20 Random Getting Defensive Thoughts

[AvengerRam]

1. Man, I love beating the Seahawks.

2. I have to confess that I was surprised, not by the outcome, but the route we took to get the win. I expected that we'd have to beat them at their own game (I predicted a 31-27 win). Instead, we made them play our game.

3. Its a little bit shocking that "our game" is defense, running the ball, and managing the clock. Jeff Fisher is smiling somewhere.

4. Can't say enough about the defense. They did an outstanding job of shutting down the big plays and pressuring Russell Wilson.

5. THAT is why you pay Jalen Ramsey.

6. Aaron Donald didn't have a stat line to remember, but when Leonard Floyd gets 3 sacks, Terrell Lewis gets 2, and Michael Brockers gets 1, Donald deserves at least 3 thank you notes.

7. Any edge rusher in the final year of his contract looking to bolster his stock for free agency should want to play with Donald. Heck... I might be able to manage 2 or 3 sacks if I played on his defense.

8. Darious Williams has been a true find for this team.

9. A'Shawn Robinson looks like he'll be a good addition to the DL.

10. If Terrell Lewis can stay away from the injury bug, he's going to be a quality NFL player.

11. As for the offense... there were some good things. The RB trio did a nice job, and Goff was efficient generally effective.

12. While I get that part of the strategy was to shorten the game, I thought the Rams really missed the opportunity to put the game away in the early 4th quarter. I'm not sure if teams are adjusting or if McVay is just taking his foot off the gas, but the offense can go from looking unstoppable to "figured out" pretty quickly.

13. There is NO EXCUSE for getting to the line so late that we risk delay of game penalties or are forced to use time outs. I feel like there is sometimes too much thought, rather than just snapping the ball and beating the defense.

14. I hope the Rams didn't throw away that "Kicker Wanted: Inquire Within" sign they had on the bulletin board a few weeks ago.

15. Some really poor kick coverage as well. No Bones about it!

16. See what I did there?

17. Next week is an interesting game. If you were to pick one game on the remaining schedule to designate as a game that you kind of expect and, on some level, can accept a loss, this would be it. Sounds like a perfect time to steal a win!

18. Andrew Whitworth's injury is a bummer. I hope he is able to come back and finish out the year. In the meantime, now is when we find out if Joe Noteboom (who I've always thought is more suited for LT than OG) is a keeper (or, if he fails, could we see Edwards at LT and Evans back at OG). That one is worth watching.

19. Josh Reynolds had a nice game, but I have to believe he's auditioning for other teams. With other mouths to feed (John Johnson at the top of the list), and Van Jefferson behind him, I think he'll be a luxury we can't afford next year.

20. WE'RE IN FIRST PLACE!!!! What....? Hopkins caught that pass? Wow. WE'RE ALMOST IN FIRST PLACE!!!

 

[FrantikRam]

This defense has only actually given up 147 points in 9 games - we've allowed 3 D/ST TDs this year so far.

Miami also got another turnover down to the one yard line - so if we took that away, 140 points.

But sticking to 147, that's 16.33 points per game. Even with the 3 D/ST TDs allowed, we're still 2nd in PPG allowed and almost right there with the Ravens.

 

[FrantikRam]

So about Tampa Bay - I don't think the Rams have a shot.

Their defense is right behind ours in yards allowed, top 10 in points allowed, and right there with us in sacks. This is the exact type of defense that usually befuddles Goff and McVay.

 

[Merlin]

So about Tampa Bay - I don't think the Rams have a shot.

Their defense is right behind ours in yards allowed, top 10 in points allowed, and right there with us in sacks. This is the exact type of defense that usually befuddles Goff and McVay.

I don't like the Tampa matchup either (agree our offense will probably struggle) but we certainly have a shot. We had a shot vs Miami even after 4 turnovers because of our defense. I expect it'll be a tight defensive playoff-type atmosphere.

 

[simonblaze]

I think Tampa will come out rolling for sure. I'm glad to have Fuller back, he really solidifies the backend with JJ. It does suck losing Rapp to IR, he was really starting to come on playing near the LOS/defending the short pass game. I really hope Staley isn't a goner after the season. If Coordinator of the Year was a thing, it'd be his...

 

[Angry Ram]

So about Tampa Bay - I don't think the Rams have a shot.

Their defense is right behind ours in yards allowed, top 10 in points allowed, and right there with us in sacks. This is the exact type of defense that usually befuddles Goff and McVay.

