New Defense - Ongoing season discussion

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Tackling is the D's biggest problem right now. Edges are good with Verse and Young. The middle of this Defense is soft as can be. If the Coaches put Reeder and Rozeboom in against san fran it will be horrendous. I would put Speight and the best tackling Safety on the roster in the box and roll with that.
 
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I can't help but think the Rams are a leaderless defense at the moment. Yes, McVay is a great HC and leader in the locker room and in team meetings. I'm referring to a leader on the field. AD was that man, someone everyone looked up to and aspired to be like. Then Jones behind AD. Now that they are both gone you can see the defense lacks that intensity it once had. One of these guys will have to rise to the occasion and be that guy everyone aspires to be. Right now they just don't have that. Maybe it wasn't such a good idea to ship Jones to another team. However, it's one game, and it seems like McVay has one or two of these blowout games a year. I'll wait and see how we play the 9ers next week. Praying

On another note, tackling was some of the worst I've seen in a long time, even in the Lions game I was yelling at the TV because of all the miss tackles. However, in this game it became more of a laugh watching 5 different players whiff on Murray on the same play. This happened multiple times yesterday btw. Murray isn't Lamar and we made Murray look like a MVP yesterday. Gross
 
Edges are good with Verse and Young.
Both of them had chances to sack Murray yesterday, but he kept evading them. The third touchdown, where he held onto the ball for eight seconds and evaded four tackles, was particularly egregious.
 
I agree our defense does not tackle well. If they don't improve that next week its not gonna be a winnable game. 49ers thrive off missed tackles and yards after catch. Expect them to see what the Rams did on tape and throw even more passes closer to the line of scrimmage. If the Rams defense can't improve in that area its gonna be another frustrating game.
 
I don't know if I'll say our defense doesn't tackle well right now. Last game they didn't, but I feel like against DET they were thumping and wrapping up.

They were just so, so flat yesterday. Like they don't want to be there. Was odd.
 
Reader and Roseboom should be on the bench. I'm ready to see more Davis instead of Brown. In my opinion he's looked better in his limited snaps than Brown.

I think the secondary will look better once the LBs an DL prove that they can stop the run. Our LBs struggle stopping the run and defending the pass. Late to every play or don't get the ball carrier wrapped up. They are allowing opposing offenses to stay balanced and it's hurting them.

Even though i hope that they do I don't expect them to start phasing Brown out immediately but there needs to be a change at LB soon.
 
Top problem is how they rushed. That led to Murray having space, which enabled missed tackles and extended offsched plays. That was the primary reason we were blown out.

Seond problem is LT play, which was once again absolute shit. This nullifies Stafford.

Third problem is interior DL play. It isn't just Brown. But if he could anchor well in the middle shit would look a lot different. Both Fiske and Turner need to improve on top of giving Davis a look.

Fourth biggest problem is the offball backers. The lack of mobility and instinct behind an undisciplined rush was a catastrophe.

Lastly our secondary blew a lot of shit. Just do your fuckin job. They need to play better.

I know McVay is turning the page on this one. But there are changes that need to be made at a few spots and schematically our DC cannot fuck up the gameplan like that if we want to compete.
 
They were just so, so flat yesterday. Like they don't want to be there. Was odd.

I don't recall a McVay team ever falling into a trap-game, letdown-game, look-ahead game, sandwich game type of mentality, but it's hard to ignore. I mean the Cards were scheduled between a tough, hyped opening day game against the Lions and an always tough game against the 9ers. Weren't they saying the Rams were 8-2 against the Cards before last Sunday? We have one of the youngest teams in the league. It doesn't take much for a young team to lose its edge. Who knows?
 
If Shula is in over his head McVay needs to take over the defense. I know its a lot on his plate as he's also the offensive play caller. But that defense is atrocious. Biggest culprit is tackling. Not sure how much of that is on the coaches. Guys should know how to tackle by the time they get into the league.

They need better play from the middle of the line. Fiske has been meh so far. I have to look for number 55 to know if he's on the field. Never hear his name called. Pretty much invisible. He was propped up as a handful in camp. He's nothing like that in a real game.

Brown is not ready to take the next step like we were told. Doubt he'll ever be more than a back of the rotation talent. Hoecht is a JAG. As are Reeder and Rozeboom. In fact we have too much JAG talent across the board and not enough blue chip talent.
 
Minnesota's defense looks fucking great, not a surprise when they bring in Brian Flores, who, btw, has zero chance of being hired away. Vikes are in great shape with that dude opposite their HC. I'd kill to see him paired with McVay.

Nothing against Shula. This defense is undergoing a rebuild so it is what it is. But I'd say he's 1-1 right now in terms of how he's performed in the job. I liked how we looked for most of the Detroit game. I don't blame him for the defense running out of gas, it happens. But Arizona was a steaming pile of shit.
 
I think the plan was/is for the offense to score a ton of points and to rebuild the defense on the fly. It’s not a bad plan except the offense is shredded with injuries.

Verse looks like the real deal.
Not just score.. be able to hold onto the ball for long drives.

Both sides of the ball sucked.
 
Minnesota's defense looks fucking great, not a surprise when they bring in Brian Flores, who, btw, has zero chance of being hired away. Vikes are in great shape with that dude opposite their HC. I'd kill to see him paired with McVay.

Nothing against Shula. This defense is undergoing a rebuild so it is what it is. But I'd say he's 1-1 right now in terms of how he's performed in the job. I liked how we looked for most of the Detroit game. I don't blame him for the defense running out of gas, it happens. But Arizona was a steaming pile of shit.
I don't agree with the running out of gas argument. The rams offense won TOP big time in that game , they should not be out of gas because they had to play another 5 minutes. IF you think about it , the way they played OT was exactly the same way they played against AZ the entire game , they gave up 164 yards on the ground against the Lions and 231 agains AZ ..... 231. Maybe that is who they are . I hope I am wrong.
 
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I don't recall a McVay team ever falling into a trap-game, letdown-game, look-ahead game, sandwich game type of mentality, but it's hard to ignore. I mean the Cards were scheduled between a tough, hyped opening day game against the Lions and an always tough game against the 9ers. Weren't they saying the Rams were 8-2 against the Cards before last Sunday? We have one of the youngest teams in the league. It doesn't take much for a young team to lose its edge. Who knows?
McVay was 13-2 against AZ going into that game.

It was an absolute "If not now, when," game for them. Even if they'd played well they may have lost that game just based on AZ's intensity and effort.
 
I tried to make an argument for the Rams to draft kamari lassiter early in the draft, but the idea was not met with much enthusiasm on the draft forum.

Hmm, it looks like he’s gotten off to a pretty good start.
 
Shula is over his head. Plus the talent is sub-par. Yikes