Wade

[EastRam]

Let's be clear.

The Saints OL is playing lights out. I was watching them and they were giving Brees just enough time. Also, Brees is a first ballot HoFer who is as good in the pocket as any QB ever.

And still we hurried some throws.

We had a new addition on D today and that surely affected Wade's calls. SEVERAL times, the CBs, not just Peters had an issue with the play call based on what they were seeing, but they'll get that ironed out. It seemed Wade was calling a DL centric game and the calls confused the secondary or they couldn't hear the adjustments.

I'm not worried about it. This team will battle.

Not beating the Saints in their house isn't a demerit. It would have been if they'd won 45-17, but they didn't.

The refs helped them get up huge in the first half and I think they just let them play the second and we outplayed them, but not by enough to overcome the first half deficit.

/shrug.

People losing their minds about the D without really paying attention to what's actually happening is tiresome.

I know there were things that were wrong. I could go into them, but I'm just not wanting to contribute to all that negative energy.

On to next week.

Either you have faith in this team or you don't. If you do, it's on to next week. If you don't, then this game is another brick on the wall of "the Rams suck".

As Reagan said to Gorbachev, "Tear down that wall."

This D has problems. Most likely players and coaches.

The sky's not falling and today's loss is not the end of the world.

But at this point Wade is not off limits. Wade had some work to do.

 

[ProGen]

This D has problems. Most likely players and coaches.

The sky's not falling and today's loss is not the end of the world.

But at this point Wade is not off limits. Wade had some work to do.

Wade has some serious work to do. We are off on all cylinders. Tackling is poor, pass rush is non existent and the secondary is porous. We're weak everywhere, and it starts with the pass rush for this unit. Lets hope we see a far better unit against the Hawks who ran down our throats last game. Surely Wade can get more productivity out of the talent he has?

 

[Mackeyser]

Seriously, if I told everyone that I'd looked into my crystal ball and saw us after 9 weeks at 8-1 and one of the top teams in the NFL, with a top O and a middling D that's kinda inconsistent, who would have had a problem with that?

Yes, the D needs to step up.

What's being ignored is that every week, teams are playing the games of their lives against us.

If GB was playing all season like they played against us, they'd be 6-1. It took the Saints having their best half of football in Payton and Brees' career to beat us AND it took a busted coverage to ice the game.

We do we ignore that the other guys are also paid to play football?

I'd be upset if Wade were content or wasn't already hard at work on Seattle. But I'm sure he is, so I'm not worried.

I would agree that he needs to give Peters more help and the D needs to execute better and absolutely needs to tackle better.

Pretty sure all that happens after this.

It's still a great day to be a Rams fan!

 

[EastRam]

Of course you don't. I'm not gonna say the defense played well today, it's obvious they didn't.

This thread is some narrative (personally I think knee jerk based on the loss) on how it's going on all season and Wade somehow can't keep up. The numbers say otherwise. Prior to today they were 6th in points allowed, 8th in total yards. Of course they will drop some after today.

A mere 3 years ago (which more than qualifies as "today's NFL") Wade led a defense that single handily won Denver a Super Bowl. So no, I don't think the game as "passed him by" or whatever other narrative.

Sad. Don't turn this about putting words in my post about some knee jerk reaction.

Read my posts. It is a fair observation that Wade has under performed with his coaching

Now if you want to turn a blind eye and think the job Wade has done is fine based on YOUR observations knock your self out.

For 8 weeks I haven't said a word about Wade. But. The Rams are 8-1 due to giving up 45 points. And the D has been leaking all year long. That's just a fact.

Am I upset we lost. Nope. Not even a little.

Can Wade do a better job? Yup. Is this Denvers D? Nope. Is Wade still the coach of Denver. Nope.

 

[Boston Ram]

Forget the stats. We have given up 30+ points to Minnesota, Seattle, New Oleans. 27 to Green Bay and 23 to the Chargers. Those are your playoff teams in most cases. Giving up 10 to SF or shutting out Arizona or giving up 13 to Oakland don’t really move the needle.

The defense is and should be a concern. There is a reason we went out and got Fowler, asked about Clowney and Hughes. The front office is concerned too.

I think Wade should of given Peters help today. It’s fair to question his game plans as they really haven’t been great.

I do feel like by December they will square it away like he did in Denver his SB run year

 

[hotanez]

Let's be clear.

The Saints OL is playing lights out. I was watching them and they were giving Brees just enough time. Also, Brees is a first ballot HoFer who is as good in the pocket as any QB ever.