I ain't scurrrrred

 

[Flint]

1. Man, I love beating the Seahawks.

2. I have to confess that I was surprised, not by the outcome, but the route we took to get the win. I expected that we'd have to beat them at their own game (I predicted a 31-27 win). Instead, we made them play our game.

3. Its a little bit shocking that "our game" is defense, running the ball, and managing the clock. Jeff Fisher is smiling somewhere.

4. Can't say enough about the defense. They did an outstanding job of shutting down the big plays and pressuring Russell Wilson.

5. THAT is why you pay Jalen Ramsey.

6. Aaron Donald didn't have a stat line to remember, but when Leonard Floyd gets 3 sacks, Terrell Lewis gets 2, and Michael Brockers gets 1, Donald deserves at least 3 thank you notes.

7. Any edge rusher in the final year of his contract looking to bolster his stock for free agency should want to play with Donald. Heck... I might be able to manage 2 or 3 sacks if I played on his defense.

8. Darious Williams has been a true find for this team.

9. A'Shawn Robinson looks like he'll be a good addition to the DL.

10. If Terrell Lewis can stay away from the injury bug, he's going to be a quality NFL player.

11. As for the offense... there were some good things. The RB trio did a nice job, and Goff was efficient generally effective.

12. While I get that part of the strategy was to shorten the game, I thought the Rams really missed the opportunity to put the game away in the early 4th quarter. I'm not sure if teams are adjusting or if McVay is just taking his foot off the gas, but the offense can go from looking unstoppable to "figured out" pretty quickly.

13. There is NO EXCUSE for getting to the line so late that we risk delay of game penalties or are forced to use time outs. I feel like there is sometimes too much thought, rather than just snapping the ball and beating the defense.

14. I hope the Rams didn't throw away that "Kicker Wanted: Inquire Within" sign they had on the bulletin board a few weeks ago.

15. Some really poor kick coverage as well. No Bones about it!

16. See what I did there?

17. Next week is an interesting game. If you were to pick one game on the remaining schedule to designate as a game that you kind of expect and, on some level, can accept a loss, this would be it. Sounds like a perfect time to steal a win!

18. Andrew Whitworth's injury is a bummer. I hope he is able to come back and finish out the year. In the meantime, now is when we find out if Joe Noteboom (who I've always thought is more suited for LT than OG) is a keeper (or, if he fails, could we see Edwards at LT and Evans back at OG). That one is worth watching.

19. Josh Reynolds had a nice game, but I have to believe he's auditioning for other teams. With other mouths to feed (John Johnson at the top of the list), and Van Jefferson behind him, I think he'll be a luxury we can't afford next year.

20. WE'RE IN FIRST PLACE!!!! What....? Hopkins caught that pass? Wow. WE'RE ALMOST IN FIRST PLACE!!!

1. The Rams have been on a roll with the Hags lately, they always have gotten after Wilson.
2. It was a little surprising, if there was a time to go all Mike Martz it would be against the worst pass defense in football. The had some success running the ball though but it seems like the Rams rarely run it after after a big run.
Higs and Everett did some good work, I thought they could’ve gone back to them especially after they barely missed on a big play.
3.Except you need a good kicking game if you play that style.
4. Working guys back in from injury should make them even better.
5. Some were slamming the Rams for signing Ramsey but having a guy like that and being willing to use him everywhere is huge.
6.Even though he didn’t show up on the stat sheet AD made sure Russell didn’t forget about him which is probably smart.
7. I hope we don’t have to find a guy EVERY year.
8. Seems like someone you don’t want to throw at, quite the dilemma.
9. too lazy to look up his snap count, but I am curious.
10. Looks like a great situation for a rookie to learn.
11. I thought all the rbs did good but I get the feeling Hendo can really break some big runs if he could get more touches.
12. This kinda worries me, Rams win TOP and the turnover battle, sack Wilson and knock him around and only manage to win by 7. Is McVay relying on his defense and protecting Goff or is the offense just sputtering?
13. It does make you crazy but it’s probably as much McVay as Goff if not more, I dunno how they can improve this it’s been an issue.
14. I hope they can figure this out, most playoff worthy teams have at least an average kicker.
15. Luckily part of the answer can be as simple as touchbacks.
17. As always if you can pressure Brady without blitzing you can make him average but you need to score, but as we saw against the panthers their d can change the game too. The Bucs blew that game open in like 5 minutes, hopefully we can run it without the big guy.
18. maybe this injury will convince McVay to not expose his inexperienced LT to a fearsome pass rush by running the ball then running it some more.
19. Reynolds did have a good game but he missed a couple too that could’ve kept drives going. Still not sure what he’s best at, can he be a deep threat, is he a rac guy, jump ball specialist?
20. The Kyler Murray legend grows, holy shit, knock it down. Usually Hail Marys are like mosh pits but Hop was able to go right over those guys. As Chuck would say “that was turrible”.

