New Defense - Ongoing season discussion

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Tumak61 said:
The Rams Defense has given up less than 10 points in the last 3 games which is amazing. Both the jets and cards had the ball forever and could only score 9 points. McVay is really starting to trust his Defense and it's reflected in the way he's calling games and managing them. Let's hope the Offense can get back on track.
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But is he really trusting the defense with those huge cushions and just trying to prevent big plays?
 
Classic Rams said:
I was thinking he would show up too. Great prediction he was a freakin' tasmanian devil out there.

Looney Tunes Attack GIF by Looney Tunes World of Mayhem


So were Young and Fiske.
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Tasmanian Devil, I like that :clap:
 
Elmgrovegnome said:
But is he really trusting the defense with those huge cushions and just trying to prevent big plays?
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Since McVay hired Staley, the Rams have played with big cushions and focused on preventing explosive plays.

Only Ramsey was allowed to play differently.

I don't think that style reflects McVay's distrust in the defense as much as it does his preference for that scheme.
 
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DzRams said:
Since McVay hired Staley, the Rams have played with big cushions and focused on preventing explosive plays.

Only Ramsey was allowed to play differently.

I don't think that style reflects McVay's distrust in the defense as much as it does his preference for that scheme.
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The cushion we are seeing now is reminiscent to the cushion Raheem Morris used in 2022. He said that he didn’t want to play that way but circumstances lead to it. Then in 2023 Morris tightened it up a bit more and it was better. So in 2022 he didn’t trust his DBs as much as he did the next season.

So, a coach can play the same scheme but vary the depth of the cushion he implements. It’s not a fixed depth to go with the scheme. In these last few games the cushion is huge. It was tighter earlier in the year. That says to me that McVay or Shula, or both don’t trust the defense as much as they did earlier in the year. Or they didn’t like the big plays being given up earlier.
 
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Elmgrovegnome said:
The cushion we are seeing now is reminiscent to the cushion Raheem Morris used in 2022. He said that he didn’t want to play that way but circumstances lead to it. Then in 2023 Morris tightened it up a bit more and it was better. So in 2022 he didn’t trust his DBs as much as he did the next season.

So, a coach can play the same scheme but vary the depth of the cushion he implements. It’s not a fixed depth to go with the scheme. In these last few games the cushion is huge. It was tighter earlier in the year. That says to me that McVay or Shula, or both don’t trust the defense as much as they did earlier in the year. Or they didn’t like the big plays being given up earlier.
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We're on the same page. The D was giving up too many big plays earlier.
 
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DzRams said:
Since McVay hired Staley, the Rams have played with big cushions and focused on preventing explosive plays.

Only Ramsey was allowed to play differently.

I don't think that style reflects McVay's distrust in the defense as much as it does his preference for that scheme.
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Zone D is, by far, the most popular form of coverage in the NFL now.

Now.. when the Rams had corners who could play decent man? As in back in 21? They could mix it up a bunch. They just don't have the corners for that right now.
 
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Love this defense. I don't care what anyone says about easy teams or whatever; three consecutive games with less than ten points allowed is amazing at the college level, let alone the NFL. There's no such thing as an easy win in the NFL.
 
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Memento said:
Love this defense. I don't care what anyone says about easy teams or whatever; three consecutive games with less than ten points allowed is amazing at the college level, let alone the NFL. There's no such thing as an easy win in the NFL.
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Agreed. The defense started out poorly. But the poor start was likely from our offense sucking and not moving the ball. When the offense started scoring and running the ball, the defense was steady and improved. Yes we didn't play top tier teams in the last few weeks, but we did have to play in freezing weather, rain and all, but they came through.

Imagine this group with a few upgrades next season. I think we're a top 10 defense next season. Now if the offense would play like they did against the Bills, we'd be a legitimate contender.

In my honest and realistic opinion, this team could get hot and make noise in the playoffs, but there are no bad teams once you're in the dance so offensive slow starts will eventually knock you out.
 
