So, about this Ram D?

[Rams43]

First, a little housekeeping. Our O and our ST are just fine. More than just fine, actually. Both are of SB caliber. As an aside, can you imagine what this O might accomplish if the D could become even top 10 status? Scary.

But our D has become a bit of an enigma to me. An example of the whole being less than the sum of it’s parts. Anti-synergistic, if there is such a word.

Opponents have exposed chink after chink in the D’s armor. The O has been able to overcome these mostly, with the exception of the Saints game, but it’s been far too close, lately. And the caliber of our playoff competition will be such that I’m not sure that the Ram D can withstand.

Let me put it this way. If someone had told me before opening day that the Rams would be averaging 33-35 points per game, I would have predicted an undefeated season ending with raising the Lombardi. THAT’S how much confidence I had in this D roster.

But after watching these guys play together for 10 games? I fear that we have position groups that simply aren’t good enough.

I love Wade. Just want to be clear about that. But I have to say that he seems to have made some miscalculations when assembling this D roster.

Suh impact
Brockers (seems to have largely disappeared)
Ebu
Longacre
Barron
Peters (jury still out but is MP a scheme fit?)
Joyner (can anybody explain his regression this year?)

Put another way, other than the obvious AD, and perhaps Littleton, is there a single D player that has exceeded expectations?

Man, I expected more from our D, and I don’t think I’m the only one.

My prediction for next offseason? Wade will remain because he’s having too much fun and he wants to “finish” his D before any thought of retirement.

But I do see significant turnover among D starters. Here are my likely goners as starters:

Suh
Ebu
Barron
Joyner

Unless Fowler earns an extension, there will be a 2nd opening outside, as well. That makes 4-5 new starters on D next year, a significant percentage, indeed.

I see a heavy emphasis on D through FA, trade, and the draft next offseason. The departures of Suh, Barron, and Joyner will provide some good cap relief for FA and trades. Draft will consist of BPA’s at DT, OLB, CB, S, and maybe ILB. Heck, that’s every position group, isn’t it? Lol.

It’s gonna be an “interesting” offseason, that’s for sure.

 

[Picked4td]

general thoughts not aimed at your or anyone else specifically:

For all the hate the defense has gotten on this forum it honestly seems like people seem to keep forgetting how offensive driven this league is. Its quite hard to play good defense in this league week to week anymore with all the recent rule changes that benefit the offense. Obviously the defense has its flaws, but no matter how bad its been each game, aside from the saints, they have stepped up in the 4th when needed to, which is a big reason for the 9-1 record. Not to mention how big of a loss Talib is considering how much demand Wade puts on the CBs in this scheme.

Long story short: defense hasnt been amazing, but its IMO better than most teams and has done its fair share in getting this team off to a 9-1 start.

 

[Merlin]

Couple things here 43...

First, it's good to see you coming around on realizing the problem is the defensive roster. And yes it needs a lot of work.

Second, do you know that Wade pulled the strings on the players? Certainly he was consulted, and the Talib acquisition might well have been driven by him, but were all the moves his doing? Or was it more that he was offered the addition of those players and said sure he can make them work. The coach is always going to get the blame of course. But I am not certain this is Wade's hand-picked defense. I suspect it's Wade's "ok let's go with that" defensive roster, where he understood the team wanted to try to make a Super Bowl run with the best pieces available.

Seems to me you are giving the GM, whose job it is to stack the roster, an enormous pass in all this.

 

[Rams43]

Couple things here 43...

First, it's good to see you coming around on realizing the problem is the defensive roster. And yes it needs a lot of work.

Second, do you know that Wade pulled the strings on the players? Certainly he was consulted, and the Talib acquisition might well have been driven by him, but were all the moves his doing? Or was it more that he was offered the addition of those players and said sure he can make them work. The coach is always going to get the blame of course. But I am not certain this is Wade's hand-picked defense. I suspect it's Wade's "ok let's go with that" defensive roster, where he understood the team wanted to try to make a Super Bowl run with the best pieces available.

Seems to me you are giving the GM, whose job it is to stack the roster, an enormous pass in all this.

Re your 2nd point, Merlin.

Unknowable just how much input Wade had in those personnel decisions.

But, as an example, who wouldn’t have said “hell yes” to Suh for $14 million? Or to the Talib and Peters trades? Both trades looked like highway robbery at the time to me.

My issue, or maybe it’s a nitpick, is Wade’s overestimation of Ebu, Longacre, Barron, and Joyner for his ‘18 D. Erring on one or maybe two would have been acceptable. But all 4? Uh uh, not acceptable for a DC of Wade’s reputation.

Which begs the question, “Maybe it’s not the players failing to fit the scheme, but rather the scheme failing to fit the players.” Is that heresy? I dunno. But I do believe that that is the case with Peters and maybe Barron. Sigh...