 

[CGI_Ram]

While I get that part of the strategy was to shorten the game, I thought the Rams really missed the opportunity to put the game away in the early 4th quarter. I'm not sure if teams are adjusting or if McVay is just taking his foot off the gas

There is NO EXCUSE for getting to the line so late that we risk delay of game penalties or are forced to use time outs.

Yeah, even in a win there remains work. These are on my list.

The Rams need to develop a kill shot.

And... the time management seems more of an issue this year? Probably no way to pull data on this one.

17. Next week is an interesting game. If you were to pick one game on the remaining schedule to designate as a game that you kind of expect and, on some level, can accept a loss, this would be it. Sounds like a perfect time to steal a win!

This is a chance for a defining point, stacking a Tampa win on top of Seattle. A lot of playoff momentum could come from that.

 

[TexasRam]

Nice points all around.

A few observation from watch 3 of the Seattle game:

1. I count at least 3 sacks due to blitzing Kiser. He created flushing of Wilson or caused blockers to get beaten on 1 on 1 moves. In the 3rd quarter on back to back sacks and on the Lewis sack, the sacks can be attributed to Kiser. Also, it's hard to see why this works until you watch it closely. When Kiser blitzes it leaves a man wide open over the middle, but because Wilson didn't anticipate the blitz or see the wide open guy, the blitz worked. When you watch the film you see Wilsons read was to the sideline so the wide open man over the middle was a later progression and that is real hard to come back to in milliseconds - when the blitz gets home. Sometimes the alignment may suggest where the ball is going and its possible that pregame film study by Staley understood this and thus called the blitz in those situations. At the end of the day, blitzing Kiser is becoming very effective, it frees up one on one matchups and we have the guys that can beat their one on ones and or take down the flushing QB, even a quick guy like Wilson.

2. The drops. Key WR drops by Everett, Reynolds and Woods. Woods was hit hard so not going to knock him there, it was a perfect hit. Reynolds and Everett though, geez I don't see how Goff doesn't get upset, those are key drops. I swear I dropped some F bombs on those drops and scared the shit out of my 8 year old daughter. Reynolds also had a holding call on a huge Hendo run. But on the Reynolds deep slant drop, some top end WR's can take that to the house. It really make me wonder how much better our offense could be if we had an elite explosive player or two. We have solid WR's and RB's but nothing like Gurley in his prime or a Tarik Hill, Nuke, or Devante Adams type. Therefore we need guys to catch balls as we matriculate the ball down the field with the lack of explosion, drops in this offense with these players are extra deflating. It's actually a weekly occurence now when you think back to Kupp's TD drop vs the Niners and several others.

3. TE play. Goff overthrew Higbee on a shot we took on third and 4 (I believe) to put the Hawks away in the 4th quarter. I liked the call as we were up by 10 and had the game in the bag. Goff was just barely off the mark, though it does appear Higbee slowed down the route just a tad. The more important thing to notice in this game is just how great of a WR option Higbee is becoming. He really runs excellent routes and is getting excellent separation on his routes. He might be a key down the stretch for us now that he is healthy. I can see him taking over and becoming a Travis Kelsey impact type. I hope Mcvay really utilizes him. He's also great on those TE Screens, though Seattle sniffed those out and Wagner played them perfectly. Higbee's blocking it so critical to our run game. Against Seattle he missed several blocks that really hurt us. You can see this if you care to slow down the film and look closely. Between Higbee and Everett, if those two could get their act together in the run game, we would just roll teams. It's pretty frustrating when you rewind the game and see why a play broke down in the run game. It's usually on one of those usual suspects. Adding a top blocking TE seems like a must for this system and I hope Mcvay goes that direction when we lose Everett in the offseason. On the subject of run blocking, Havenstein and Corbett had some huge blocks, Corbett did miss a delayed blitz pickup though that resulted in a sack, killing a drive.

