Wade

[Kevin]

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 Peterson is a promising DB on IR. I’m hoping he is one of those guys who develops into a decent starter.

 

[PressureD41]

One game at a time... Next week is home vs. ShitHawks

 

[PressureD41]

Kevin Peterson is a promising DB on IR. I’m hoping he is one of those guys who develops into a decent starter.

Not sold on K. Peterson to be honest

 

[Angry Ram]

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.

Then the Rams will need to make the stops when they need to, and for the most part this year, have. I.e., adjusting in game or making the important plays to seal a win. That's what defense is these days.

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.

The Chargers and Packers were held in check, at least for the Packers until Aaron Jones get his long TD. There was a long stretch in that game the Packers couldn't get anything going. In fact, I feel like that's been the case in most of the Rams' games against the other top teams.

On the flip side, other teams have been giving up points as well. For example.

Saints: 48, 37, 20, 35 (Bucs, Falcons, Vikings, Rams)

Packers: 29, 31, 30, 29 (Vikings, Redskins, 49ers, Rams)

Vikings: 29, 38, 30 (Packers, Rams, Saints).

So when two top offensive teams get together...points are scored. All these defenses are great against the likes of the Cardinals, Lions, Jets, etc.

Today was an outlier. Never has this defense under Wade have they given up 35 in a half, I highly doubt it will happen again. You can only stop Aaron Rodgers and Drew Brees back to back for so long.

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.

Again, today was an outlier. The other games the D made the stops they were supposed to.

 

[TexasRam]

My only beef with Wade is his lack of aggressive playcalling.

He has to adjust to his personel and Blitz more.

The vanilla lack of blitzing is killing the defense.

 

[SteezyEndo]

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.

I agree; Yes there are negatives going on about our D. Yes we can go around the horn, blah blah. It’s not like we are an uncoachable team. We got to where we are for a reason. Now we fix what we got to and keep on trucking...

 

[Pancake]

Looks like a shitload of talent on D to me. Maybe the most talented D roster in the whole league. Doesn't look like they are living up to that potential. Why?

I don't really care what the problem is to be honest. Just figure it out before the D ruins things in the playoffs.

 

[hotanez]

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.

Seattle next week

 

[Bearrister]

Then the Rams will need to make the stops when they need to, and for the most part this year, have. I.e., adjusting in game or making the important plays to seal a win. That's what defense is these days.



The Chargers and Packers were held in check, at least for the Packers until Aaron Jones get his long TD. There was a long stretch in that game the Packers couldn't get anything going. In fact, I feel like that's been the case in most of the Rams' games against the other top teams.

On the flip side, other teams have been giving up points as well. For example.

Saints: 48, 37, 20, 35 (Bucs, Falcons, Vikings, Rams)

Packers: 29, 31, 30, 29 (Vikings, Redskins, 49ers, Rams)

Vikings: 29, 38, 30 (Packers, Rams, Saints).

So when two top offensive teams get together...points are scored. All these defenses are great against the likes of the Cardinals, Lions, Jets, etc.

Today was an outlier. Never has this defense under Wade have they given up 35 in a half, I highly doubt it will happen again. You can only stop Aaron Rodgers and Drew Brees back to back for so long.



Again, today was an outlier. The other games the D made the stops they were supposed to.

I think we’re actually in agreement that the Rams D hasn’t lived up to expectations. By saying “then the Rams will need to make stops when they need to”, that in effect is moving the goal posts for our discussion and what we expected for this D. The D is underperforming given the talent on the roster.

For as many points as our offense scores, it’s turned out that we’ve needed pretty much all of them to win many of our games. That is not what any of us expected coming into this year. If you had told any of us coming into this season that we’d average 33ppg, we’d have expected more blowouts, or at least comfortable wins, than we actually have.

Of the teams you mentioned, the only other D that has been as disappointing (given preseason expectations) as ours is the Vikings. The difference with them is that, as good as their offense is, it’s not at the Rams level and can’t mask their defensive deficiencies the way our offense does with our D.

Also, as disappointing as the Vikings D has been this year, they only gave up 23 to the same Saints team that just dumped 45 on us (7 Saints points came from a pick-6 by the Saints D).

And beyond that, the fact that we’re trying to excuse the Rams’ defensive performance this season by comparing it to the Saints D... really shows how much they’ve underperformed.

We’ll see what adjustments they can make the rest of this season.

 

[Merlin]

What is your priority of needs for our DEF?

1. CB. We need one good young cover corner who isn't a liability in run support to pair with Talib as CB2. Peters ain't long for this team, he is not a fit due to selfishness and lapses in eye discipline. Barring him finding some self control and taking to the coaching that I know he's receiving, he might not even make it through next season on this roster.

2. Edge. Not sure what Fowler will be under this staff but until he proves out over the second half of the sched and playoffs this is a very high need.

3. Safety. Joyner is good as gone and we need another safety to pair with Johnson. This position has been exposed a bit since Talib went down, and we don't have the skill there to cover the CB deficiencies. IMO safety will continue to increase in value as we go forward in this passing era, particularly guys who can bring flexibility and cover skills.

4. NT. Way too much money invested into three DL who have similar skills. Young NT would be a great addition for this defense to replace Suh, and would allow Kevin to spread the cash around on that side of the ball and maybe fill a LB position.

