Demise of the Rams Defense

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jaffej

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I know much has been made of the drop off in play of the Rams defense from Staley to Morris. A buddy of mine published an article looking at the year over year decline in performance of the WFT defense, but the Rams decline stuck out even more in his analysis. The Rams demise on a per drive basis is the second worst year over year going back to the past 20+ years.


View: https://medium.com/down-in-the-ds/the-meteoric-demise-of-the-wft-defense-f7e73462da3
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Loyal

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It's all over. Lets freakin' forfeit the rest of the season.

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Jacobarch

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Yikes those are some crazy metrics right there. However I'd say pump the breaks. They're sample size is skewed majorly. The Rams have played four games. And they're comparing them to the entire season of 2020. That's lame AF. Someone posted detailed stats of this year vs last year on defense and they are virtually identical. I think the Rams have given up one more TD upunto game 4 of last year. Let's see where they are week 8 and if they're trending in the right direction
 

Loyal

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If our defense is so bad after being #1 last year, then Sean McVay must be fired. HE hired Raheem Morris and if that hire was galactically stupid, then how does he escape blame?

Mind you, I don't think the defense is that bad...or at least problems are not unsolvable. I decided to fast from outside media this week because I knew how knee jerk they would be, going from the best team in the NFL to maybe not even winning the NFC West because of one bad game. But I am finding that it's not much better here right now and that's pretty freakin' sad. I believe the Rams are a complete team and are in good shape to make a run. But y'all believe what you want to...
 

1maGoh

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If our defense is so bad after being #1 last year, then Sean McVay must be fired. HE hired Raheem Morris and if that hire was galactically stupid, then how does he escape blame?

Mind you, I don't think the defense is that bad...or at least problems are not unsolvable. I decided to fast from outside media this week because I knew how knee jerk they would be, going from the best team in the NFL to maybe not even winning the NFC West because of one bad game. But I am finding that it's not much better here right now and that's pretty freakin' sad. I believe the Rams are a complete team and are in good shape to make a run. But y'all believe what you want to...
Even if it was that bad, I wouldn't fire him over 1 bad hire. Well two maybe if you count Bonamego. That dude got cancer though, so kind of unforeseeable. But still, as many coaches as he's replaced and as many good coaches as he's found, two bad hires don't bother me.
 

Loyal

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Even if it was that bad, I wouldn't fire him over 1 bad hire. Well two maybe if you count Bonamego. That dude got cancer though, so kind of unforeseeable. But still, as many coaches as he's replaced and as many good coaches as he's found, two bad hires don't bother me.
But if the defense is such a disaster, a whole year of Aaron Donald, Matthew Stafford, Whitworth, Ramsey have been wasted. The goal was a Super Bowl appearance at the very least and that won't happen if the defense is a dumpster fire.
 

TexasRam

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The current issues are real and need to be addressed.

But using the first 4 games to project the rest isn't always accurate.

It takes time for a staff to evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of their new players. It also takes some time to evaluate what other teams are doing. Look at the different offense approach we are taking this year with the shotgun approach. Teams will also need to evaluate that change in the Rams approach and how to defend it. Then there will be several counter approaches, wrinkles and tweaks to what defenses are expected to do based on what the Rams have shown. It's the cat and mouse strategy game that Mcvay is very good at.

Having said that, we do have glaring weaknesses to exploit created by a poor coaching evaluation of 22 and 24. It will need to be fixed and the longer it goes unacknowledged by the nice guy approach the more games we will lose.
 

Loyal

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The current issues are real and need to be addressed.

But using the first 4 games to project the rest isn't always accurate.

It takes time for a staff to evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of their new players. It also takes some time to evaluate what other teams are doing. Look at the different offense approach we are taking this year with the shotgun approach. Teams will also need to evaluate that change in the Rams approach and how to defend it. Then there will be several counter approaches, wrinkles and tweaks to what defenses are expected to do based on what the Rams have shown. It's the cat and mouse strategy game that Mcvay is very good at.

Having said that, we do have glaring weaknesses to exploit created by a poor coaching evaluation of 22 and 24. It will need to be fixed and the longer it goes unacknowledged by the nice guy approach the more games we will lose.
Even the best of teams lose games. We have lost ONE game, not the first four. We have beaten 3 playoff teams from last year, with one being the Super Bowl champion. It's being realistic to watch film and examine faults, but it is unrealistic not to acknowledge simple human nature of there being a letdown after the massive win against the Bucs. Sure, we want our guys not to do that, but they are human beings and not machines. Both the Hawks and the Rams have had a short week, so lets see what happens tomorrow night before going off the deep end with proclaiming the "demise of the Rams defense."
 

dang

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What happened to let’s play the game. As painful as last week was to watch Its way too early for pitchforks and torches.
 

oldnotdead

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What a douche Morris is turning out to be. He's blaming Long for not covering like Ramsey....who ooops Morris had playing blitzing LB instead of shutdown CB. Screw Morris and his whining and pointing fingers. The very same guys who are playing like clowns were the #1 defense last year. HELLOOOO.....the only change has been Morris and his shit scheme. Screw this bend not break. He should be attacking instead of playing scared all the time. Look at how they have played in the red zone. Why isn't he playing that way every damn 1st down regardless of field position? Get them behind the chains then turn your damn dogs loose. But instead he's playing scared. It's disgusting to watch him destroy the #1 defense then blame the players.

