St. Louis Rams must get back to basics against Arizona Cardinals

Football is, at its best, a highly complex game. It is full of tactics, subtlety, intrigue and passion. However, breaking it down to the absolute bare essentials as per NFL.com’s Beginner’s Guide, “The object of the game is to score the most points”. This leads us to a logical conclusion: Contrary to the popular saying, defense does NOT win championships.

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What actually wins championships is consistently being able to outscore the opposition. Defense merely gives a team a better chance of winning by creating a smaller target for the offense to aim at. But as the St. Louis Rams demonstrated perfectly last weekend against Pittsburgh, an effective defense that restricts the opponents to a low score means nothing if the offense does not hold up its end of the deal.

Now please don’t misunderstand this as in any way detracting from how far the Rams defense has come in recent years. Aaron Donald continues to prove that he is every bit worth the first round pick that St. Louis spent in 2014. The former 13^th overall draft selection racked up an impressive 9 sacks in his rookie season, and is averaging over a sack a game with 3.5 so far this campaign. Robert Quinn is also rightly regarded as one the league’s best defensive ends, having accumulated 48 sacks just a short ways into his fifth season. This is a defense littered with star talent.

Offensively, the picture is very different. So far in 2015 the team ranks a mere 21^st in the league with 67 total points scored across the three games played. The running game, on which many preseason hopes were based, has only gained an average of 3.8 yards per carry and coughed up a league-leading 3 fumbles. Through the air, the Rams currently rank a lowly 29^th in the league with a total of 609 passing yards. After some horrendous drops last week, quarterback Nick Foles’ completion rate stands at 62.1%, 23^rd in the NFL.

The most frustrating aspect of all this for Rams fans is that the offensive talent is clearly there. Foles showed in 2013 exactly what he is capable of if the rest of the pieces around him click. Wide receiver Tavon Austin’s two touchdown performance in Week 1 against Seattle was a flash of his awesome potential. With the exception of Tim Barnes who was undrafted in 2011, the offensive line consists exclusively of former top 75 picks, including Greg Robinson picked at number two overall in 2014.

Arizona Cardinals safety Tyrann Mathieu, a rising star in this league, tweeted the following earlier this week:

So the question is, if the talent on this roster is so highly regarded, why aren’t they more successful?

Looking ahead to this weekend against the 3-0 Arizona Cardinals, the Rams need to get back to basics and get organized on offense. The divisional rival Cardinals have scored no less than 31 points per game this season, so St. Louis simply must show they too can keep the scoreboard ticking over to have any chance and bringing themselves to 2-2. Get the running game going, convert on 3^rd down, utilize play action and – please – catch the football. As good as our defense is, it is preferable for them not to be on the field all game long. Unless the offense gets going, it could be another long and painful evening for the blue and gold faithful.