And still we hurried some throws.

We had a new addition on D today and that surely affected Wade's calls. SEVERAL times, the CBs, not just Peters had an issue with the play call based on what they were seeing, but they'll get that ironed out. It seemed Wade was calling a DL centric game and the calls confused the secondary or they couldn't hear the adjustments.

I'm not worried about it. This team will battle.

Not beating the Saints in their house isn't a demerit. It would have been if they'd won 45-17, but they didn't.

The refs helped them get up huge in the first half and I think they just let them play the second and we outplayed them, but not by enough to overcome the first half deficit.

/shrug.

People losing their minds about the D without really paying attention to what's actually happening is tiresome.

I know there were things that were wrong. I could go into them, but I'm just not wanting to contribute to all that negative energy.

On to next week.

Either you have faith in this team or you don't. If you do, it's on to next week. If you don't, then this game is another brick on the wall of "the Rams suck".

As Reagan said to Gorbachev, "Tear down that wall."

If I could like this 1000 times I would

 

[Angry Ram]

Sad. Don't turn this about putting words in my post about some knee jerk reaction.

I'm not. I said I personally think that, and I'm standing by that.

Read my posts. It is a fair observation that Wade has under performed with his coaching

I did, which I don't agree with.

Now if you want to turn a blind eye and think the job Wade has done is fine based on YOUR observations knock your self out.

It's not my observations. The numbers were brought up during the game by the announcers and I relayed it by looking at NFL.com's stats at the two most important ones: points allowed and yards, which were 6th and 8th, respectively prior to today.

For 8 weeks I haven't said a word about Wade. But. The Rams are 8-1 due to giving up 45 points. And the D has been leaking all year long. That's just a fact.

We obviously a team giving up 45 points (ONCE) is gonna be a loss more likely than not. Leaking all year long? No. More like 4 games out of 9 (against teams with top offenses).

Again the numbers say otherwise.

Can Wade do a better job? Yup. Is this Denvers D? Nope. Is Wade still the coach of Denver. Nope.

Hmmm....you stated if it's fair to question if the game has passed him game on your OP. Which I countered and said he coordinated a SB defense a whopping 3 seasons ago (which more than qualifies as "today's NFL").

So no, I don't agree with this thread.

We have given up 30+ points to Minnesota, Seattle, New Oleans. 27 to Green Bay and 23 to the Chargers.

Those are top offenses. 3 of the 5 QBs faced have won SBs. Minnesota also has a high powered, pass happy offense.

Giving up 27 and 23 to the Packers and Chargers is nothing TBH. The top offenses are gonna get their points.

 

[den-the-coach]

I expect the defense to get better with Fowler playing more and when Talib gets back and I have been disappointed with Peters, however, I'm not sure he's !00%.

Tough loss today, we'll get them back in post season. Hekker had the first down, but sometimes things like that happen. I feel strong about this team and I don't think many can post that I turn a blind eye to things, if anything, I'm more of a Nervous Nellie than a Polly Anna.

 

[Merlin]

So....

First off personally I don't like the criticism wrt Wade, his age, his ability to make adjustments in-game, etc. Way too many fans get all crazy blaming coaches for everything when the truth is sometimes the players aren't good enough. Going into this season we all knew the LBs were weak, we knew Hill and our depth corners were iffy, and we all knew Peters was available for a reason. The fact that he has underperformed from the moment he had to step up and draw the best wideout isn't a surprise as much as how much he's underperformed. But just stop it, tbh. We are so damn fortunate to have him as our DC, and the front office, as I have been saying and saying and saying, need to invest draft capital on that side of the ball.

I also don't like the "stick our heads in the sand and pretend the defense is fine" posts. Not sure why everything has to be a damn extreme nowadays tbh. Our defense isn't good enough right now. They might be once we get Talib back, but we're going to have to wait and see. I get just as tired of the excuse making and it pi$$es me off that people have so much trouble being able to admit our defense needs to improve.

The good thing here is that we do have Talib's return somewhere ahead of us. There is actually hope of some improvement. But whatever happens from here on out we need to be realistic that this defense has some serious holes that Wade's been masking in scheme, and that no matter how far this team goes in the playoffs they need to invest draft capital in that side of the ball. IMO.

 

[badnews]

Now isn't when we want to be peaking anyway.

