LA Rams: General Thread

[MDY10]

Looks like Akers is back at practice 

[NVRamsFan]

 

[LeotheLion]

The defense has 1 takeaway in the last 6 games. That is a problem. And matches the eye test. They play too soft to force mistakes. 

[NVRamsFan]

1 hour ago, LeotheLion said:

The defense has 1 takeaway in the last 6 games. That is a problem. And matches the eye test. They play too soft to force mistakes. 

And yet they're just as good as last year at their primary job keeping the other team out of the end zone. People are pissing and moaning and calling for Morris to be fired because it's not flashy enough.

 

He doesn't have the personnel to run the same defense as last year.

 

We lost Von and who did McVay and Snead replace him with? A 7th rounder from Montana ST! Fire Morris!

We until this past week didn't have a viable #2 CB with Hill out and without a pass rush you really want a rookie playing press coverage who's not ready for it? Great way to give up 1 play 70 yard TD drives. Fire Morris!

But hey they paid Leonard Floyd and those two sacks of his are great for an edge rusher making $16 million a year. He's actually tied with Wager, who we know now has no speed at all left and Jalen Ramsey with his first two sacks of his career. That's right those three are tied for 2nd on the team in sacks.

Fire Morris his defense isn't flashy enough for us! We'd all like more sacks and more interceptions and more forced fumbles, at least to keep up with what our offense gives up, but our roster management left us absolutely nothing to get after the QB other than AD.

 

This one cracks me up the Rams are actually best defense in the league in fewest opponents plays and second in first downs given up? Yet people are losing their minds that our defense is terrible because they don't like the soft coverage. Sixth in points allowed. You'd think we were terrible in passing yards/attempt but we're actually middle of the pack. How is that possible we play such off coverage and have no pass rush?

 

I get it we all wanted a better result that last drive in Tampa, a second goal line stand in a row would have been amazing to end the game. But we're not under .500 and out of the playoffs right now because of our defense.

[stl4life07]

1 hour ago, LeotheLion said:

The defense has 1 takeaway in the last 6 games. That is a problem. And matches the eye test. They play too soft to force mistakes. 

Yeah thats the biggest thing to me. The Rams arent taking the ball away. The ball not bouncing their way when it comes to fumbles and they are dropping ints.

The crazy thing is on offense they arent turning the ball over anymore. The last three games only 1 turnover. McVay was undefeated when his team didnt turn the ball over before that Niners game. Now he has lost two straight games when his team hasnt turn the ball over. And I keep saying the Rams defense need to force a turnover and they havent. Thats the frustrating part bc in that Bucs game they had at least two pick 6's had the defensive player caught the ball. That wouldve easily blown that game wide open and the Rams wouldve won in a route.

[LeotheLion]

22 minutes ago, NVRamsFan said:

But we're not under .500 and out of the playoffs right now because of our defense.

No one is saying this. I don't understand why there are some portions of the fanbase that won't allow criticism of the defense because the offense is more of a problem. 

The rest of the post is just a hilarious strawman. There is a real conversation that can be had about Morris and this defense versus years past, however it is clear that isn't worth our time. 

[Flounch]

Well our draft sucks for several years right now...

 

 

[Dr LBC]

2 hours ago, NVRamsFan said:

 

I've been back and forth with that guy on Twitter and, like Ellenboeger, he refuses to consider any variation that isn't his own.

Portraying the two positions as mutually exclusive is dumb.  Yes, the offense has been awful this season, but the fact that Morris still hasn't made an adjustment with 9 weeks worth of evidence that the offense is what is it this season, so sticking stringently to the same scheme/approach built to run coinciding with a high-powered offense that putting up points on more drives than not at a 2:1 ratio is beyond stubborn.  Soft-coverage has its place - no one sensible is expecting a DC to go hard press-man or press-bail on every down with the possible exception of Pete Carroll.  But when you have one unit designed to have a style that complements the style of a separate second unit and that second separate unit isn't doing what it's supposed to in order to facilitate that compliment, only an incredibly lazy guy or a moron stays there twiddling his thumbs and doesn't at least attempt to make some form of adjustment, particularly coming out of a bye week.

