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Rams defense willing to trade completions if it means fewer big plays
By Nick Wagoner
http://espn.go.com/blog/st-louis-ra...trade-completions-if-it-means-fewer-big-plays
EARTH CITY, Mo. -- As the St. Louis Rams defense prepares to finish a three-week run against some of the best quarterbacks in the league with the best of the best in Green Bay's Aaron Rodgers coming Sunday, they figure to face something of a philosophical conundrum.
Over the past two weeks, the Rams have made it abundantly clear that they're fine allowing Pittsburgh's Ben Roethlisberger and Arizona's Carson Palmer to complete plenty of passes so long as none of them go for the type of back-breaking touchdowns that plagued them a year ago.
The idea is simple: Force the offense to be nearly perfect and methodically work its way down the field with short passes while coming up to make tackles. If the offense gets that far, then the defense attempts to limit any scoring to field goals.
For the most part, that approach worked against Roethlisberger and Palmer but Rodgers is a different challenge. Because he's so accurate on the short and long ball, the Rams must strike a balance between being aggressive in coverage and keeping the play in front of them.
"I think you can do both," linebacker James Laurinaitis said. "When you play your safeties deep and you have kind of an angel out there, you can be aggressive knowing that he’s got your back. I think we can kind of have it both ways. We talk all the time about nothing over the top. It doesn’t mean don’t be aggressive. (Coordinator) Gregg (Williams) preaches aggressiveness from everybody. It just means don’t give up a cheap six over the top. So don’t let up a cheap 7 route go for a touchdown. OK, they got 20-something yards but it ain’t six. I think last year, we had problems where the deep balls were 60-70 yards touchdowns. And now, the deep balls are 25-30, it’s not a 70-yard touchdown. That’s really our philosophy."
It's a philosophy that has worked pretty well this year as the Rams have limited the big plays that were too prevalent a year ago.
Through the first four games, the Rams are allowing opposing quarterbacks to complete 75.7 percent of their passes. That's second worst in the league and almost identical to last year when the Rams allowed a 68.1 percent completion percentage which also ranked second worst in the league.
But the difference comes in how far down the field those completions are coming. The Rams were 24th in the league in 2014 in yards per attempt allowed at 7.64. Making matters worse, they allowed 44 pass plays of 20-plus yards, which actually wasn't that bad save for the fact that those plays averaged 31.45 yards per attempt. They also yielded five touchdowns of 40-plus yards, plays that were generally difference makers in the final outcome.
This year, the Rams have trimmed the overall yards per attempt allowed to 7.19, which is currently tied for 16th. While they've given up a league-average 13 pass plays of 20 or more yards, the average yards per attempt on those plays is down to 22.77, lowest in the league. A quarter of the way through the season, the Rams have given up just one touchdown on a pass play of 20-plus yards and the longest pass play against them went for 35 yards.
By way of comparison, Green Bay has given up 11 20-plus yard pass plays with an average of 35.64 yards per attempt.
So while it might be maddening to see the Rams give up so many completions, the altered approach has effectively limited the big plays. Which brings us to this week and Rodgers. Rodgers is so good in all facets of passing that he can carve up defenses in the short game or beat them over the top with the long ball.
Rodgers is fourth in completion percentage (72.4), 10th in yards per attempt (8.09) and tied for sixth in 20-plus yard completions (15). He's had no aversion to taking what defenses give him in the past and since he's less prone to mistakes than guys like Palmer or Roethlisberger, he is probably fine doing it for as long as he needs to.
"You have got to also know how they are going to try to attack you," Laurinaitis said. "We have a really good D-line so what we’ve seen from a lot of teams is quick throws because of that. So if they are going to throw quick like that, why are we playing deeper routes? Anticipate the quicker routes until they show us differently. A lot of times if they run deep stuff we are able to get there. Aaron’s release is so fast. I was watching sports science and they were saying he has the quickest release in the history of the film they have on quarterbacks. It’s not just a fast release but he’s deadly accurate."
Which puts the Rams in an interesting spot where they'll have to pick and choose when to be aggressive in coverage to allow their pass rush to do its job and when to force Rodgers to settle for singles instead of swinging for the fences.
