St. Louis Rams Post-Game Roundtable: Preseason Game 2 vs. Packers

4. The Rams’ ‘starting’ defense was again missing key players, and not surprisingly, looked very mediocre against the Packers’ starting offense (Aaron Rodgers carved through the defense–going 11/13 for 128 yards and one TD)–should the Rams be worried, or is any evaluation of the defense unfair at this point, given the amount of key players (e.g. James Laurinaitis, Michael Brockers, William Hayes, Janoris Jenkins) missing in action early this preseason?

Aug 17, 2013; St. Louis, MO, USA; St. Louis Rams defensive end Robert Quinn (94) sacks Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers (12) during the first half at the Edward Jones Dome. Mandatory Credit: Scott Rovak-USA TODAY Sports

Nathan K.: On a scale of 1 to 10, my ‘worry-meter’ is somewhere around 2 or 3.

Even that score has less to do with the mediocre play we’ve seen on the field, and more to do with the fact that so many key players have been held out due to injuries this preseason.

Gregg Willams and Jeff Fisher have both verbalized, on numerous occasions, that there is very little game-planning for these preseason games, and the vast majority of the schemes are “vanilla,” with limited blitzes or masked coverages.

If the Rams look like this versus the Minnesota Vikings, I will be concerned. Until then, our eyes should be focused on the individual performers at their various positions, as opposed to the unit as a whole.

Blaine G.: At this point Im starting to get a little worried and can only hope the defense can get things going in the second half of the preseason. I keep telling myself though that it is only preseason and Williams has yet to bring the heat. Because some of the important starters have been out it is unfair to be totally critical, but the little things like tackling and just allowing the quarterback to sit in the pocket and carve up the defense is, in my opinion, unacceptable and needs to be fixed ASAP.

Anthony K.: I’m really torn ab0ut how to evaluate the defensive ‘performance’ at this point. As Blaine and Nate pointed out, Gregg Williams has kept things pretty ‘vanilla’. Everyone knows that Williams runs a defensive scheme predicated on creating pressure on the quarterback, using a variety of exotic blitzes, etc. I never expected to see any of that during the pre-season. But in addition to that, the Rams HAVE been missing many of their key starters and reserves, and even if they had been healthy enough to play, they wouldn’t have played much the first two preseason games anyway.

Do I want to at least see a little more inspiring defensive ‘performance’ against the Browns? Yes, of course. But will I freak out if they look pretty mediocre? No. Let’s also keep in mind that Aaron Rodgers and the Packers are pretty good at football, and they walked off the field at half-time only leading 10-7. The Rams will be just fine on defense.