5. ILB. Need another ILB opposite Littleton. This was a need before, and still is. Barron gets wired to blocks and eliminated at the first sight of contact.

Rams have anticipated this league's passing game direction very well with a roster that was built on pressures up front and cover corners. But Peters is a damn disappointment and I don't know if they he'll do the work to get it fixed, and losing Talib was just tough luck. But when you look across the roster and anticipate who's leaving, they're going to need to put some TLC into this unit this offseason.

 

[janthony6]

Been saying this for a while. He was overrated in KC. He played against bad QBs often and got picks. Guys like Carr can’t hit a wide open Cooper and instead throw it short to Peters.

He’s out of position all the time and hoping for an errant or short pass. Good QBs love him.

Guy to acquire is Chris Harris Jr.

 

[Psycho_X]

View: https://twitter.com/rich_hammond/status/1059299303469080576?s=21

 

[UKram]

all im going to say is this .. next week look at the rams Dline jerseys and then the seahawks d lines jersey ...

 

[Angry Ram]

I think we’re actually in agreement that the Rams D hasn’t lived up to expectations. By saying “then the Rams will need to make stops when they need to”, that in effect is moving the goal posts for our discussion and what we expected for this D. The D is underperforming given the talent on the roster.

I think this game and the one against the Packers have been disappointing, although I don't think the Packers was all that bad. Which happens after facing Aaron Rodgers and Drew Brees. The rest they've been good (and the numbers backed it up).

For as many points as our offense scores, it’s turned out that we’ve needed pretty much all of them to win many of our games. That is not what any of us expected coming into this year. If you had told any of us coming into this season that we’d average 33ppg, we’d have expected more blowouts, or at least comfortable wins, than we actually have.

That's just not reality though. The good teams will beat the shitty teams handily. When two top, evenly matched offenses get together, points will be scored rather than blowouts on one side or another.

Of the teams you mentioned, the only other D that has been as disappointing (given preseason expectations) as ours is the Vikings. The difference with them is that, as good as their offense is, it’s not at the Rams level and can’t mask their defensive deficiencies the way our offense does with our D.

Also, as disappointing as the Vikings D has been this year, they only gave up 23 to the same Saints team that just dumped 45 on us (7 Saints points came from a pick-6 by the Saints D).

The Packers D isn't very good, neither are teh Chargers, Saints. The Vikings are a good defense.

And beyond that, the fact that we’re trying to excuse the Rams’ defensive performance this season by comparing it to the Saints D... really shows how much they’ve underperformed.

I'm not comparing defenses. I'm saying those teams don't have good defenses to begin with. And for the Saints, they are ranked 25th in yards allowed and 23rd in points allowed. That's not good.

The Rams had a bad performance yesterday and fell to 13th in yards allowed, and 14th in points allowed. Prior to yesterday they were top 10 in those categories. They haven't been bad this year.

One bad game shouldn't blanket over the season so far.

 

[Bearrister]

I think this game and the one against the Packers have been disappointing, although I don't think the Packers was all that bad. Which happens after facing Aaron Rodgers and Drew Brees. The rest they've been good (and the numbers backed it up).

Did you think the D played well against the Seahawks? By any measure, statistical or otherwise, the Seahawks are far from a top offense. They scored the most points of their season against us. They scored 20 points against the Cardinals the week before they played the Rams. They scored more against the Rams then they did against the Raiders, Lions, Chargers, and Cowboys. That’s not a good mark. So to say the numbers back up the idea that the D played well “in the rest of their games”... is simply incorrect.

I’d say the D’s best performance was against the Chargers. Unfortunately, that’s pretty much the only good performance they had against a respectable offensive team. Unfortunately that’s the game where we lost Talib, and it’s impacted our team horribly.

That's just not reality though. The good teams will beat the crappy teams handily. When two top, evenly matched offenses get together, points will be scored rather than blowouts on one side or another.

Again, the Seahawks game doesn’t fit into this narrative.

The Packers D isn't very good, neither are teh Chargers, Saints. The Vikings are a good defense.

I'm not comparing defenses. I'm saying those teams don't have good defenses to begin with. And for the Saints, they are ranked 25th in yards allowed and 23rd in points allowed. That's not good.

The Rams had a bad performance yesterday and fell to 13th in yards allowed, and 14th in points allowed. Prior to yesterday they were top 10 in those categories. They haven't been bad this year.

One bad game shouldn't blanket over the season so far.

This actually makes my point. This D is performing under expectations. The fact that part of your original point was to say “other top offensive teams are giving up a lot of points” and then mentioning specific examples of such teams (2 of whom, the Saints and Packers, have defenses that were unquestionably less well regarded then our D) inherently is making a comparison - in other words, “we’re not the only one!” And as I pointed out, the Vikings D is the only other D that has been as similarly disappointing as ours vs. preseason expectations.

If you think this D is acceptable, we just have to agree to disagree. Believe it or not, I take no pleasure in debating about this, but at this point we’re going in circles. Coming into this season, it was expected that this D would be something we could hang our hat on - that we could win shootouts, but also defensive battles if our O had an off game. We just aren’t there. Maybe things will get better when Talib returns.