Do We Need to Lower Our Expectations of this Rams Defense? --Wagoner

[RamBill]

Do we need to lower our expectations of this Rams defense? Nick Wagoner talks to Randy Karraker and D’Marco Farr about the low performing Rams defense, Austin Davis and the QB controversy, the upcoming tough schedule, and whether the refs have it in for the Rams.

Listen to Wagoner Talk Rams

 

[DaveFan'51]

I'm personally fed-up with Wagoner, and I don't want to hear his pinions on the Rams any longer! He's a Tower of Negativity, and follows the ESPN Line in bashing MY Team!! F--- Him!

 

[Athos]

Nope. Sorry. Not at all.

We've invested SO MUCH in the defense, it should be common in Ram Nation to demand a top ten defense, if not better.

Chris Long --> 1st Round, 2nd Overall (realize he's injured, but still)
Aaron Donald --> 1st Round, 13th Overall
Robert Quinn --> 1st round, 14th Overall
Michael Brockers --> 1st round, 14th Overall
Alec Ogletree --> 1st round, 30th Overall
James Laurinaitis --> 2nd round, 35 th Overall
Janoris Jenkins --> 2nd round, 39th Overall (but pretty much 1st round talent)
Joyner --> 2nd Round, 41st Overall (rookie I know, but still)
Langford --> 3rd rounder, solid
TJ McDonald --> 3rd Round, 71st Overall
Hayes --> 4th rounder, plays like a 2nd rounder

EJ Gaines --> 3rd Round talent.

We have, if you include JJ as a 1st rounder (he would have been, imo, if not for off the field issues)

We have 6 starters taken in the 1st round.
We have 8 players chosen within the first 41 picks of their respective drafts.

This defense, mostly, has been together for awhile now. Quite a bit for the most part. There's no justifiable reason (outside of bogus penalties and holds, and that isn't the whole story) for this unit not to be performing among the best in the NFL.

 

[theramsruleUK]

Nope, if we're not at the very least a top 10 defence, then something has gone horribly wrong

 

[LACHAMP46]

I hate to point fingers (and I want to Williams) maybe we need time to master the scheme...Oh and my personal whipping boy, Rodney McLeod, probably needs to have a seat. Still making mental errors?

Play that kid Mo Alexander, get TJ McDonald in the deep 3rd...

I have no clue about the LB's, they played much better, but we need some more. Esp. on 3rd down.

Scrap that 3-3-5 defense...Esp. on 3rd down....No reason we shouldn't have 4 DL's on the field EVERY PLAY!

 

[Jumava1968]

I I think once the defense learns Williams defensive scheme it will show on the field, playing that vanilla defense throughout preseason certainly did not help in bringing them along with that defense.I'm confident that they will get better week after week but as young as they are bumps in the road are to be expected.

 

[Philly5]

I am starting to realize our defense lacks grit and is not very smart. Assignment football is not our thing.

 

[Mackeyser]

Three things...

1) And this can't be understated. Outside of Super Bowl 36, I dunno if I've seen such blatant non-calls go against a team as what I'm seeing. That non-call on Langford where he got thrown to the ground at Romo's feet as he threw that TD to Dez Bryant... disgusting. Three officials are watching the QB at that point including 2 line judges. To not see a throw down at the QBs feet as he's releasing a pass? That's just willful. This defense has been hammered both by non-calls and blatantly erroneous, game-changing calls against it.

2) McGee. He's just not ready. While McLeod makes mistakes and the secondary needs to communicate better, McGee is just not ready. QBs focus on him and it was clear seeing him live that he's just late breaking on the ball. Forget interceptions with McGee. With this youngster, we're lucky if the opposing WR doesn't break a long gain. In the Tampa game, the only reason Evans didn't break for a TD was McLeod nearly broke Evans' hip with a crushing hit after only 8 yards. McGee was trailing the play so badly, he would never have caught Evans. Trumaine Johnson can't come back at a more opportune time.

3) Scheme. This Defense really is adjusting to this scheme...much more slowly than anticipated. They seem to really get it at times. Look at our run defense. Teams either run for nothing...or gash us. And they only need to gash us a few times. So they run the ball 25 times. 20 of those times will be for like 50 yards or so including more than half of those for zero or negative yards. Which is really damn good. But... the other 5 runs... ouch. Now, sometimes, the refs have hurt our run D, but when they haven't, this D has hurt itself. Same goes for Pass D. Play mostly well, but then... This scheme isn't one I'm familiar with. I DO know that it requires blitzers and dawgs. Unfortunately, in the last two games, GW can't seem to find anyone in the secondary who can blitz worth a damn. And what's with all these DL schemes where the DTs push upfield leaving huge gaping holes for the QBs to just run to miles of daylight? What ever happened to creating a pocket and collapsing that pocket? I mean, it's one thing for the DEs to push up field a bit, but to simply sprint upfield almost 12 yards is to take yourself out of the dang play, especially when offenses aren't doing 7 step drops against us!

Here's hoping that GW wises up to what's actually going on in front of him versus trying to fit his square peg into the round hole. If he doesn't have guys who can blitz, then don't. Play tight man and get coverage sacks. Spy the QB and run delay dawgs with LBs if he's got a straight shot.