 

[MachS]

I do feel like by December they will square it away like he did in Denver his SB run year

It's difficult to share this optimism with our personnel. We don't have players that can cover in man, ESPECIALLY without a pass rush. That Denver team had a much, much, better secondary. They also had a better pass rush with D Ware and Von Miller.

I think with our current personnel we will have to keep scoring 35+ to have a chance at beating elite teams. This defense isn't good enough to stop top offenses. Our overall defensive numbers for the year are completely skewed, every solid offense we've played has had their way with us. Who have we shut down? The Niners? Raiders? Cardinals? They have a combined 5-20 record so far this year.

 

[VegasRam]

Why do his adjustments come at the half and not after a drive or quarter? That's what I can't figure out, because our adjustment in the run game was great in the second half. He put more focus on Kamara in the passing game too.

But why cant he do this before the half? Maybe his 71 year old mind needs that much time to process and implement changes I don't know. His defenses are better than this, someone isn't coaching something right.

His 71 year old mind is just fine.
As is mine. You are correct - you don’t know.

My opinion - Suh was a bad pick up - has not done much to date imo.
And Peters ....I don’t know what the fucks wrong with him, but he has not lived up to his billing.

 

[Merlin]

I could go on and on with the personnel in this defense tbh. I mean just look at all the LBs gettin wired to blockers, our guys get smothered and can't get off them. The outside run support, tackling, I mean on and on.

These guys need to take this loss and use it to improve and I think they will. Only guy who might not is Peters, but we'll have to wait and see. If the dude would take the coaching he might find that they can help him get back to being a plus cover cb.

 

[Bearrister]

Those are top offenses. 3 of the 5 QBs faced have won SBs. Minnesota also has a high powered, pass happy offense.

Giving up 27 and 23 to the Packers and Chargers is nothing TBH. The top offenses are gonna get their points.

The problem with this mentality is that, coming into the season, we (on paper) thought we had an elite defense. Excusing our defenses performance by saying “they give up points to top offenses” ignores the obvious fact that these are the type of offenses we’ll face in the playoffs.

I think what’s also discouraging is that this Wade-led D hasn’t had a good performance against a good offensive team. Looking at the top offensive teams we’ve played this year (Chargers, Vikings, Seahawks, Packers, Saints) the Rams are giving up 32 points on average (and I’m really stretching to call the Seahawks a top offensive team, but yet we gave up 31 to them). That is worrisome, and it came back to bite us in this game.

Many of our wins against the toughest teams on our schedule were despite the defensive performance, not because of it. We all expected more from this D this year. I don’t think it’s that unreasonable to expect our D to not give up 35 points in the first half.

 

[99Balloons]

I think WP is afraid to sit Marcus Peters or tells him to stick to assignments and stop gambling or else he sits.

 

[PressureD41]

I could go on and on with the personnel in this defense tbh. I mean just look at all the LBs gettin wired to blockers, our guys get smothered and can't get off them. The outside run support, tackling, I mean on and on.

These guys need to take this loss and use it to improve and I think they will. Only guy who might not is Peters, but we'll have to wait and see. If the dude would take the coaching he might find that they can help him get back to being a plus cover cb.

What is your priority of needs for our DEF?

 

[OntarioRam]

Barron has been fine but not worth his pay cheque. No real impact plays this year. He usually is good for a few of those. Perhaps he is still shaking some rust off. Don't get me wrong, the dude has been pretty reliable, and since coming back has made a fair number of tackles, but if his play doesn't pick up soon we should re-structure or move on, kind of like with Quinn.

 

[96GS#007]

This was all about execution by the players. The scheme put them in position to succeed. They missed tackles or were a step behind....except Peters....<smh>

 

[PressureD41]

I'm thinking we need to draft a 2CB, FS,Edge

Need to develop 2 young kids at CB. Not sure if MP22 resigns as of today, plus need to groom Talib's replacement and add another that can play

 

[Kevin]

We showed well?

You realize the conversation is about defense?

We showed....well? On defense?

Take off the blinders. It's one thing to be a Homer, I can understand homerism. But don't lie to yourself for the sake of trying to be the voice of reason.

Having said that....I don't think Wade is out of touch but I do think our defense is underperforming and has been under performing all year.

Yeah, this defense is frustrating. The lack of penetration by the front four is noticeable compared to the last couple of years. Peters was so good against the Raiders but has just gotten worse since then. We have what, five first round picks on defense and we give up chunk yardage plays back to back to back. Could be more of the same against the Chiefs next week.