The offense deserves blame AND Morris deserves blame for his inability or unwillingness to make appropriate adjustments.  We levied the same criticisms at Wade when he fell off in his ability to make in-game adjustment, we didn't just pass the buck to the offense to shoulder all the blame.

[NVRamsFan]

4 hours ago, Dr LBC said:

I've been back and forth with that guy on Twitter and, like Ellenboeger, he refuses to consider any variation that isn't his own.

Portraying the two positions as mutually exclusive is dumb.  Yes, the offense has been awful this season, but the fact that Morris still hasn't made an adjustment with 9 weeks worth of evidence that the offense is what is it this season, so sticking stringently to the same scheme/approach built to run coinciding with a high-powered offense that putting up points on more drives than not at a 2:1 ratio is beyond stubborn.  Soft-coverage has its place - no one sensible is expecting a DC to go hard press-man or press-bail on every down with the possible exception of Pete Carroll.  But when you have one unit designed to have a style that complements the style of a separate second unit and that second separate unit isn't doing what it's supposed to in order to facilitate that compliment, only an incredibly lazy guy or a moron stays there twiddling his thumbs and doesn't at least attempt to make some form of adjustment, particularly coming out of a bye week.

The offense deserves blame AND Morris deserves blame for his inability or unwillingness to make appropriate adjustments.  We levied the same criticisms at Wade when he fell off in his ability to make in-game adjustment, we didn't just pass the buck to the offense to shoulder all the blame.

I get it people are so tired of the soft defense they want more exciting plays (turnovers and sacks) and they'll go to any length to dump on Morris and the D. Yet the stats show it's not a bad defense (that last drive this past week was nobody is saying it wasn't). Yet we see it day in and day out that because people don't like the defense they see with soft coverage they cannot be honest about how the defense is playing. For having no pass rush at all and having the injury to Hill which drastically changes how we can cover the defense hasn't been bad.

We had Kupp come out and talk about how great the D did Sunday and the offense let them down all day long. Yet it's not good enough it's fire Morris season.

[NVRamsFan]

4 hours ago, LeotheLion said:

No one is saying this. I don't understand why there are some portions of the fanbase that won't allow criticism of the defense because the offense is more of a problem. 

The rest of the post is just a hilarious strawman. There is a real conversation that can be had about Morris and this defense versus years past, however it is clear that isn't worth our time. 

It is clear, you don't like the soft coverages, nobody does, and therefore you cannot be honest about the defense. It failed us that last drive nobody denies that. It was great the drive before with that 4th down goal line stand and everybody was happy. Then the next drive happened and it was back to fire Morris. He's kept us in games all year when for reasons we all know we couldn't score. He still kept us in games. Kupp and McVay talked about how they let the defense down but it's not good enough. It's fire Morris and anything less than that is unacceptable to people blind with anger at him.

[stl4life07]

Yeah the scapegoat is always fire Morris. The defense has been great. No defense can go out there and make big stop after big stop bc the offense cant seem to do its job. Its just like in baseball. If you have an excellent pitching staff but the hitting cant hit. Eventually the pitching will give up a run or two and the team will lose 1-0 or 2-0 bc they cant hit. Do you blame pitching for giving up that 1 run in the 9th inning to lose? No. You blame the hitting for not scoring.

All the Rams needed was 4yds and couldnt do it. That Bucs game reminded me of that Week 18 game against the Niners last season. All the Rams needed was to pick up a 1st down and they beat the Niners. Instead they had to punt and the Niners went down the field tied the game and won it in OT. What McVay shouldve done is made sure Kupp got the ball on 3rd and 4. Whether it was another jet sweep or a quick screen or just draw up something for Kupp to get the ball pick up the 1st down and the ball game is over. Instead they put the ball in Henderson hands and he couldnt get the 1st down. Just sucks but Im not blaming the defense bc they played their butt off. Special teams blocked a kick. So the only unit I look at is the offense and I look at McVay as well. McVay and Stafford were the reasons the Rams lost the game against the Rams.