 

[Ram65]

Couple things here 43...

First, it's good to see you coming around on realizing the problem is the defensive roster. And yes it needs a lot of work.

Second, do you know that Wade pulled the strings on the players? Certainly he was consulted, and the Talib acquisition might well have been driven by him, but were all the moves his doing? Or was it more that he was offered the addition of those players and said sure he can make them work. The coach is always going to get the blame of course. But I am not certain this is Wade's hand-picked defense. I suspect it's Wade's "ok let's go with that" defensive roster, where he understood the team wanted to try to make a Super Bowl run with the best pieces available.

Seems to me you are giving the GM, whose job it is to stack the roster, an enormous pass in all this.

Wade signed off on player pickup. Him and McVay. I remember him saying he did on Suh. They all talk about the player they pick up.

 

[Merlin]

But, as an example, who wouldn’t have said “hell yes” to Suh for $14 million? Or to the Talib and Peters trades? Both trades looked like highway robbery at the time to me.

Fair enough. It was understandable to at least be ok with their additions. So why blame Wade?

 

[jrry32]

I want to see what the defense looks like when Talib is back before I hit the panic button.

 

[sjm1582002]

Only the Falcons and Rams have given up 5.2 yards every single time the opponent runs the ball.

All the other NFL teams do a better job of defending the run. Let that sink in for a minute.

It's 10 games into the season and much too late for any defensive "magic carpet rides" to suddenly appear.

The Rams will go as far as their stellar offense, and AD, can take them.

 

[EastRam]

Our Defense is like a box of chocolates.

We never know what we're gonna get.

 

[Rams43]

general thoughts not aimed at your or anyone else specifically:

For all the hate the defense has gotten on this forum it honestly seems like people seem to keep forgetting how offensive driven this league is. Its quite hard to play good defense in this league week to week anymore with all the recent rule changes that benefit the offense. Obviously the defense has its flaws, but no matter how bad its been each game, aside from the saints, they have stepped up in the 4th when needed to, which is a big reason for the 9-1 record. Not to mention how big of a loss Talib is considering how much demand Wade puts on the CBs in this scheme.

Long story short: defense hasnt been amazing, but its IMO better than most teams and has done its fair share in getting this team off to a 9-1 start.

Well, Picked, there is a big difference between “hate” and “constructive criticism”.

 

[majrleaged]

Re your 2nd point, Merlin.

Unknowable just how much input Wade had in those personnel decisions.

But, as an example, who wouldn’t have said “hell yes” to Suh for $14 million? Or to the Talib and Peters trades? Both trades looked like highway robbery at the time to me.

My issue, or maybe it’s a nitpick, is Wade’s overestimation of Ebu, Longacre, Barron, and Joyner for his ‘18 D. Erring on one or maybe two would have been acceptable. But all 4? Uh uh, not acceptable for a DC of Wade’s reputation.

Which begs the question, “Maybe it’s not the players failing to fit the scheme, but rather the scheme failing to fit the players.” Is that heresy? I dunno. But I do believe that that is the case with Peters and maybe Barron. Sigh...

I think Ebu is getting better. He forced that fumble that should have changed the game against the saints and he forced Wilson out of the pocket on the last play of the game. He is young and learning.

 

[Mojo Ram]

All defenses have been neutered including ours. That doesn't mean our D can't improve but it is what it is right now.

By the numbers, Baltimore has the #1 defense in the league and an average offense yet they're 4-5 and in 3rd place in their division. Elite or even good D just doesn't matter right now.

 

[OnceARam]

I think we've been playing a lot of vanilla D so that Wade can see what we have on the roster.

I also think that things will be tightened up come playoffs.

I'm interested to see whether we keep our underperforming secondary in man looks against KC or whether we'll play more zone.

Peters, clearly, isn't a man corner. And Joyner shouldn't be asked to play man all the time. The Saints proved that.

We'll know more after the KC game...

In my opinion we have 4-3 personal, if we play Fowler at DE. Never been a fan of the 3-4 though, so that's my bias.

 

[LARAMSinFeb.]

All the other NFL teams do a better job of defending the run. Let that sink in for a minute.

Ugh. Mind if I don't?

 

[Ellard80]

Rams only have 19 sacks... 7 outside Donald. (23rd in the nfl)

We are also 26th in the nfl in run defense.

Yeah there are not any of the superbowl favorites with great well rounded defenses at the moment - but regardless we need to improve or a Superbowl is unlikely.

some numbers to mull over of super bowl teams

Offensive Rank

• The top-ranked offense has REACHED the Super Bowl 14 times and is 8-6 in the Super Bowl.

• The average NFL offensive rank for an eventual Super Bowl champion is 7.9 (eighth).