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Steve808 said:
The defense started out poorly. But the poor start was likely from our offense sucking and not moving the ball.
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Neither the offense nor the defense need to blame the other side of the ball for what were significant stretches of shit play.

The offense played like shit due to the OL not getting sorted in camp and not having any snaps to sort shit in preseason. Thus the OL got sorted over the first half of the season roughly. Also there were injuries to the wideouts. And Stafford was not at his best on top of all that.

The defense played like shit due to the DL not being ready to shut down the run coming out of camp and undoubtedly thanks to the lack of snaps in preseason. And they sorted things through the first half of the season as well, getting everyone into their best roles that should have been defined for the opener. Their secondary meanwhile have played like shit most of the season, with a good outing here and there. Inconsistency has been their only consistency. Last two games Spoon has given them some consistency, which is a good sign. Also Speights and Rozeboom have grown into a solid ILB pairing.

Projecting for the playoffs we need injuries to favor us, the OL to play consistently well, and the secondary to hold up. It's a lot of IFs. Given how good this defensive front is I would say we have a chance to win a game or two. But it's hard to imagine us getting past the NFCCG, and I would love to be wrong there. :hug:
 
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Merlin said:
The defense played like shit due to the DL not being ready to shut down the run coming out of camp and undoubtedly thanks to the lack of snaps in preseason. And they sorted things through the first half of the season as well, getting everyone into their best roles that should have been defined for the opener.
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I have said this before.

We also started to do a lot better against the run once Reeder got hurt and someone else had to call the defense. Coincidence.
 
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DzRams said:
I don't think that style reflects McVay's distrust in the defense as much as it does his preference for that scheme.
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Agreed. Did you hear him in the locker room speech? "make them snap it One. More. Bleepin. Time!!!"
 
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Steve808 said:
Agreed. The defense started out poorly. But the poor start was likely from our offense sucking and not moving the ball.
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Our offense has scored 3 TDs (or more) in just 6 of 16 games. SF (wk 3), Minnesota (wk 8), N.England (wk 11), Philly (wk 12), N.Orleans (wk 13) and Buffalo (wk 14). They've scored 1 or less in 5 games...Ariz - 1 (wk 2), Chicago 1 (wk 4), Miami 0 (wk 10), SF 0 (wk 15) and Ariz 1 (wk 17). Scored just 2 in 5 others (3-2). :sur:I think our defense has played well.
 
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PARAM said:
Our offense has scored 3 TDs (or more) in just 6 of 16 games. SF (wk 3), Minnesota (wk 8), N.England (wk 11), Philly (wk 12), N.Orleans (wk 13) and Buffalo (wk 14). They've scored 1 or less in 5 games...Ariz - 1 (wk 2), Chicago 1 (wk 4), Miami 0 (wk 10), SF 0 (wk 15) and Ariz 1 (wk 17). Scored just 2 in 5 others (3-2). :sur:I think our defense has played well.
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Going solely by points allowed

They gave up the following points in the first 5 games.

26
41
24
24
24

Then they gave up only 15 points to the Raiders who really sucked on offense this year.

After that, their points average goes down to 20.2 points a game and if you take out Buffalo and Philadelphia - it is only 15.375 points per game.

So starting poorly is a good statement.

Note - Reeder started their first 6 games. I really do not want him on the team next year.
 
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Faceplant said:
Agreed. Did you hear him in the locker room speech? "make them snap it One. More. Bleepin. Time!!!"
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I consider that bullshit to be a trick of the mind to get your mental resilience where it needs to be.

When you're out there and putting your internal emphasis on getting that third down stop and don't get it, it is easy for a defense to get deflated as it happens over and over. And then the unit surrenders the points.

But if you coach your boys to have that mentality of making the other team drive the field then it's more natural to have an aggressive mindset at the end where the points happen. Now of course the calls and secondary need to prevent the big plays, but that is all part of it I think.

I guarantee they aren't acting like 3 'n outs are bad. They are of course trying to do that, but mentally hedging their bets and in the end just trying to avoid two things, those being big plays and teams finishing drives with 7.
 
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