The way to beat the Rams defense

[Irish]

Play man coverage and knock the QB on his ass. QBs like Cassel can read zones because they have been doing it since high school and especially college, but man to man is more difficult to read because you can't really make pre snap reads other than personnel.

Cassel was so poised yesterday because he could break the zone down before getting under center. They weren't doing any crazy Mad Mike/Air Coryell passing routes, just simple patterns that take advantage of basic zones.

If we line up man to man and Jenkins, Joyner, and Gaines get beat by better players, well, they were better players. But don't allow marginal back up quality QBs to beat you simply because you play to the only strength they have, which more often than not is zone recognition.

 

[Ramathon]

Exactly I feel like ogletree and Dubar was a let down. Ogletree actually let Brockers beat him all the way down the field to stop Patterson. He has to be an factor on defense.

I noticed Brockers on that play as well. Gotta love a big man who will chase a speedster like Patterson that far down the field.

 

[Ramathon]

Okay, I think the book is out on how to neutralize our defense.
Green Bay did it a couple weeks ago, and MN did it today.

Quick passes to the sidelines, misdirection runs, (end arounds, etc) and screen passes.
All of those plays were devastating to our defense. We tend to over pursue, and get caught out of position.
Teams know better than to take 7 step drops and wait for plays to develop downfield.

How are we going to adjust if every team plays like that against us this year?

If I were in Fisher/Williams shoes today, I would make one thing a point of focus for the D......'Just know your assignment and just do your job'. It's probably a symptom of the youth on D, but a good portion of the undisciplined play seems too often related to someone trying to make a 'hero' play. Jenkins got absolutely juked out of his shoes twice on the Patterson td run. If he'd have just 'herded cats', I doubt Patterson would have scored.

IMO, it's become a signature of this D in the Fisher years to play very good ball for 2 out of 3 series, but get absolutely gashed on the 3rd. And if they experience a reversal of that and get gashed on 2 out of 3 series in a stretch of 3, then they just seem to fall apart and everyone gets a case of hero-itis trying to make that one big play that might turn things around. If I were Williams, any time a 'gash series' occurs, I'd pull the entire D off to the side and just say....'Okay, we weren't so hot on that last series. But that series is done and gone. Forget about it and wipe it from your memory. And remember the next time you're out there......Do your job. Nothing more. Don't be a hero, don't worry about the highlight reel. Just do your assignment.'

Doing that won't likely make a major impact immediately, but over time it might.

 

[T-REX]

The way to beat our defense? Just wait till they wear out from being on the field for so log.

Unfortunately the RAMS won the TOP battle 31:43 to 28:17, just saying. I agree that the O put the D in some tough spots but the D didn’t do anything to help themselves, 1 sack and 0 turnovers. They need to play better than that

 

[Fatbot]

Unfortunately the RAMS won the TOP battle 31:43 to 28:17, just saying. I agree that the O put the D in some tough spots but the D didn’t do anything to help themselves, 1 sack and 0 turnovers. They need to play better than that

I agree with this. And it wasn't even a lot of tough spots. First drive the Vikings started on their own 10 and still got 3 points. Much of the time MIN had bad starting field position -- three drives started at their own 10 yard line or less! The defense should have been snarling and drooling to pin them back into a safety, a turnover, or at the very least 3-and-out.

The drives that Minnesota didn't have awful/bad starting field position were:
- at their own 40 (FG)
- at the Rams 35 (TD)
- at their own 33 (TD)
- at their own 30 (punt)
- at their own 30 (TD)

That's not a great result for a defense that wants to be elite. Elite defenses have the mentality when the offense makes a mistake and coughs up a short field, they aren't going to let the other team score, they get even tougher. Rams defense did not have a killer instinct, hopefully they will get it going.