Optical Illusion: How bad was the LA Rams defense?

The defense continued to evolve

Accuracy is the great equalizer. Eventually and ultimately, our rush to rapid conclusions places us painted into logical corners. We have treated strobe light images of this season as though they were fixed paintings. But those images of our perceptions are simply flashes of events at that moment after all. Events that continue to change, to transform, to destroy in some areas, while constructing in others.

Ultimately, each season, and each game in each season, is an entirely different set of changing and dynamic circumstances that have a bearing on the outcome of the game. For the LA Rams 2021 season, that performance level was such a moving target. If it was not a matter of the team trying to compensate for the loss of injured players, the team was trying to infuse the addition of new incoming talent.

Dynamic defense

Perhaps the greatest mistake that so many began the season with was the perception that former defensive coordinator Brandon Staley had left the LA Rams defense as the best defense in the NFL and all incoming DC Raheem Morris had to do was not F*** anything up. That was not the case. Not only did the Rams lose half the starting secondary (DB Troy Hill and John Johnson III), but the team lost a number of key defensive players who were not replaced in free agency, nor in the NFL draft.

The second misconception was the fact that many presumed the Rams defense remained an enigma to opposing offenses. But over time, teams discovered that the center of Staley’s defense was the weak link. The winless New York Jets exploited that fact, targeting the inside linebackers and focusing on a patient ball-control type of offense. It was that template that the Green Bay Packers modeled their offensive attack that shuttered the Rams out of the NFL Playoffs.

The matter of fixing the donut hole of the Rams defense was not fixed by Staley, but it was part of the defense that Raheem Morris inherited. That is one of the reasons why Morris moved All-Pro DB Jalen Ramsey around in his defense. It was an early experiment to halt the relentless ability of offenses to attack the Rams middle risk-free.