The Card's base defense is man coverage, but Vance will try to disguise exactly how it's going to be played and he does employ zone coverages as well. I like how aggressive he plays his defense, compared to how Staley's is so damn vanilla. Neither the Hawks or the Cards have much of a pass rush. Offensively I think the Rams matchup very well to both their defenses.
Defensively, both Murray (who has improved) and Wilson will carve up the secondary if Staley continues to play a soft zone. Both teams can run well enough to keep the Ram's from totally ignoring them. The Hawks, Carson is a beast. Both Wilson and Murray IMO pose the biggest threat running. I couldn't help admire how well Vance disguised his rush compared to how poorly Staley's front plays. Staley's blitzes aren't well disguised and he rarely if ever stunts his front. He simply shifts the alignment and that's about it.
I think his alignments are poor and account for some of the lack of pressure the d-line gets. It will be interesting to see if Lewis or Robinson play before the bye week. The potentially could be difference makers, especially Robinson at NT. Playing his NT as a 0T means he needs two good ILBs. Playing a 1T with the NT means he only needs a run stuffing MIKE. A 1T NT will get more penetration as it's a single gap technique. Playing a 2 gap NT makes no sense when the other two DL are playing one gap techniques.
Talent-wise the Rams more than matchup with both the Cards and Hawks. But it comes down to how that talent on both sides of the ball is used. I have no problem with zone schemes if played aggressively. I do have a problem with basically playing a prevent all game long.
The Hawks are a basic zone defense, although they do play it aggressively. But even then we saw how Murray carved them up. The Cards play a mixture of man and zone, although their base is man coverage. The Rams have the WRs to really give them problems and force them into primarily zone, i.e. get them out of their comfort zone. If given time Goff is good enough to carve up the Hawk's zone scheme. One thing is clear to me after watching tonight. The Rams need to score big to beat these two teams as I have serious reservations about Staley's scheme holding up.
That said if Staley needs to take away Hopkins with Ramsey and that will cripple the Cards passing game. Murray's primary receiver is Hopkins to taking him out of the game will impact Murray and he will force throws. The Hawks playing their zone weren't able to control Hopkins so Murray was able to find him on crucial downs. Play man with Ramsey and Williams and zone everywhere else.
The Hawks pose a far greater problem. They have two very good WRs and get good play from their TEs. They have a beast in Carson as a RB. Because they pose a significant run threat then yeah zone is appropriate. But it must be played tight and aggressive.