative, bend-don’t-break approach. Similarly, the Chiefs are making a similar midseason transition to a conservative defense now that Patrick Mahomes has exceeded Andy Reid’s wildest dreams. Which usually involve cronuts. (Aw, that was cheap.)
The Rams, meanwhile, can name their number as far as scoring goes most days. They should also have a defense designed to force opponents to put together 14- and 15-play drives to keep pace—the kind of drives that are easily derailed by one offensive lineman’s mistake, as in a holding penalty or a sack allowed. Instead, this summer L.A. put together an aggressive, ball-hawking unit on the back end, a talented group to be sure. But when combined with the lack of an edge-rushing presence (though perhaps the arrival of Dante Fowler helps there), it has presented a vulnerability for opponents to attack.
Collecting talent isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Marcus Peters, in particular, is on an exceedingly affordable contract and was available for cheap (for reasons beyond his talent). But Peters is a risk/reward player—if he had six interceptions right now that would be better than a conservative, more consistent player in his spot. But this isn’t a situation where the offense needs help in the form of turnovers, and it certainly isn’t worth the risk most weeks. Peters has been targeted any time an opponent looks for a big play, and he’s been set ablaze more often than not. His five touchdowns allowed (according to Stats Inc.) has him tied with Robert Alford, P.J. Williams and Ahkello Witherspoon among cornerbacks. The Rams have allowed three or more passing plays of 25-plus yards in six of their eight games, the exceptions being when they faced a Cardinals team still led by a pants-pooping Sam Bradford back in Week 2, and at San Francisco against C.J. Beathard two weeks ago. Allowing big plays will be a problem in January, when the Bradfords and Beathards of the world are on their rumpus-room futons eating pretzeled bread.
That’s why the trip to the Superdome Sunday afternoon will be especially telling. The Rams survived Aaron Rodgers (again, with some help from Ty Montgomery). They allowed 31 points apiece to Kirk Cousins (on a short week) and Russell Wilson. The defense’s most impressive performance against a quality QB came against Philip Rivers, when they beat the Chargers 35-23 back in Week 3. Drew Brees and the Saints have averaged 31.3 points per game at home over the past two seasons, and Brees is one of the best of all time at manipulating defensive backs. When these teams met in L.A. last season, a different-look Rams defense held Brees in check, and the offense helped keep Brees off the field in a (relative) defensive struggle. Last year’s defense is the kind of unit that would have meshed better with this year’s all-world offense. Marcus Peters is a talent, but he seems to be the wrong kind of talent if you want to complement an offense like this.
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Agamemnon
