I’m starting to feel a lot better about this D now…

[Rams43]

I feel that I can now exhale when our D is on the field.

Morris has made several key personnel and scheme adjustments in the past 2 weeks. Namely:

Sitting Long and inserting Rochell despite the rookie having to learn on the job. This is a long term shrewd move.

Moving Rapp to his natural position as a hybrid LB and trying a rotation of more instinctive players at deep Safety. This turned a glaring weakness into a strength in 2 areas.

Less ‘star’ assignments for Ramsey and fewer blitz calls for him, too.

The D generally seemed to revert to the formerly successful aggressiveness that it enjoyed last year from the 2nd quarter of the Giants game on. With some impressive results, I might add.

Don’t look now but the Rams seem to have a couple of genuine quality edge players to complement Floyd in Lewis and Obo with maybe Garrett or this Jamir Jones kid waiting in the wings. What a huge pleasant surprise all that is! The options that gives Morris can’t be overstated.

If Morris can sort out his 2 Safety positions through tweaking personnel and schemes I truly believe that this D can once again be elite. Yes, I said elite, as in top 3 or better.

I’ll say it again. I predict that by mid-November this Ram O and Ram D could be fully gelled and each could be a nightmare to face.

 

[RamDino]

or this Jamir Jones kid waiting in the wings

I'm really like this kid. Big, strong, and hopefully has a knack for making plays, ala Corey Littleton. I guess his speed is average at best, so hoping he can cover somewhat. But he seems to make plays, and we saw that in the punt block.

 

[Riverumbbq]

I'm really like this kid.

So what day is the team tryout ?

 

[Florida_Ram]

I feel that I can now exhale when our D is on the field.

Morris has made several key personnel and scheme adjustments in the past 2 weeks. Namely:

Sitting Long and inserting Rochell despite the rookie having to learn on the job. This is a long term shrewd move.

Moving Rapp to his natural position as a hybrid LB and trying a rotation of more instinctive players at deep Safety. This turned a glaring weakness into a strength in 2 areas.

Less ‘star’ assignments for Ramsey and fewer blitz calls for him, too.

The D generally seemed to revert to the formerly successful aggressiveness that it enjoyed last year from the 2nd quarter of the Giants game on. With some impressive results, I might add.

Don’t look now but the Rams seem to have a couple of genuine quality edge players to complement Floyd in Lewis and Obo with maybe Garrett or this Jamir Jones kid waiting in the wings. What a huge pleasant surprise all that is! The options that gives Morris can’t be overstated.

If Morris can sort out his 2 Safety positions through tweaking personnel and schemes I truly believe that this D can once again be elite. Yes, I said elite, as in top 3 or better.

I’ll say it again. I predict that by mid-November this Ram O and Ram D could be fully gelled and each could be a nightmare to face.

The needle is moving up with their performances at Seattle and the Giants. Honestly the way they played at NY was not a good barometer to exhale.

The Lions game will not be a true barometer.

The Texans game will not be a true barometer.

If they hold strong vs the Lions and Texans and put an exclamation mark on their performance vs the Titans, it will tell us much more about the defense turning the corner.

 

[RamsOfCastamere]

I feel that I can now exhale when our D is on the field.

Morris has made several key personnel and scheme adjustments in the past 2 weeks. Namely:

Sitting Long and inserting Rochell despite the rookie having to learn on the job. This is a long term shrewd move.

Moving Rapp to his natural position as a hybrid LB and trying a rotation of more instinctive players at deep Safety. This turned a glaring weakness into a strength in 2 areas.

Less ‘star’ assignments for Ramsey and fewer blitz calls for him, too.

The D generally seemed to revert to the formerly successful aggressiveness that it enjoyed last year from the 2nd quarter of the Giants game on. With some impressive results, I might add.

Don’t look now but the Rams seem to have a couple of genuine quality edge players to complement Floyd in Lewis and Obo with maybe Garrett or this Jamir Jones kid waiting in the wings. What a huge pleasant surprise all that is! The options that gives Morris can’t be overstated.

If Morris can sort out his 2 Safety positions through tweaking personnel and schemes I truly believe that this D can once again be elite. Yes, I said elite, as in top 3 or better.

I’ll say it again. I predict that by mid-November this Ram O and Ram D could be fully gelled and each could be a nightmare to face.

I'm optimistic that the D will sort itself out by the time we get to SF before the bye.

