Rams defense seeking fast start, consistency in 2015

To get there, the Rams will have to eliminate the big plays they had a knack for giving up in 2014. More often than not, those came as a result of a miscommunication or blown coverage on the back end.

Herzog wrote:

This could be a result of blitzing too much.

Yeah sometimes their blitzes bothered me. But I also really do buy the miscommunication theory, along with the misread the play (or screw up the defensive play call) theory, along with the JJ needs to be smacked into discipline theory.

Defense Looks for Continuity to Breed Success

By Myles Simmons

http://www.stlouisrams.com/news-and-events/article-1/Defense-Looks-for-Continuity-to-Breed-Success/7eb7f088-ed2e-4241-9df1-cb8cd559eca0

For all the changes the Rams have made on one side of the ball, what has stayed the same on the other is worth its share of headlines.

With Gregg Williams back, St. Louis has the same defensive coordinator in consecutive years for the first time since head coach Jeff Fisher took over in 2012. And given how well Williams’ unit finished 2014, there are a number of reasons for optimism heading into the season.

“The continuity is awesome,” defensive end Chris Long said during OTAs. “It’s good to have him anyway, but when you have him two years in a row, the young guys have the opportunity to grow in his scheme — learn the scheme and master it.

“Now we’re not spending so much time trying to catch up in the summer,” Long continued. “We’re playing ball.”

The defensive coordinator himself said on Thursday that the unit is “lightyears” ahead of where it was a year ago because of the familiarity.

“Just from a terminology [standpoint] — are we speaking the same language? Do we understand what we really want? It took a little bit of time for all of us to get acclimated last year,” Williams said. “And now we’re hoping we can start off faster this year because there’s a knowledge base of information that we all know is the same.”

“It’s good because you can build a relationship with somebody and you know how they play, know what they want from you,” defensive tackle Aaron Donald said of having Williams back. “You get a lot more comfortable, and I think you play a little bit faster.”

Along with that, Williams said players are now familiar enough in the scheme to make checks and audibles based on what they see from the opposition.

“I’ve given them a lot of tools in their toolbox, but now they understand those tools,” Williams said. “They’ll be making calls out on the field that fit their skill set. They’ll stay in the family of the call, but the call has all kinds of adjustments that fit their skill set. They can do that now because we’ve had all this experience together.”

What the defensive coordinator doesn’t want to do is overwhelm the players by giving them too much to learn and digest. Like he has at each coaching stop, Williams said he’s worked to adapt the Rams’ scheme to best fit the current unit’s strengths.

“We’ve taken [away] some of those things, but then we’ve also added things,” Williams said. “Some of the things we’ve added, they’ve brought to us that they’ve done before in the past. We’ve adapted a couple of things there.”

The defensive coordinator said even the assistant coaches know more about what he expects, and have put in the time to ensure it happens. Williams gave plenty of credit to his defensive staff for assembling individualized video cuts for each of the players to study during OTAs. According to Williams, the clips displayed both strengths and weaknesses to have the best impact on growth and development.

“The coaches went the extra mile,” Williams said.

It helps, too, that the Rams have the vast majority of 2014 defensive contributors still with the club for the upcoming season. Long said having that continuity is awesome.

“It’s something I haven’t experienced a ton around here,” Long said. “We just have to take care of the little things every play and that’s something the continuity will help us do.”

Given how well the defense played down the stretch last year, expectations are high for 2015. And with Williams’ experience in coaching top-flight units, he said there’s a possibility that this defense could turn out to be special.

“We would hope so,” Williams said. “This is a talented group, and in order for us to be that way, there can’t be any miscommunication. One play can beat you one way or another.

“But when they are on the same page,” he continued, “if you see these guys talking — yeah, there’s a chance for them to be special.”

Long agreed with his coordinator’s assessment.

“We’ve sensed that it’s been in the making,” Long said. “We’ve had frustration at times that we weren’t consistent enough. I think that’s something we’re going to harp on — if we are consistently our best we can be as good as we want to be.

“The important thing is trying to impose our will on offenses,” Long added. “I think we don’t have any weaknesses right now, so that’s a wonderful thing.”

IMO…Wms has delivered before. And his ex-players (or the vast majority of them) speak highly of him. But I don’t always like the way he talks. There’s something…off…about it. There’s something that isn’t quite the dignified coach about it. There’s a kind of unctuousness to it. Not always but it’s there.

So I am fine with statements like this:

“The good teams I’ve ever been on, and some of the greatest defenses I’ve ever been a part of, it was much more important to them than it was to me,” Williams said.

Yeah, that’s prodding the D to act like they want it. Saying, talent alone won’t cut it.

But then, and maybe it’s me, there’s that other quality too.