By Nick Wagoner
http://espn.go.com/blog/st-louis-ra...trade-completions-if-it-means-fewer-big-plays
EARTH CITY, Mo. -- As the St. Louis Rams defense prepares to finish a three-week run against some of the best quarterbacks in the league with the best of the best in Green Bay's Aaron Rodgers coming Sunday, they figure to face something of a philosophical conundrum.
Over the past two weeks, the Rams have made it abundantly clear that they're fine allowing Pittsburgh's Ben Roethlisberger and Arizona's Carson Palmer to complete plenty of passes so long as none of them go for the type of back-breaking touchdowns that plagued them a year ago.
The idea is simple: Force the offense to be nearly perfect and methodically work its way down the field with short passes while coming up to make tackles. If the offense gets that far, then the defense attempts to limit any scoring to field goals.
For the most part, that approach worked against Roethlisberger and Palmer but Rodgers is a different challenge. Because he's so accurate on the short and long ball, the Rams must strike a balance between being aggressive in coverage and keeping the play in front of them.
"I think you can do both," linebacker James Laurinaitis said. "When you play your safeties deep and you have kind of an angel out there, you can be aggressive knowing that he’s got your back. I think we can kind of have it both ways. We talk all the time about nothing over the top. It doesn’t mean don’t be aggressive. (Coordinator) Gregg (Williams) preaches aggressiveness from everybody. It just means don’t give up a cheap six over the top. So don’t let up a cheap 7 route go for a touchdown. OK, they got 20-something yards but it ain’t six. I think last year, we had problems where the deep balls were 60-70 yards touchdowns. And now, the deep balls are 25-30, it’s not a 70-yard touchdown. That’s really our philosophy."
It's a philosophy that has worked pretty well this year as the Rams have limited the big plays that were too prevalent a year ago.
Through the first four games, the Rams are allowing opposing quarterbacks to complete 75.7 percent of their passes. That's second worst in the league and almost identical to last year when the Rams allowed a 68.1 percent completion percentage which also ranked second worst in the league.
But the difference comes in how far down the field those completions are coming. The Rams were 24th in the league in 2014 in yards per attempt allowed at 7.64. Making matters worse, they allowed 44 pass plays of 20-plus yards, which actually wasn't that bad save for the fact that those plays averaged 31.45 yards per attempt. They also yielded five touchdowns of 40-plus yards, plays that were generally difference makers in the final outcome.
This year, the Rams have trimmed the overall yards per attempt allowed to 7.19, which is currently tied for 16th. While they've given up a league-average 13 pass plays of 20 or more yards, the average yards per attempt on those plays is down to 22.77, lowest in the league. A quarter of the way through the season, the Rams have given up just one touchdown on a pass play of 20-plus yards and the longest pass play against them went for 35 yards.
By way of comparison, Green Bay has given up 11 20-plus yard pass plays with an average of 35.64 yards per attempt.
So while it might be maddening to see the Rams give up so many completions, the altered approach has effectively limited the big plays. Which brings us to this week and Rodgers. Rodgers is so good in all facets of passing that he can carve up defenses in the short game or beat them over the top with the long ball.
Rodgers is fourth in completion percentage (72.4), 10th in yards per attempt (8.09) and tied for sixth in 20-plus yard completions (15). He's had no aversion to taking what defenses give him in the past and since he's less prone to mistakes than guys like Palmer or Roethlisberger, he is probably fine doing it for as long as he needs to.
"You have got to also know how they are going to try to attack you," Laurinaitis said. "We have a really good D-line so what we’ve seen from a lot of teams is quick throws because of that. So if they are going to throw quick like that, why are we playing deeper routes? Anticipate the quicker routes until they show us differently. A lot of times if they run deep stuff we are able to get there. Aaron’s release is so fast. I was watching sports science and they were saying he has the quickest release in the history of the film they have on quarterbacks. It’s not just a fast release but he’s deadly accurate."
Which puts the Rams in an interesting spot where they'll have to pick and choose when to be aggressive in coverage to allow their pass rush to do its job and when to force Rodgers to settle for singles instead of swinging for the fences.