However, it will be difficult to be top 3 in yards if we continue playing zone with no one guarding the flats when we have the lead.

 

[tempests]

Faced two top 5 offences so far. Passed the test against the Bucs, didn't against the Cardinals.

Still have to face Derrick Henry, Aaron Rodgers and Kyler Murray again, Russell Wilson and Lamar Jackson by the end of the year.

Mettle will be tested. Whether the Rams have a good defense or something more, will be determined by how they fare against those players/teams.

 

[Mackeyser]

The two really strong running teams left on the schedule will pose our toughest test.

We kinda had a let down against a hot team against AZ, so I'm not sold that we don't beat them in their crib.

But the Titans and Ravens... those are gonna be TOUGH games.

In both of those games, I'm sure McVay is gonna be really trying to get up on them both early to take the run out of the mix, but those games are gonna be tough, tough games.

 

[TexasRam]

I give Morris mad props for moving so quickly to bench Long Jr and start the rookie.

This is a critically important quality in a coach and not every coach makes the switch so quick, for various reasons.

Rapp started the Giants game at deep safety, it wasn’t until later in the 2nd quarter that he got moved near the LOS where his skills are much more useful. He really is best there where he sits and reads the QBs eyes and breaks on the ball with great timing. I wonder if he becomes the new star position where he can also contain the middle vs running QBs.

Our DE’s are definitely deep. Lewis is really coming on. No one ever doubted his talent, it was his his knee issue that we questioned. Right now he claims he only needs 1 day off a week for his knee to manage flare ups.

Daeyton and Rochel show good man cover skills, we will definitely see some ups and downs but that is still a big improvement over what we had previously. I noticed some man coverage on one side and zone on the other in the Giants game quite often. Hopefully the man scheme continues.

Finally, people don’t realize how strong our short yardage D is. Robinson has been a huge part of that.

 

[RamBall]

IMO the key to our run D is having our O get off to a quick start. If the O can score the 1st 2 or 3 possessions and the D gets 1 or 2 stops giving a 2 score lead it will put pressure on the other team to score. If we can run the ball and eat clock during those scoring drives it will put even more pressure on the other team to score quickly which feeds right into our Ds strength if we dont play off coverage zone. It will be critical to get a good lead on the titans because Henry will wear down a D if given the chance. Against baltimore we need to have someone with speed hit Jackson every time he carries the ball. They will stop calling QB runs if he is taking a beating

 

[Elmgrovegnome]

I feel that I can now exhale when our D is on the field.

Morris has made several key personnel and scheme adjustments in the past 2 weeks. Namely:

Sitting Long and inserting Rochell despite the rookie having to learn on the job. This is a long term shrewd move.

Moving Rapp to his natural position as a hybrid LB and trying a rotation of more instinctive players at deep Safety. This turned a glaring weakness into a strength in 2 areas.

Less ‘star’ assignments for Ramsey and fewer blitz calls for him, too.

The D generally seemed to revert to the formerly successful aggressiveness that it enjoyed last year from the 2nd quarter of the Giants game on. With some impressive results, I might add.

Don’t look now but the Rams seem to have a couple of genuine quality edge players to complement Floyd in Lewis and Obo with maybe Garrett or this Jamir Jones kid waiting in the wings. What a huge pleasant surprise all that is! The options that gives Morris can’t be overstated.

If Morris can sort out his 2 Safety positions through tweaking personnel and schemes I truly believe that this D can once again be elite. Yes, I said elite, as in top 3 or better.

I’ll say it again. I predict that by mid-November this Ram O and Ram D could be fully gelled and each could be a nightmare to face.

I'm happy with the improvements but my early take on next years draft targets still stars at Free Safety and Cornerback.

 

[Steve808]

I might be wrong but I believe that our offense could be our best defense. What I mean is if we could score a TD on our first or first couple of possessions, the other team has the pressure on them rather then the Rams falling behind or fighting in a close game because we're punting for the first 2-3 possessions. This is how the GSOT Rams obliterated other teams. It seemed like the Rams scored on their first possession quite often. I'm not just throwing it out there, the Rams have have the talent to make this happen.

 

[OnceARam]

Rapp started the Giants game at deep safety, it wasn’t until later in the 2nd quarter that he got moved near the LOS where his skills are much more useful. He really is best there where he sits and reads the QBs eyes and breaks on the ball with great timing. I wonder if he becomes the new star position where he can also contain the middle vs running QBs.