4. The Tampa game. Not to overstate the game but if we can pull out the win we have an excellent shot at the #1 or #2 seed. Easier said than done but if we play our game we can beat Tampa. The Cardinals are going to be a pesky team but we are overall a better team. The only teams in the NFC that can beat us when we are on our "A" game are the Saints, Tampa and GB. The Saints are down Brees for a few weeks so may drop some games. The Pack have games vs Tennessee, Indy and 2x the Bears. Saints play Chiefs, Vikings - who are playing better - and 2 games vs Atlanta the next few weeks. Atlanta has been playing better. I predict if we beat Tampa we will finish 12-4. That should put us in tie breaker scenario's against GB and Saints for top seeds. If we lose to Tampa we are looking at 11-5 or maybe 10-6 which will put us in the wildcard class.

5. Defensive scheming. Besides the already mentioned blitzing Staley is doing a great job with throwing off enemy intel. Earlier in the year we hear about Ramsey playing the star position. He has at times. But notice against the Hawks he went almost exclusively man up on WR 1 Metcalf. This had to of thrown off Seattle. This type of unpredictability in scheme is a big part of success on the field that I am sure most fans don't see. Forcing Seattle to adjust game plan game when the game actually starts is half the battle. Unpredictability is next level. It's where the Belichick's of the world live. Well actually Bill lives in the cheating world as well, but I digress. Scheme and playcall can determine outcome. See the Miami game. Coaching in the NFL is so underrated. We need to outcoach Tampa.

6. Defense wins Championships. Weird to think about but if we can find a way to shut down Tampa we move into the #1 defense in the NFL in PPG. Easier said then done as they can put up 40 burgers and now have Brown in the fold with a healthy Godwin back in the fold. Are we really that good. Honestly I don't know. I can see us shutting them down and sacking Brady relentlessly. I can also see us falling apart and giving up 40. But if we do show up and dominate defensively we will be the talk of the town. When was the last time the Rams were the #1 defense in the NFL. Defenses tend to win Championships. Imagine going into the playoffs with a #1 defense.

 

[Flint]

Nice points all around.

A few observation from watch 3 of the Seattle game:

1. I count at least 3 sacks due to blitzing Kiser. He created flushing of Wilson or caused blockers to get beaten on 1 on 1 moves. In the 3rd quarter on back to back sacks and on the Lewis sack, the sacks can be attributed to Kiser. Also, it's hard to see why this works until you watch it closely. When Kiser blitzes it leaves a man wide open over the middle, but because Wilson didn't anticipate the blitz or see the wide open guy, the blitz worked. When you watch the film you see Wilsons read was to the sideline so the wide open man over the middle was a later progression and that is real hard to come back to in milliseconds - when the blitz gets home. Sometimes the alignment may suggest where the ball is going and its possible that pregame film study by Staley understood this and thus called the blitz in those situations. At the end of the day, blitzing Kiser is becoming very effective, it frees up one on one matchups and we have the guys that can beat their one on ones and or take down the flushing QB, even a quick guy like Wilson.

2. The drops. Key WR drops by Everett, Reynolds and Woods. Woods was hit hard so not going to knock him there, it was a perfect hit. Reynolds and Everett though, geez I don't see how Goff doesn't get upset, those are key drops. I swear I dropped some F bombs on those drops and scared the shit out of my 8 year old daughter. Reynolds also had a holding call on a huge Hendo run. But on the Reynolds deep slant drop, some top end WR's can take that to the house. It really make me wonder how much better our offense could be if we had an elite explosive player or two. We have solid WR's and RB's but nothing like Gurley in his prime or a Tarik Hill, Nuke, or Devante Adams type. Therefore we need guys to catch balls as we matriculate the ball down the field with the lack of explosion, drops in this offense with these players are extra deflating. It's actually a weekly occurence now when you think back to Kupp's TD drop vs the Niners and several others.

