Kupped,
I think most people here would agree that giving up pick 6's or losing the ball otherwise puts the team behind the 8 ball.
I could give two shits about stats in many cases. Outside of the point of reference they provide. I mean anyone can manipulate stats to make a point.
I think my main problem with the scheme comes down to soft zone, playing Ramsey out of place and not changing out personnel quick enough.
It is a very nuanced discussion. But playing soft zone only makes sense in my book vs offenses that struggle to put together long drives consistently. When you play that vs Zona and Green bay or some degree the Niners, it is just maddening. The most maddening part is it starts to eat up clock and TOP. If you played man to man there is a chance to not only get off the feild, but force a sack fumble or interception. Soft zone with our personnel is a freebie. Keep eating clock, keep ball security, keep building confidence etc. What if the opposing offense hits a deep pass? The percentages are low first of all. Second, it takes time for those routes to develop usually, so a sack fumble is in play (especially with our Dline). Third, worse case scenario they hit a big shot down the feild. Ok well at least we didn't lose TOS and have time to rest our defense and score. Teams like Seattle you play deep zones, that is where Wilson and his WR's feast. But that is one of the few exceptions in my book. Teams like the Ravens and Miami straight up take over and win ball games with a pressure approach that mans up WR's and brings the house on third down. At a minimum it should be mixed in more, in order to keep the QB off his timing and rushing his throws.
Going away from Ramsey on top pro bowl targets is just clearly the wrong thing to do. You lose the numbers game and this year has demonstrated its the wrong approach. It seems to me Ramsey is now rusty when trying to man up on guys. It's not a coincidence. It's sad really. Wasting one of the best cover guys alive. Not to mention the way Williams has been used and thus fallen off a cliff.
Lastly, your main argument keeps going back to Morris not having the horses, losing JJ and Hill. This is a valid argument and I for one was pounding the table for JJ over Floyd. But teams have to adjust and good coordinators do. We should have cycled through Rapp and also Reeder a LOOOOOOONNNNGG time ago. We should have cycled through Burgess by now and others. Daeyon came off the practice squad and provided a little bit of a stop gap for Long. I would have brought in everyone and their brother. How is it we have the capital to go get Miller but not some other CB or safety? Tampa goes out and gets Sherman. Is this Morris fault or Mcvay/Snead? Don't know but I would be livid if I am Morris and my DB's were playing like this. I would try anything and everything and pound the table for new blood to cycle in until something stuck.
This defense has time to get fixed, But the snails pace doesn't look like it's going to find the answers before we need it. Both Scheme and Personnel should have been addressed by now in my opinion.
If you want to talk about nuance, then you need to go through the game, snap-by-snap.. coverage call by coverage call. You need to know the rules the D is playing with and how the offense breaks those.
Like I pointed out.. people who freaked about Reeder ending up stuck on Adams? Fangio's D ended up with Kenny Young on Ty Hill. It's the NFL.
Keeping the same coverage in the NFL simply does not happen. Teams mix it up. Part of your scheme is driven by personnel. The Rams are lacking at corner and coverage safety and don't have the players to play press all over the place. When you get busted in that kind of coverage.. it's a huge gain, possibly a touchdown.
Moving Ramsey around is clearly the *right* thing to do.. it's about when and how you do it to maximize it. He's got more ints this year than the last two years combined and more pass defended this year than last year already. People want to over simplify.. he was on Adams 56% of the time.
You compare the Rams D to teams that have salary and structural advantages the Rams do not have in Miami and the Ravens. Let's talk about the Ravens after they pay Jackson 35-40 a year. It will have an impact.
Just because you think Burgess should play doesn't mean he *can* play. You can wish, want, insist all you want that they should get more out of him and others.. but, sometimes, you just don't have the players. And the adjustment for that? Is to play softer.
The other thing? How over hyped the Rams defensive problems are on here. They're 8-4 and not exclusively because of the offense. The defense is 12th overall in yardage. They're 16th in scoring, but as I've pointed out.. if you take away the points produced directly or almost directly by turnovers, they'd be #6.
The Rams also added some adjustments this weekend... so.. mayyyyyyyyyyyyyybe Morris knows he has issues and is trying to work them out as the season goes on. Maybe Williams is finally healthy enough to play in press more.
We can say "should" all we want to the personnel stuff... but it ain't. And that's not Morris' fault.. and neither is the basic structure of the D, which McVay decided on and brought Morris in to run, even though he'd never run it before.