I am not quite putting my finger on it.

Rams defenders aren’t shy about voicing their potential in 2015

elisabeth Meinecke

http://www.foxsports.com/midwest/story/st-louis-rams-defenders-aren-t-shy-about-voicing-their-potential-in-2015-062215

ST. LOUIS — Scary.

That’s how William Hayes is predicting the Rams’ defense will look in its second season under coordinator Gregg Williams.

“Last year, we were going into the season still trying to really get familiar with the scheme,” the defensive end explains. “Guys came in this year with a different mentality. We didn’t come in this year trying to figure things out. We’ve already got everything figured out. We know what’s expected of us. And we know the schemes like the back of our hand. It’s going to be scary this year.”

The unit’s final numbers last year didn’t do its talent justice, thanks to a slow start to the season. Despite two shutouts, the Rams finished 17th in the league in yards allowed last year, though slightly better than average at getting to the opponent’s quarterback (40 sacks, tied for 13th). But the stat that likely hurt most was a 6-10 record, kicked off by a 1-4 start.

The Rams’ defense, however, isn’t shy about its potential this September.

“It’s about time for us to push into that top five defense in almost every statistical category, and I think that’s what we’re aiming to do, and I think that’s what we’re going to accomplish,” says linebacker Jo-Lonn Dunbar. “I think we can go head-to-head with any offense in this league, and I think we can stand toe-to-toe with any defense.”

Or, as defensive end Eugene Sims says: “I wouldn’t say we’ll have to go toe-to-toe with any defense. Any defense will have to go toe-to-toe with us.”

These aren’t idle words, uttered carelessly or naively in the relaxed atmosphere of the offseason. Rams defenders have a healthy confidence in what they can become, and there are several reasons to think they may prove right come fall. For starters, there’s the team’s familiarity with Williams — as Hayes points out, it’s the first time in four years with the Rams that he’ll have had the same coordinator in back-to-back seasons. And Williams has been using that familiarity to harp on the concept of starting fast, so much so that Sims edited one of the alarms on his phone to “fast start.”

“Once we get in meetings (during OTAs) every day, we have a different type of picture — we have a racing picture, we have a racecar, a horse, a snake eating something, that says, ‘Fast start,'” Sims says. “He overemphasizes it every day, so we wake up to it pretty much.”

The theme runs through the entire team.

“We’re preaching start fast. That’s something we haven’t done since I’ve been here,” says Dunbar, who joined the Rams in 2012. “We usually get out of the block 2-2, 1-3, something like that. So I think if we start fast, I think that will give us the momentum to carry on throughout the season.”

One way to help accomplish that, Dunbar says, is by ensuring every practice has a sense of urgency.

“Make sure practice has a sense of urgency. Everything you do as an individual, and as a core, just a sense of urgency. And I think it’s something that if you preach, it’s basically the law of attraction,” he says. “I feel like defense is playing a little faster (in OTAs), a little quicker. I think we’re anticipating a little better.”

But there’s something else, besides the familiarity, that justifies the Rams’ confidence for the upcoming season: an even deeper roster. This offseason, the Rams acquired former first-rounder Nick Fairley, a defensive tackle, from Detroit and linebacker Akeem Ayers, who won a Super Bowl with the Patriots last season. Add those names to a unit that already includes the likes of James Laurinaitis, Chris Long, Aaron Donald, Robert Quinn, E.J. Gaines and Alec Ogletree, and you start to picture the nightmare Hayes was describing for opposing offenses. Entering his eighth NFL season, Hayes has been around long enough to know.

“It’s probably the best group of talented guys I’ve ever played with,” he says. “And I’ve played on some pretty good defenses, especially in Tennessee.”

Williams, meanwhile, appears committed to getting the most out of his roster depth and spoke at the end of OTAs about the variety of packages for his linebacker group, which also includes Dunbar, who is entering his eighth NFL season and won a Super Bowl with the Saints. The coach struck a similar tone when speaking of Fairley’s addition to the defensive front.

“The thing that has been really fun for me to watch is the big eyes that he had when he came in and saw the talent in that room,” Williams said. “We just don’t play four guys or three guys on defense. We try to have as much of a 50-50 split or 45-55 split of a ballgame keeping those guys fresh.”

For someone like Hayes, there’s a personal goal of ensuring his level of play stays consistent with his teammates.

“I don’t want there to be a huge difference from when Chris Long is in the game and when I’m in the game. I don’t want people to say, ‘Well, gosh, if Chris was in the game, that wouldn’t have happened,'” Hayes says. “My goal is never to be the drop-off. When I come in, I want to be the spark. I want excitement when I come in the game. That’s what I thrive on — just trying to be the best football player I can be.”