Our defense is a fraud.

Pretty much the same defense started out poorly last year, too. It was the main culprit in the Atlanta, Dallas, and SF losses last year. In the Dallas game, they had allowed 86 yards rushing by the end of the 4th quarter.

Then halfway through the season, they became the best run defense in the league.

So this is nothing new.

I still think the run D needs time. Maybe I’m just hoping… I don’t know.

It seems like the Rams either stuff the run play for a loss, or they give up a huge lane even I could run through.

The secondary is playing better though. We’ll see a real test next week when Romo is slinging it to Bryant, and Witten, and Williams, and Murray… oh boy.

Right now, I’m just happy to see far fewer penalties and fewer turnovers.

TrenchRam wrote:

So – other than Dunbar’s return – what changed last year when they tightened up? In the pre-season, it looked pretty clear that guys very often just weren’t where they were supposed to be, especially Armstrong. So far in the season, I just can’t tell where it’s breaking down.

The front 7 was supposed to be the core of this team. They’re supposed to elite. Best in the league some said. So far they’re not even average. Quinn is a beast. Donald and Sims both show flashes. I don’t see anyone else making plays.

On the bright side, the secondary is playing better than I expected. McDonald is fantastic. It’s not just the blocked punts. He seems to be the one guy who can shed blocks on screens. He gets to the ball. He makes his tackles. Very impressive.

The front 7 has a year of film on it and entire gameplans are being built around limiting it.

Fisher himself last year btw said that the major difference in the run d was not just guys being in the right place, it was how the DTs were playing–they weren’t as disciplined as they should have been. Plus it wasn’t just Dunbar returning, it was Ogletree getting better at what they asked of him last year AND getting rid of Witherspoon who was a pure liability. Same with Finnegan last year.

There are other differences from last year too. Wms asked JL to lose weight and play a completely different way than he was. Ogletree has been shifted to the strongside where he is asked to take on blockers–last year he was on the weakside and set up just to run to the ball.

Hayes never practiced all summer and Long is out. Westbrooks is a rookie.

And so on. Who knows what else,

I bet it will work like this. They sit down at the bye, look things over, fix some things, and the D will look better.

As it stands right now, actually, they are ranked 17th on defense. Last year they finished ranked 15th. So last year they improved to 15th. This year they are starting out NEAR there and have room to improve. Depends on whether you believe in the “they fix things” mantra.

And that’s where we just get into our own personal ways of seeing things. To some, that’s provisional–saying you can fix things is theory. To some, their instincts say they WILL fix things. Who is right? We don;t know yet and there’s nothing we can say now that will skip over the process and settle it. In the end we’re really just comparing different ways of POSTING. Some guys see things one way, some guys see things other ways. The trick is to keep posting and see where the range of opinion goes.

Well, I’ve only watched one half of Rams football so far.
I’ll watch the tampa game tonight or 2morrow. So,
I dont have much to go on, yet. In the one half
i watched, I thought the D looked fine.

I will say this though — Seattle gave up
over 30 to the Chargers and lost.
It could be that the new rule-enforcement about prohibiting
DBs from touching WR’s is going to change the notion
of what “good defense” looks like. I dunno.
Would that affect run defense too? Maybe.

Dallas will be a great test of the new “Third-year-Defense.”
I am really looking forward to seeing how they play.
Last year’s Dallas game was an unmitigated disaster for Jake Long
and the Oline and the Defense.

I’m just gonna be quiet until i see game three,
for Fisher’s year-three-team, using its
third-string-QB.

Btw, didnt Laurinaitis have a TD
called back in the Tampa game?
Did i read that somewhere?
Cuz that kinda play is a game-changer
on D.
w
v

• This reply was modified 10 years, 2 months ago by wv.

I do wonder why we got so good against the run in the second half of last year, and then we begin the year getting raped by the run. I do not have the football acumen to recognize those causes. I mentioned my frustration once before being caused by my expectation that the defense would pick up where it left off last season. Expectations are the building blocks of disappointment I guess.

One thought that crossed my mind was that Fisher has to pick his poison, in a way. He can go straight to the whip from training camp through preseason, work these guys into midseason shape for the opener, full contact all the way, and then nobody could say they weren’t prepared. I know he tries instead to keep guys fresh, which might mean not exhausting every ounce of energy in camp and preseason. The benefit would be that you have gas in the tank at the end of the year. That is a management strategy, and I have no idea if there’s anything relevant about it for Fisher or these Rams, it’s just a thought that occurred to me. I won’t defend it with any conviction or anything.

If you want to finish the season playing your best ball and keeping guys fresh, rather than committing to busting out of the gate already worked into peak form, because you’ve been around and seen how difficult and unlikely it is to maintain that intensity, excellence, and some fresh legs for the whole season, you might regulate a little early on.

Not that the early games don’t count as much as the later games; they obviously do. But what’s the use of starting 4-0, then limping into a wildcard spot with a team that blew its wad getting ready for week one.

Also, I don’t mean that in this poorly thought-out that Fisher would just be blowing off the early games. I just mean that he would have them ready and prepared for the whole season, without treating week one like it was the super bowl.

I mention it because of the way they improved last season, and seem like they need to do it again this year. maybe its a stupid idea, but that’s one of my strong suits.