3. TE play. Goff overthrew Higbee on a shot we took on third and 4 (I believe) to put the Hawks away in the 4th quarter. I liked the call as we were up by 10 and had the game in the bag. Goff was just barely off the mark, though it does appear Higbee slowed down the route just a tad. The more important thing to notice in this game is just how great of a WR option Higbee is becoming. He really runs excellent routes and is getting excellent separation on his routes. He might be a key down the stretch for us now that he is healthy. I can see him taking over and becoming a Travis Kelsey impact type. I hope Mcvay really utilizes him. He's also great on those TE Screens, though Seattle sniffed those out and Wagner played them perfectly. Higbee's blocking it so critical to our run game. Against Seattle he missed several blocks that really hurt us. You can see this if you care to slow down the film and look closely. Between Higbee and Everett, if those two could get their act together in the run game, we would just roll teams. It's pretty frustrating when you rewind the game and see why a play broke down in the run game. It's usually on one of those usual suspects. Adding a top blocking TE seems like a must for this system and I hope Mcvay goes that direction when we lose Everett in the offseason. On the subject of run blocking, Havenstein and Corbett had some huge blocks, Corbett did miss a delayed blitz pickup though that resulted in a sack, killing a drive.

4. The Tampa game. Not to overstate the game but if we can pull out the win we have an excellent shot at the #1 or #2 seed. Easier said than done but if we play our game we can beat Tampa. The Cardinals are going to be a pesky team but we are overall a better team. The only teams in the NFC that can beat us when we are on our "A" game are the Saints, Tampa and GB. The Saints are down Brees for a few weeks so may drop some games. The Pack have games vs Tennessee, Indy and 2x the Bears. Saints play Chiefs, Vikings - who are playing better - and 2 games vs Atlanta the next few weeks. Atlanta has been playing better. I predict if we beat Tampa we will finish 12-4. That should put us in tie breaker scenario's against GB and Saints for top seeds. If we lose to Tampa we are looking at 11-5 or maybe 10-6 which will put us in the wildcard class.

5. Defensive scheming. Besides the already mentioned blitzing Staley is doing a great job with throwing off enemy intel. Earlier in the year we hear about Ramsey playing the star position. He has at times. But notice against the Hawks he went almost exclusively man up on WR 1 Metcalf. This had to of thrown off Seattle. This type of unpredictability in scheme is a big part of success on the field that I am sure most fans don't see. Forcing Seattle to adjust game plan game when the game actually starts is half the battle. Unpredictability is next level. It's where the Belichick's of the world live. Well actually Bill lives in the cheating world as well, but I digress. Scheme and playcall can determine outcome. See the Miami game. Coaching in the NFL is so underrated. We need to outcoach Tampa.

6. Defense wins Championships. Weird to think about but if we can find a way to shut down Tampa we move into the #1 defense in the NFL in PPG. Easier said then done as they can put up 40 burgers and now have Brown in the fold with a healthy Godwin back in the fold. Are we really that good. Honestly I don't know. I can see us shutting them down and sacking Brady relentlessly. I can also see us falling apart and giving up 40. But if we do show up and dominate defensively we will be the talk of the town. When was the last time the Rams were the #1 defense in the NFL. Defenses tend to win Championships. Imagine going into the playoffs with a #1 defense.

I hope they can get after Brady, the Buc’s line is better than Seattle but you don’t have to worry about Brady spinning out of a sack and throwing deep... and AD got shut out, I bet that’s not sitting well.
i hadn’t thought about the lack of a home run threat but I think Akers and Hendo have that potential but it seems like after a big run McVay always goes away from it. Sometimes he’s too smart, just keep handing it off, and Brown is an excellent short yardage guy who doesn’t need perfect blocking.
Matriculating, nice!

 

[FarNorth]

Nice points all around.

A few observation from watch 3 of the Seattle game:

1. I count at least 3 sacks due to blitzing Kiser. He created flushing of Wilson or caused blockers to get beaten on 1 on 1 moves. In the 3rd quarter on back to back sacks and on the Lewis sack, the sacks can be attributed to Kiser. Also, it's hard to see why this works until you watch it closely. When Kiser blitzes it leaves a man wide open over the middle, but because Wilson didn't anticipate the blitz or see the wide open guy, the blitz worked. When you watch the film you see Wilsons read was to the sideline so the wide open man over the middle was a later progression and that is real hard to come back to in milliseconds - when the blitz gets home. Sometimes the alignment may suggest where the ball is going and its possible that pregame film study by Staley understood this and thus called the blitz in those situations. At the end of the day, blitzing Kiser is becoming very effective, it frees up one on one matchups and we have the guys that can beat their one on ones and or take down the flushing QB, even a quick guy like Wilson.