Points Scored

• The team scoring the most points during the season has REACHED the Super Bowl 21 times and is 10-11 in the Super Bowl.

Running Game

• 34 of the 47 Super Bowl champions have been ranked in the top 10 in the NFL in rushing yards per game.

• Only four of the 47 Super Bowl champions have featured the NFL’s leading rusher; Cowboys RB Emmitt Smith led the NFL in rushing yards in 1992, ’93 and ’95 (Super Bowls XXVII, XXVIII and XXX) and Broncos RB Terrell Davis led the NFL in rushing yards in 1998 (XXXIII).


Sacks Allowed

• 21 of the 47 Super Bowl champions have allowed less than 30 sacks in a season.


Defense:
Defensive Rank

• The average NFL defensive rank for an eventual Super Bowl champion is 6.8 (seventh).

• The top-ranked defense has REACHED the Super Bowl 11 times and is 8-3 in the Super Bowl.

Points Allowed

• The team allowing the fewest points during the season has REACHED the Super Bowl 18 times and is 13-5 in the Super Bowl.


Sacks

• 45 of the 47 Super Bowl champions have totaled at least 30 sacks in a season.

 

[Steve808]

I think the defense would cactually be just fine except for what I feel is blatant over the top holding and hands to the face against the Rams on certain critical plays that lead to opposing touchdowns. On the Packers first TD, a 47 yard play to Davante Adams was a result of AD getting grabbed on the face mask right in front of Rdgers. No call. If that is called, most likely the Rams are off the field and the Packers don't score.

I saw one running play against the Saints where AD doesn't get held. He gets tackled and the Saints got a big play. It later resulted in a touchdown.

Against the sea monkeys in the first meeting, there were some jersey stretching calls right in front of the ref that didn't get called and resulted in TD.s. In the second game, they don't call a jersey stretching grab against Fowlers and numerous ones against AD and Suh. But they throw the flag on Fowler for complaining (Not sure what he said).

I could name more but take say one possession and TD off the board for each game if properly officiated. Where does our defense rank then?

And I'm not saying the Rams never get one their way but honestly I haven't seen many. I mostly see the Rams O linemen letting defenders go instead of grabbing shirt and Goff getting sacked,.

 

[Rambitious1]

I think we've been playing a lot of vanilla D so that Wade can see what we have on the roster.

IMHO, if this is true 10 games into the season, Wade should be fired on the spot immediately.

 

[SteezyEndo]

Its D’s across the entire league. Aka JAX. What happened? Thank you good night..

 

[Legatron4]

Rams only have 19 sacks... 7 outside Donald. (23rd in the nfl)

We are also 26th in the nfl in run defense.

Yeah there are not any of the superbowl favorites with great well rounded defenses at the moment - but regardless we need to improve or a Superbowl is unlikely.

some numbers to mull over of super bowl teams

Offensive Rank

• The top-ranked offense has REACHED the Super Bowl 14 times and is 8-6 in the Super Bowl.

• The average NFL offensive rank for an eventual Super Bowl champion is 7.9 (eighth).


Points Scored

• The team scoring the most points during the season has REACHED the Super Bowl 21 times and is 10-11 in the Super Bowl.

Running Game

• 34 of the 47 Super Bowl champions have been ranked in the top 10 in the NFL in rushing yards per game.

• Only four of the 47 Super Bowl champions have featured the NFL’s leading rusher; Cowboys RB Emmitt Smith led the NFL in rushing yards in 1992, ’93 and ’95 (Super Bowls XXVII, XXVIII and XXX) and Broncos RB Terrell Davis led the NFL in rushing yards in 1998 (XXXIII).


Sacks Allowed

• 21 of the 47 Super Bowl champions have allowed less than 30 sacks in a season.


Defense:
Defensive Rank

• The average NFL defensive rank for an eventual Super Bowl champion is 6.8 (seventh).

• The top-ranked defense has REACHED the Super Bowl 11 times and is 8-3 in the Super Bowl.

Points Allowed

• The team allowing the fewest points during the season has REACHED the Super Bowl 18 times and is 13-5 in the Super Bowl.


Sacks

• 45 of the 47 Super Bowl champions have totaled at least 30 sacks in a season.

So basically you have to be really good at everything to win a Super Bowl.

 

[CGI_Ram]

But our D has become a bit of an enigma to me. An example of the whole being less than the sum of it’s parts.

This has been perplexing to me; we are not playing up to the sum of our parts.

I can’t help but wonder if we have too many players playing as individuals. Suh, Barron, Joyner, Peters, Westbrooks, Fowler, Longacre, Hill, heck even Brockers (expires after 2019)... all positioning themselves to hold onto or get new contracts.

One might argue Donald is out to prove his worth on his new contract.

Anyway... I don’t like to think this. My assumption is we just haven’t jelled yet and Wade will find that right combination.