 ANOTHER LOOK AT THE DEFENSE, BY JEFF (Jan 11) |
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1. HOW GOOD IS THIS
DEFENSE? Is our defense vulnerable to big plays against offenses such as
Minn and Wash? Well, here are some stats: * Our defense has given up the fewest points * Our defense has given up the fewest touchdowns * the surprising fact, especially after last year, is that our defense has only given up 3 touchdown longer than 20 yards. What this tells me is the following: * It is very hard to get quick and easy scores on the Rams defense * Teams have to be patient and march error free down the field consistently to score. This happens very rarely. * If the Rams DO NOT turn the ball over on their own side of the field, teams will only march down the field a few times a game for touchdowns. A team not only has to be patient and methodical on offense to beat the Rams, but they have to do it all game or hope the Rams self destruct. IMO, if the Rams do not turn the ball over in their own territory, no team can beat them. 2. THE OFFENSE HELPS THE DEFENSE. If you think stats make a great defense, then you will find this interesting. None of the teams ranked ahead of the Rams defensively have good offenses, with the possible exception of Jax (although Jaxs' defense has not looked as good since their offense has begun scoring). If your offense scores consistently, you do not have to play a shut down style of defense. No team does. If your offense can not score, you have to if you are going to keep from being blown out. And the Rams offense will score touchdowns early and often. Other team know this and thus they want to shorten the game by establishing the run. And this unit is very very good against the run. No team has come in and established any type of running game against them and I do not think that one is going to know. While a team is trying to establish the run and wear down the Rams front 7, the Rams have just jumped out to a quick 14-21 point lead and know you can't run the ball. Thus the opposition gets themselves into a hole by their game plan. The only way I see a team have a real shot from this point forward is to try and score a lot and score early. If it were me I would come out throwing the ball and try to get a lead. Hopefully my defense (or the Rams themselves) could stop them a couple times. With a lead, I would still throw the ball, maybe ball control though. Remember, after Tenn got a 21 point lead, they tried to run the ball to protect the lead-and the result was almost a Ram victory. The game should have been tied. I would even go so far as to say that the Rams would like teams to come in and try to establish ball control right away. IMO, that plays to the Rams advantage. So after the first quarter or half, the opposition finds themselves behind by a great deal. So if you are going to beat them, you better come out throwing and try to score early and often. The only problem is that very few teams have the talent to try this against this team. But if they come out throwing, the defense makes them methodically march down the field. Most of the times the opposition will make a mistake or the Rams defense will make a play to stop the drive. If the opposition does get to the red zone, that is when this defense is at it's best and usually holds the opposition to 3. What is interesting, is that the defense has put up better numbers as far as points in the second half, but have done a lot better in giving up fewer yards in the first half. The defense takes an aggressive approach in the first part of the game to allow the offense to build a large lead and then plays soft in the second half and waits for the opposing offense to make a mistake out of desperation. 3. IMPROVEMENT IN THE FRONT 7. The Front 7 last year----Jones, Agnew, Farr, Carter, Jones, Hill, Phifer. RDE Jones was fine if they ran right at him, but he had no speed and athletic ability, so people got outside all the time. Phifer is fast and athletic, but he is not good at taking on and shedding blocks. The weakest link was our MLB: Hill. He was not only slow, but he just did not have the instincts needed for that position. He never met a ball carrier at the hole. The Rams were also not very disciplined, especially Jenkins. The players would over-run palys and thus the running backs would cut back and get huge gains. The major reasons for our improvement are: * Fletcher. (He is a pro-bowler IMO. This guy has been very solid this year. Amazingly, he will continue to get better. I love this story. When Fletcher signed his minimum salary contract last year as UDFA, he told Armey that he would be back soon to sign his new contract because he will be one of the Rams best players. Got to love his attitude.) * Increased discipline. * They are playing with leads (the defense is not getting worn out. I never saw so many 3 and outs last year by our O). * The DTs are playinge exceptional football. I have yet to see a large gain up the middle. 4. WILL THE RAMS IMPROVE AT DB? The Rams do give up a lot of yards per reception, but are very good when it comes to yards/pass because of the low completion percentage of opposing QBs. If teams are only completing 1 out of 4 of these passes, the yards/reception will be alot higher than the yards/pass. So which is more important? Yards/reception or yards/pass? There are 2 reasons why a team plays soft zones: * the CBs cannot play man to man * the safeties can not cover the middle of the field without help Our CBs (except Allen and the one mistake by McCleon) have played very well in man to man when they have been asked to. The Rams are very very good at taking away the short routes and for the most part tackling recievers after the short catches (so the problem really is not YAC). The short passing game is primarily the responsibility of the CBs. In contrast, the Rams will give up the medium range pass. Believe ir or not, our CBs are not the problem. The medium to long passes are primarily the dual responsibility of both the corners and safeties. If the safeties do not get over in time, when the CB is expecting it, then the pass will be completed. Also, if the SS is not able to cover the TE, the FS will have to cheat into the middle thus giving less help outside. Thus our failure here is due to our inability to cover the TE straight up and thus we need help. The TEs killed us last year. Last year, our safeties were consistently beat for big plays and touchdowns. To combat that this year, the defensive scheme has changed to more soft zones to protect the safeties and LBs. If we can get more speed and talent in the secondary, especially at SS, the defense will be able to play more man to man and so might develop into a shut down defense (although they looked pretty good in the last 40 minutes of the saints game). Where will the help come from? We do need to draft another safety for depth, but we do not need any new starters in the secondary for next year---they are already on the team. We need depth in case Lyle or Lyght goes down, and prospects for the future. McCleon is a RFA this year. I am going to be interested to see if the Rams sign him long term or to a 1 year contract. That will give us some insight into their plans for him. Bly is ready to start. Occasionally, he will make a mistake, but he will make far more plays (some being spectacular like the Carolina game) then mistakes. He has to start next year. I want quality depth at CB, for our nickel and dime packages, but we need a SS real bad. Coady would be a perfect fit and he looked good in the 1st Carolina game. Lyle will help settle the secondary down some when he gets back, but right now, the combination of Jenkins/Bush is not good when the other team is throwing the ball. I like Coady/Lyle a lot better. 5. CAN THE RAMS DEFENSE THE VIKINGS? Even with some problems in the secondary you can't underestimate our defense. The Vikings have only scored 30+ points 3 times this year: 40-SF, 35-SD and 34-NYG. The Rams defense is by far better than any of those. Except for the Philly game, which you cannot count due to the backups playing most of the time, we have only given up more than 24 points once and that was due to an improbable conversion of a 4th and 26. Even will all their firepower, Minn is not consistent and patient enough to drive the ball 70+ yards consistently against us without big play touchdowns. Our defense would frustrate either them or Wash. This is the perfect defense for our team. I just do not see the Vikings scoring more than 30 points even with us turning the ball over. |
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