[Dr LBC]

31 minutes ago, NVRamsFan said:

I get it people are so tired of the soft defense they want more exciting plays (turnovers and sacks) and they'll go to any length to dump on Morris and the D. Yet the stats show it's not a bad defense (that last drive this past week was nobody is saying it wasn't). Yet we see it day in and day out that because people don't like the defense they see with soft coverage they cannot be honest about how the defense is playing. For having no pass rush at all and having the injury to Hill which drastically changes how we can cover the defense hasn't been bad.

We had Kupp come out and talk about how great the D did Sunday and the offense let them down all day long. Yet it's not good enough it's fire Morris season.

Has nothing to do with wanting "exciting" plays... I want my defensive coordinator to show he has a modicum of ability to analyze a situation and make adjustments accordingly, or... you know... intelligence and humility.  The D can play their butts off, but if the coordinator refuses to adapt according to situational instances, he's setting them up to fail and that's as big of an FU to them as the offense failing to uphold their part.

[MDY10]

2 minutes ago, stl4life07 said:

Yeah the scapegoat is always fire Morris. The defense has been great. No defense can go out there and make big stop after big stop bc the offense cant seem to do its job. Its just like in baseball. If you have an excellent pitching staff but the hitting cant hit. Eventually the pitching will give up a run or two and the team will lose 1-0 or 2-0 bc they cant hit. Do you blame pitching for giving up that 1 run in the 9th inning to lose? No. You blame the hitting for not scoring.

All the Rams needed was 4yds and couldnt do it. That Bucs game reminded me of that Week 18 game against the Niners last season. All the Rams needed was to pick up a 1st down and they beat the Niners. Instead they had to punt and the Niners went down the field tied the game and won it in OT. What McVay shouldve done is made sure Kupp got the ball on 3rd and 4. Whether it was another jet sweep or a quick screen or just draw up something for Kupp to get the ball pick up the 1st down and the ball game is over. Instead they put the ball in Henderson hands and he couldnt get the 1st down. Just sucks but Im not blaming the defense bc they played their butt off. Special teams blocked a kick. So the only unit I look at is the offense and I look at McVay as well. McVay and Stafford were the reasons the Rams lost the game against the Rams.

It’s been said here already. Raheem isn’t THE problem. He’s one of them. It’s a bend but don’t break scheme. Unfortunately for him, with this offense, that isn’t good enough. It’s not fair to him or the defense that the Rams can only win games if they don’t allow a team into the endzone. That said, it doesn’t change the fact that it’s the scheme you’d love to play against if you’re down and need to get down the field as efficiently as possible for just a shot to win it. That’s playing right into the strength of guys like Jimmy G and Brady. The Bucs marched right down field because of that scheme.. not the players. I didn’t see assignments being blown or anything.. they just weren’t put into position to win. There is no reason in hell that a team should be 10 yards off the ball when the offense needs 2 yards on 3rd. Yet his ego is so big he refuses to put the best press corner in someone’s face. Raheem is a huge problem. 
 

ALL THAT SAID!! This team would be able to win as a bend but don’t break scheme, but the offense is the REAL problem. No one is shying away from this. Raheem needs to be fired.. but that doesn’t mean he’s the main reason for the losses. I think the final drive is on him.. but regardless they allowed one TD all day so they should never be in that position to begin with. Mcvay needed to get evans out of there way before he gave up his 2nd and 3rd sacks. Mcvay should have had the balls to call a play and get a first down instead of throwing in the towel and running it. Mcvay should and could have done much better. Stafford too. This team had negative yards in the 4th quarter. NEGATIVE yards. We alllllll know the offense is the problem.. 

[LeotheLion]

The real strike against Raheem will always be how he calls games against Jimmy G. Jimmy Gs 2 best YPA of the year came against the Rams. 

He knows how he is going to be attacked and doesn't alter the scheme. It's baffling. 

[LeotheLion]

44 minutes ago, MDY10 said:

That said, it doesn’t change the fact that it’s the scheme you’d love to play against if you’re down and need to get down the field as efficiently as possible for just a shot to win it. 

This is what I don't understand. Our offense has sucked and struggles to get first downs. We'd LOVE it if we played a defense that always let us have smoke routes, screens, and outs so we can get in a rhythm and pick up yardage. And we'd especially love it because our struggling offensive line doesn't even need to be good. The ball will get out so quickly that the offensive line becomes irrelevant.