Chris Shula...

[dang]

That's the odd thing. They were #7 in the NFL in sacks with 47. They were shutout 3 times and held to just 1 sack 3 other times. So in 11 games they had 44 sacks. That's 4 per game. And btw, they went 4-2 in those 6 games with 1 or none. Strange indeed.

Two things have been suggested as possible changes. 1 is when Lake went down. The other was extending Landman. Both happened in a 6 day period. Lake went down on the 16th vs Seattle, a game we won. Landman was extended on the 22nd. We trounced Tampa on the 23rd but then the bottom fell out and we went 3-3 to finish the season. Did either of those things affect the D? I'm sure missing Lake did, though not immediately.

Maybe we got a little over our skiis? Lose Lake, extend Landman, win big the next game, go in to Carolina and give up 31. We had only given up 20 or more once after the OT loss to SF. Then beginning with the Carolina game, we only held opponents to less than 20 once in the last 6 games.

Good summary of the bottom falling out of the Rams defense. With 0 options apparently available to improve ??
So the question is - was it mostly the limitations of the personnel or mostly the inability of making the adjustments. I tend to think it’s the former which MUST be addressed aggressively in the offseason. Can’t take any chance in this occurring again next year. Make any shortcomings be something else.

 

[OntarioRam]

Good summary of the bottom falling out of the Rams defense. With 0 options apparently available to improve ??
So the question is - was it mostly the limitations of the personnel or mostly the inability of making the adjustments. I tend to think it’s the former which MUST be addressed aggressively in the offseason. Can’t take any chance in this occurring again next year. Make any shortcomings be something else.

One thing is for sure, assuming the Rams address this defense in the off-season, we are going to find out about Chris Shula, and likely will be looking at a new DC in 2027-28 regardless of what this upcoming season reveals about him. Either the limitations were personnel driven, and Shula will be a top poaching candidate - he was already getting interviews this year. Or because the problem was the scheme being figured out with Shula not having a counter-punch, in which case, we'll need to make a change.