I was thinking the same thing on Rapp. He could be our answer to the Cards kid.

Glad to see Morris is evolving his scheme to fit our personnel.

 

[MachS]

I was a bit concerned with the Brockers/Fox losses. Brockers loss I thought could hurt the run D, but SJD, Gaines, and A'Shawn have been terrific. Fox's loss left us short a nice pass rusher but the way T Lew and Obo have played the last few weeks we are more than fine. Plus we'll have Hollins back late season for the stretch run and into the playoffs. Overall our DL has been great. Floyd having another big year and has been a force recently.

 

[Kupped]

I was a bit concerned with the Brockers/Fox losses. Brockers loss I thought could hurt the run D, but SJD, Gaines, and A'Shawn have been terrific. Fox's loss left us short a nice pass rusher but the way T Lew and Obo have played the last few weeks we are more than fine. Plus we'll have Hollins back late season for the stretch run and into the playoffs. Overall our DL has been great. Floyd having another big year and has been a force recently.

Great post.
The front 5.. DLs & Edges.. have been damn good.
Lewis has been a force.. Obo flashed this week.. let’s hope he stays healthy.. and Floyd looks 100% finally.
Donald is Donald.. and SJD, Gaines & Robinson have been VERY stout. Heck Jonah Williams has been good & I have hope for Hoecht.
Will be interesting to see what happens with SJD this offseason. Guy has earned some cash.

 

[Picked4td]

i get the D has looked better but to me not much has changed really. The defense is what it is and will likely continue to be that way all year, Bend but dont break. This defense will never be able to just totally shut down offenses like last years, and thats okay. This years D is much more like the defense the sb year. Let the offense get an early lead, and then dont let up any big plays. Make the opposing offense work hard to move the ball down the field and let the inevitable mistake happen.

I know the defense took a lot of flak for the cards game, but personally i dont think they really played all that bad. They played as a bend but dont break defense should, except they failed to get stops on those 3rd and longs. If they get those stops like they should, and i imagine they will in the future/rematch vs cards, its a totally different ball game

long story short, i like wehre the D is at and its certainly good enough for a sb run, imo but their success will continue to be heavily impacted by the success of the offesne and its ability to get that early lead so the D can do what they do best

 

[CGI_Ram]

Points per game is the metric I prefer… Rams are trending up, there.

Now stand at #9.

 

[BonifayRam]

The biggest plus that I see at this time upcoming in this defense is the utilization & the learning of playing with CB Donte Deayon in this defense over the youthful ineffective David Long. In addition use of rookie Robert Rochell in place of injured veteran starter Darius Williams as starting outside corner is sure to greatly benefit this defense over the last quarter this season.

At least with a healthy Rochell & Deayon going into this corner along with David Long this corner unit should be okay. It's my understanding that Rookie Rochell is banged up at this time. In about a month when this unit becomes healthy this Ram corner cadre of Ramsey/ Williams/ Deayon/ Rochell & Long might be one of the best in the NFL. You would think that when the Packers/ Cards/ Seahawks/ Ravens & the 9ers get through with us we may be lucky enough to be sitting there at the end of wk 17 with a wild card opportunity.

I still have serious issues with DC Morris's safety unit but we did see a few things from Rapp that we have not seen this past week. We could sure use more of that.

One thing we saw this past week is DC Morris's use of FS JuJu Hughes. Hughes saw 10 snaps in the defense & 11 snaps with ST's. DB Terrell Burgess has always got plenty of snaps on Special teams since the beginning of the season but very few snaps with the defense, but this past week we saw DC Morris utilize DB Burgess 9 snaps in his defense along with Hughes. So we are seeing some slow moderate changes in this defensive secondary involving the two free deep safeties.

It was generally thought here in this forum that DB Burgess was not healthy or up to par to get back into some plays in the defense but if Burgessess is getting heavy doses of Special Team snaps then it sure appears that health is NOT an issue with Burgess. Its something else???

 

[dang]

Points per game is the metric I prefer… Rams are trending up, there.

Now stand at #9.

View attachment 49104

Score 31 and give up 21. That sounds like a recipe for success.

 

[sjm1582002]

Until the run D stops disappearing in big games (plowed over for 216 yards vs Cards) I have little faith in a deep playoff run.

 

[Soul Surfer]

The only way I will have complete confidence is if they can stop the Cardinals in our next game.

That's a must-win statement game that we have to win to give us confidence in the playoffs. IMO.