2. The drops. Key WR drops by Everett, Reynolds and Woods. Woods was hit hard so not going to knock him there, it was a perfect hit. Reynolds and Everett though, geez I don't see how Goff doesn't get upset, those are key drops. I swear I dropped some F bombs on those drops and scared the shit out of my 8 year old daughter. Reynolds also had a holding call on a huge Hendo run. But on the Reynolds deep slant drop, some top end WR's can take that to the house. It really make me wonder how much better our offense could be if we had an elite explosive player or two. We have solid WR's and RB's but nothing like Gurley in his prime or a Tarik Hill, Nuke, or Devante Adams type. Therefore we need guys to catch balls as we matriculate the ball down the field with the lack of explosion, drops in this offense with these players are extra deflating. It's actually a weekly occurence now when you think back to Kupp's TD drop vs the Niners and several others.

3. TE play. Goff overthrew Higbee on a shot we took on third and 4 (I believe) to put the Hawks away in the 4th quarter. I liked the call as we were up by 10 and had the game in the bag. Goff was just barely off the mark, though it does appear Higbee slowed down the route just a tad. The more important thing to notice in this game is just how great of a WR option Higbee is becoming. He really runs excellent routes and is getting excellent separation on his routes. He might be a key down the stretch for us now that he is healthy. I can see him taking over and becoming a Travis Kelsey impact type. I hope Mcvay really utilizes him. He's also great on those TE Screens, though Seattle sniffed those out and Wagner played them perfectly. Higbee's blocking it so critical to our run game. Against Seattle he missed several blocks that really hurt us. You can see this if you care to slow down the film and look closely. Between Higbee and Everett, if those two could get their act together in the run game, we would just roll teams. It's pretty frustrating when you rewind the game and see why a play broke down in the run game. It's usually on one of those usual suspects. Adding a top blocking TE seems like a must for this system and I hope Mcvay goes that direction when we lose Everett in the offseason. On the subject of run blocking, Havenstein and Corbett had some huge blocks, Corbett did miss a delayed blitz pickup though that resulted in a sack, killing a drive.

4. The Tampa game. Not to overstate the game but if we can pull out the win we have an excellent shot at the #1 or #2 seed. Easier said than done but if we play our game we can beat Tampa. The Cardinals are going to be a pesky team but we are overall a better team. The only teams in the NFC that can beat us when we are on our "A" game are the Saints, Tampa and GB. The Saints are down Brees for a few weeks so may drop some games. The Pack have games vs Tennessee, Indy and 2x the Bears. Saints play Chiefs, Vikings - who are playing better - and 2 games vs Atlanta the next few weeks. Atlanta has been playing better. I predict if we beat Tampa we will finish 12-4. That should put us in tie breaker scenario's against GB and Saints for top seeds. If we lose to Tampa we are looking at 11-5 or maybe 10-6 which will put us in the wildcard class.

5. Defensive scheming. Besides the already mentioned blitzing Staley is doing a great job with throwing off enemy intel. Earlier in the year we hear about Ramsey playing the star position. He has at times. But notice against the Hawks he went almost exclusively man up on WR 1 Metcalf. This had to of thrown off Seattle. This type of unpredictability in scheme is a big part of success on the field that I am sure most fans don't see. Forcing Seattle to adjust game plan game when the game actually starts is half the battle. Unpredictability is next level. It's where the Belichick's of the world live. Well actually Bill lives in the cheating world as well, but I digress. Scheme and playcall can determine outcome. See the Miami game. Coaching in the NFL is so underrated. We need to outcoach Tampa.

6. Defense wins Championships. Weird to think about but if we can find a way to shut down Tampa we move into the #1 defense in the NFL in PPG. Easier said then done as they can put up 40 burgers and now have Brown in the fold with a healthy Godwin back in the fold. Are we really that good. Honestly I don't know. I can see us shutting them down and sacking Brady relentlessly. I can also see us falling apart and giving up 40. But if we do show up and dominate defensively we will be the talk of the town. When was the last time the Rams were the #1 defense in the NFL. Defenses tend to win Championships. Imagine going into the playoffs with a #1 defense.

The drops and missed blocks really slow us down. Mundt also appeared to miss the block on the Goff sack and fumble. Rams have a possession O that hasn't shown the breakout talent or big plays to overcome a lot of errors.

 

[Tano]

3. TE play. Goff overthrew Higbee on a shot we took on third and 4 (I believe) to put the Hawks away in the 4th quarter. I liked the call as we were up by 10 and had the game in the bag. Goff was just barely off the mark, though it does appear Higbee slowed down the route just a tad.

I think Higbee slowed down a lot on that throw. If Higbee doesn't slow down, that was a TD.