Two views of James Laurinaitis

There has never been any real
consensus among Ram fans
on the value of JamesL.

Still isn’t.

w
v

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Deadpool
for all the talk about the Ramtastic 4 this offseason and the 60 sacks this defense can possibly generate, for me it all starts and ends with the MLB. He is responsible for getting everyone on the same page and setting the tone for the defense.

I know there are some on this board that prefer a more physical MLB (Blacksheep comes to mind ) and that’s fine. I love a good thumper as much as the next guy. But being a MLB in today’s NFL is a lot more then lining up and blowing up RBs in the hole. Its the little stuff no one likes to talk about because it isn’t sexy or exciting. JL moving a DL 2 ft to the left and he makes a tackle for a loss and the only thing mentioned is what a great play Brockers made. Not the fact that if not for JL moving him over he doesn’t make that play. Or adjusting the LBers and one of them bats down a pass. Great play by ‘tree. Sure it was, but I’m glad JL recognized something and had the defense adjust.
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Laram
I hate to comment in opposition of such a fine post Dead…but I can’t help myself.

The plays come in from the sidelines and JL relays them. He does need to know the plays and where those beside him and in front of him line up. So basically he’s making sure that 7 players are in the right alignment according to the play call.

That does take a certain level of understanding of concepts and recognition. But it ain’t rocket science.

J-lau doesn’t have to look at an offense and call a play. I don’t know that he ever audibles on defense. That I don’t know.

But here is the problem for me and the issue I have with J-lau.

Look down through years of every good/great defense against the run, and they all had great mike play.

The Rams have been BAD against the run for as long as J-lau has been here.

I don’t think that’s a coincidence.
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Deadpool

….here are some interesting defensive numbers from last year:

Yards per rushing attempt: 3.74 good for 3rd best behind the Jets and Cardinals. League average was 4.17

Yards per pass: tied with Miami for 14th at 10.91. League average is 10.90

[www.oddsshark.com]

StL was ran against 1646 times, Seattle was ran against 1626 times. StL defense gave up 102.9 yards per game. Seattle 101.6.

StL ended up being 9th in rushing yards per game. Seattle in a tie for 7th with Denver…

StL was 19th in passing yards/game at 242.1. Seattle was first at 172. SF was 7th at 221, Arizona was 14th at 233.

[espn.go.com]

I was surprised by these numbers TBH. At least against the run. And teams ran the ball against the Rams. 27.5 per game on average or about 20th. Defenses were ran against on average 27.13 times a game.
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Laram
Yes in the second half the Rams got much better against the run. I posted some of those numbers in defense of Walton vs the previous year, so I’m with you there.

BUT..

175 yds to Demarco Murray
141 yds to Foster (He had 100 in 1st qtr)
150 yds to Chris Johnson

Do you see a theme there? Good rb’s good days.
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• This topic was modified 10 years, 3 months ago by wv.