I've no doubt the defense can muster some elite play, they do every week....but the real question is, can they be elite enough to overcome the offenses inability to punch it in? The Rams defense is awesome, but we tend to put them in too many precarious situations and make it difficult for them to sustain thier awesomeness for 60 minutes. Moreover, offenses have negated our pass rush quite well with thier quick hit game plans, which is something San Fransisco inexplicity failed to do last week, instead choosing to send Krapperdick on 5-7 step drops repeatedly. Last week my first thought upon the final whistle was "well finally, our defense was able to hold on just long enough to overcome offensive ineffectiveness"
What I'd like to see is some of the scoring we saw from our offense prior to two weeks ago. Unfortunately, I think the more Davis knows, the less effective he is. In other words, we were doing just fine when he was running around without a clue. (not withstanding the one very effective game against the Seahawks where he seemed in control of a ball control type short passing game) We've only managed 20 points in the last two weeks and I think we are going to need more this time because the redbirds are playing with confidence and at home.
You have to ask yourself....which is the accident? The first 7 games when the rams mustered just six sacks? Or the ONE game we we had 8 ??? I'd love for us to be witnessing the defense "arriving" but I need to see another successful game before I jump that far. However if we do show out defensively and shut the Cards down, then it will be further proof of just how long it takes to get accustomed to a new coordinator and will cause all of us to ask "why didnt we play like this sooner?"
Parting thought... one thing that bothered me about the emotional high of the Seattle game is how poorly we followed that with an ugly showing against Kansas City. I taped that game and didnt even bother to watch the final three quarters, thats how bad it was. So, If you take that into account and assume beating the 49ers on a last drive, last second defensive stand is a highly emotional event, then the Cards are actually catching us at the right time. We shall see. I hope my guts worrisome intuition is wrong.