MORRIS AND HIS SCHEME SUCKS AND HE'S POINTING FINGERS??!! SCREW MORRIS AND MCVAY NEED'S TO GROW SOME BALLS AND EITHER FIRE MORRIS OR FORCE HIM TO QUIT PLAYING SCARED LIKE A FREAKING MOUSE. HE'S GOT SOME MEAN-ASS DOGS ON THIS TEAM AND HE'S TOO DAMN SCARED TO USE THEM.

SAVE THE SEASON AND FIRE MORRIS!

DAMN I'D RATHER HAVE WADE PHILLIPS BACK. AT LEAST HE DIDN'T WHINE AND POINT FINGERS.
 

OldSchool

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Wow who knew holding players accountable for bad play was such a crime.
 

OldSchool

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What a douche Morris is turning out to be. He's blaming Long for not covering like Ramsey....who ooops Morris had playing blitzing LB instead of shutdown CB. Screw Morris and his whining and pointing fingers. The very same guys who are playing like clowns were the #1 defense last year. HELLOOOO.....the only change has been Morris and his shit scheme. Screw this bend not break. He should be attacking instead of playing scared all the time. Look at how they have played in the red zone. Why isn't he playing that way every damn 1st down regardless of field position? Get them behind the chains then turn your damn dogs loose. But instead he's playing scared. It's disgusting to watch him destroy the #1 defense then blame the players.

MORRIS AND HIS SCHEME SUCKS AND HE'S POINTING FINGERS??!! SCREW MORRIS AND MCVAY NEED'S TO GROW SOME BALLS AND EITHER FIRE MORRIS OR FORCE HIM TO QUIT PLAYING SCARED LIKE A FREAKING MOUSE. HE'S GOT SOME MEAN-ASS DOGS ON THIS TEAM AND HE'S TOO DAMN SCARED TO USE THEM.

SAVE THE SEASON AND FIRE MORRIS!

DAMN I'D RATHER HAVE WADE PHILLIPS BACK. AT LEAST HE DIDN'T WHINE AND POINT FINGERS.
I mean it's entirely up to you but you may want to go back and listen to this interview again. Because if you got the feeling he was a douche for his comments about Long you're the only person I've heard say that. He compliments D Long multiple times but points out he's struggled in practice and has the mental toughness to rebound and he'll have to do that again. He points out he's good but needs to be better. Says he's seen a lot of his mental toughness and the Rams need him throughout this process. He doesn't kick Long while he's down points out he needs to be better and he had a couple chances to make big plays on the ball and didn't. Points out he's got Rochelle behind him but he's not counting Long out. I think that was as far from kicking a guy while he's down. And you completely made that shit up about him saying he needs to cover like Ramsey that's just bullshit to do. Morris has his faults and him and his players weren't good last week. But there's no need to lie about what he says or try to put words in his mouth.

 

XXXIVwin

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I mean it's entirely up to you but you may want to go back and listen to this interview again. Because if you got the feeling he was a douche for his comments about Long you're the only person I've heard say that. He compliments D Long multiple times but points out he's struggled in practice and has the mental toughness to rebound and he'll have to do that again. He points out he's good but needs to be better. Says he's seen a lot of his mental toughness and the Rams need him throughout this process. He doesn't kick Long while he's down points out he needs to be better and he had a couple chances to make big plays on the ball and didn't. Points out he's got Rochelle behind him but he's not counting Long out. I think that was as far from kicking a guy while he's down. And you completely made that shit up about him saying he needs to cover like Ramsey that's just bullshit to do. Morris has his faults and him and his players weren't good last week. But there's no need to lie about what he says or try to put words in his mouth.

Agree with this. Heard the Morris presser, and he was a million miles away from "throwing Long under the bus." Just the opposite. Morris went on and on about Long's mental toughness and how well Long can "bounce back from adversity." If anything, one could be concerned that Morris is being TOO positive about Long.

All in all, I was NOT reassured by Morris' presser. I still think he's got a good positive energy and seems like he can relate well to his coaches and players. But when talking about the Rams struggles on D, he kept repeating two words: "execution" and "tackling." Not ONCE did I hear Morris say anything self-critical about his play calling. Morris never suggested he "could have put guys in better position to succeed", etc.

I'm still optimistic about da Rams for the next 4 games. They should be highly pissed against a Seattle team they historically play well against. And the following 3 opponents suck.

But when they play a high powered offense again, I wish I had more faith in Morris' ability to scheme and adjust and adapt.
 

OldSchool

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If anything, one could be concerned that Morris is being TOO positive about Long.
Totally agree with this. And I was and am hesitant with the Morris hire it seemed at the time like doing his boy a favor. We'll see how it shakes out. Most of us disliked Wades defense but they were often very good and were exceptional in the playoffs. OMG Dodgers walk off fuck it I love Morris :D
 

AvengerRam

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Do the words “statistically relevant sample size” mean anything?

Never mind...I’m being silly.

Resume the condemnation!