Should the defense be better?

I think they need to trade Donald and Ramsey for some kind of elite, high end talent type of player.

Seems to me that they are playing more zone this year, and that last year, they played more man-to-man, and they were better last year.

Seems to me that the safe bet is that both the scheme and the personnel are partly responsible. Clearly, Johnson is much better than Rapp. Hill is better than Long.

I dunno any more than that.

i’m not sure what Raheem’s strategy is….

he seems to use blitzes as a tactic in panic mode… i see no real adjustments nor consistent approach on defense from the Rams………… Morris certainly didn’t do anything different in the 2nd half of the Cardinal game….defense seemed to get worse….

I’m worried about this DC… he’s certainly no Brandon Staley, that’s for damn sure.

IMO? Morris doesn’t scheme for them and prep them the way Staley did. It’s partly that it’s not his defense. It may partly be that Morris has never had a strong defense where he was either the DC or the HC with a defensive orientation. It may be that Morris is McVay’s Marmie.

I also know that according to PFF stats, Donald had one of the worst games of his career the other day:

Kyle Odegard@Kyle_Odegard
Aaron Donald had a @PFF pass-rushing grade of 51.5 against the Cardinals, the lowest of his career.

What else? Well among other things, Arizona knew how to pick on Long. The Rams run D in general is poor, which hurts everything else too (they’re 27th in yards per attempt allowed).

It could be that Morris isn’t moving too fast when facing the double whammy of both coaching a team he doesn;t know and that doesn’t know him, while also learning a scheme that is not his.

I will say this though–the Rams were disappointing all around on Sunday, and that’s an old pattern. They have sometimes underperformed the week after getting it up to beat either a tough opponent or a team they want to beat bad (like the Patz last year).

Here’s that pattern:

They beat Tampa on the road last year then lost to SF the following week.
They beat the Patz decisively last year then lost to the Jets the following week.
In 2019 they beat Chicago to make up for the 2018 loss to them, and then the following week were no-shows against Baltimore.

Those are just some games that come to mind. It’s a pattern we’ve seen before and I don’t like it much.

Deadpool

this isn’t all on Morris

top defenses, for one reason or another, usually see a drop-off the next season. don’t believe me? here you go: [www.pff.com: https://www.pff.com/news/nfl-defensive-regression-offense-los-angeles-rams-skeptical-2021 ]

So some of this was expected I guess.

The other issue that’s out of Morris’ hands is personnel change. JJ3 was incredible in this defense and Hill was so much better than Long. Fuller will be fine, but Rapp is a big nickel, not a split zone safety. I was really hoping Burgess would grab that other safety spot.

lastly, wth is up with Williams. last year he gave up 34 catches on 68 attempts. this year, he has already given up 20 receptions on 29 attempts. he’s on pace to see 4 times the amount of passes he saw last season.

it’s hard to say it’s Morris’ scheme messing with him when Ramsey is still the 5th ranked CB.

What I think Morris could get better at is disguising the coverage presnap. And he has to generate a pass rush somehow. these dbs cannot cover forever. And by that, I mean he is going to have to scheme a pass rush, given this team’s lack of pass rush talent.

Lastly, Kenny Young is not a starting ILB. But for whatever reason, this is the best the Rams can do. so the run defense will struggle with him in there. The answer? Right now there isn’t one. But I’m hoping Earnest Jones can win that job sooner than later.

So I’m in the camp of “it’s multiple issues, not just the coach or not just the players”.

1 thing I know for sure: Williams needs to step his game up or Morris needs to do a better job of putting Williams in a better position to play better. After that, I think the D will be ok.

wv wrote:

Well, the Seattle game will be interesting. If Russell Wilson
and the Hawks eviscerate them the way the Cards did,
its gonna be a disappointing year.

The NFC doesnt have a super-team, so no team looks unbeatable.
Wouldnt surprise me if a team like Dallas gets hot at the end
of the year.

w
v

Will you switch your allegiance from Seattle to Dallas if that happens?

Statistically, the Rams were better on D last season through Week 5, clearly.

Their 4 wins, however, were all against the NFC East, the worst division in football, and they lost to the only team that had a winning record.

This season, their 4 victories are all against playoff teams from last season. Just on the basis of difficulty of schedule, you would expect the D to give up more in this stretch than they did last year.

And now a soft stretch for the Rams. Maybe we can invite Nittany back in 4 weeks to post again, once he’s finished serving his suspension.

Maybe they should bring Bud Carson on board as a consultant.

zn wrote:

nittany ram wrote:

Maybe they should bring Bud Carson on board as a consultant.

Is Morris Giunta? Or Marmie?

Inquiring analogy addicts want to know.

He’s a little bit of both. He’s Giumie.

Herzog wrote:

Fuck this soft zone

‘Zine it.