Maddy wrote:

I do wonder why we got so good against the run in the second half of last year, and then we begin the year getting raped by the run. I do not have the football acumen to recognize those causes. I mentioned my frustration once before being caused by my expectation that the defense would pick up where it left off last season. Expectations are the building blocks of disappointment I guess.

One thought that crossed my mind was that Fisher has to pick his poison, in a way. He can go straight to the whip from training camp through preseason, work these guys into midseason shape for the opener, full contact all the way, and then nobody could say they weren’t prepared. I know he tries instead to keep guys fresh, which might mean not exhausting every ounce of energy in camp and preseason. The benefit would be that you have gas in the tank at the end of the year. That is a management strategy, and I have no idea if there’s anything relevant about it for Fisher or these Rams, it’s just a thought that occurred to me. I won’t defend it with any conviction or anything.

If you want to finish the season playing your best ball and keeping guys fresh, rather than committing to busting out of the gate already worked into peak form, because you’ve been around and seen how difficult and unlikely it is to maintain that intensity, excellence, and some fresh legs for the whole season, you might regulate a little early on.

Not that the early games don’t count as much as the later games; they obviously do. But what’s the use of starting 4-0, then limping into a wildcard spot with a team that blew its wad getting ready for week one.

Also, I don’t mean that in this poorly thought-out that Fisher would just be blowing off the early games. I just mean that he would have them ready and prepared for the whole season, without treating week one like it was the super bowl.

I mention it because of the way they improved last season, and seem like they need to do it again this year. maybe its a stupid idea, but that’s one of my strong suits.

Granted we aren’t all-seeing, but I do think there’s something to that view–Fisher prefers to let vets prepare themselves and does not push them, since he prefers preparing for the marathon and not the sprint.

Can that backfire in the early games? Yes and in fact I think in fact it HAS. But so can the opposite way of doing things. I really do think it’s a matter of choosing your poison.

The opposite approach is Seattle’s. They act like every game is a playoff and got ready accordingly. The league even called them on it.

And, right now, both Seattle and the Rams are 1-1. Their defense was ranked #1 last year and is now ranked 12th. Rams defense was was ranked 15th last year and is now ranked 17th.

Maddy wrote:

I figure I’m not pointing out anything that’s not obvious if I suggest that the term “defending super bowl champs” sort of bolsters Seattles’ position.

Well, maybe it doesn’t work year in and year out.

What if for example at the end of the year, Seattle is worn out and beat up, and the Rams are just peaking.

Anyway I don;t think Fisher deliberately goes soft on teams. He just rests the injured. One result of that is that the OL virtually did not play together in the off-season and training camp. If it wasn’t one guy down it was another.

I hate that even though we have the same basic defense, it’s seems to get overhauled every year. There’s no reason why this team should be bad against the run NO REASON

Maddy wrote:

I know what you mean. I was being contrary for fun.

Another thing is that you could burn yourself out for week one and still lose, and still find out that there are things to fix because you don’t learn all those things in half-ass preseason games.

I’m not sure what is sacrificed by not beating a team into shape with full contact, no limit preseason preparation, but sharpness of focus, which leads to rusty tackling and sloppy mistakes makes some sense. I hope the improvement curve is much shorter this time.

Well I think they go and do as much hard contact as they can under the rules.

The issue IMO with the “lax Fisher” thing is injured guys sitting out for precautionary extra healing up time.

But then that has more to do with the OL, I think, than the defense.

Except Laurinaitis…who actually appears to be just fine.

So it’s confusin.

The one thing that’s different this year, other than Wms just changing the system, is that the LBs seem to be asked to take on the blockers more…and are struggling with that, particularly AO.

.

Mackeyser wrote:

Okay… Lemme get into this a little bit.

As others have noticed, teams are game planning around our DL. What we need to do is counter their counter… (insert My Cousin Vinny reference here…hahaha)

GW’s defenses are meant to get pressure and take chances. Unfortunately, teams are trying to beat us with a very vanilla game plan. The first game was a bit of an anomaly, but both games showed us a lot of the same in that respect.

However, our DL is getting closer. Also, what you are missing is that we are getting more TFLs on running plays each week. Each week, we’re improving on shutting down those gaps and ATTACKING the run.

REMEMBER, any new system takes TIME to implement. GWs defense IS new to this defense and they are doing a pretty good job of getting into it.

The Cowboys will be a big test as DeMarco Murray leads the league thus far in rushing. Now, the Rams stuffed Peterson for only 85 yards and the Cowboys don’t have anything like Patterson. So, we’ll see…

I know nothing about X’s and O’s but, I’ve bin-a-watchin
the bucs game on rewind, and sometimes, i get the impression
that the Rams D is ‘slashing upfield’ a bit more than last year.
They are just rocketing upfield and it can lead to TFL’s and big plays,
but it can also lead to big gaps and big plays for the opposing team.
I dunno. Maybe I’m just hallucinating cause of the fried pickles
and fried oreos I’m eating from ‘Munchies,’
the new stoner cafe down the street.

w
v

zn wrote:

Relevant remark by Fisher:
.

We’re not where we need to be in run defense. We’re going to really be tested this week. We have to get better there. We missed too many tackles. We had some run misfits. We’ve got our work cut out for us this week because it seems like yesterday that mess happened in Dallas last year. We have to get significantly better.

Damn run-misfits.

w
v