Jekyll and Hyde?
by Rams Nation's Rob Williams
The lengthy injuries to All-Pros like Kurt Warner and Aeneas Williams doesn’t
seem to have dented the feel-good factor going into the bye-week. Fans have
short memories. The last two games the Rams have won, and won well, therefore
everything must be right in the world. That inept, lethargic start has already
been forgotten, it would seem.
But how on earth can a team, with the same personnel and talent levels, play
like duds one week (San Fransisco) and potential Super Bowl contenders the next
(Oakland)? Did some kind of epiphany take place in the week between the two
games? There were reports of a players-only meeting after the painful 49er capitulation.
But can a players-only meetings really achieve that much? And what was discussed?
‘We’ve got to play harder?’ ‘We’ve got to start
winning?’ Platitudes, surely? What really matters is talent, application,
determination, gameplans, fitness.
Could application and determination have been the one thing that was missing?
All the others were in place prior to the turnaround win against Oakland. Are
we really to believe that, with the Rams 0-4 and travelling to San Fransisco
for a key divisional game, that the players weren’t really trying? That,
despite having lost nine straight games running (including pre-season), that
the Rams still expected to just turn up in order to win? Surely not.
Marshall Faulk’s walkout from a talk show, rather than discuss the Rams’
problems prior to the Raiders game, seemed to imply that there was something
wrong, but he wouldn’t talk about it.
The players only meeting suggested the same.
Could it have been coaching? The headlines, and many fans, suggested that Mike
Martz had lost his team. But Grant Wistrom’s huge hug of Martz following
the Raiders win certainly gave the impression that this was a coach still loved
by his players.
The Defensive line and, more specifically, the defensive tackles, is a fine
example of the magical difference between the Rams in the first five games of
the season and the energised team who are currently on a two game winning streak.
Wistrom and Little on the ends are always likely to provide pressure on the
quarterback, but, this season, mundane passers such as Kerry Collins and Quincy
Carter ran up huge passer ratings on the Rams defense due to the lack of pressure
applied on them. Quarterbacks seemed to have a day and a half to survey the
field and find their receivers every time they dropped back to pass –
and that can make an ordinary quarterback look very good.
The Rams’ defensive tackles simply weren’t getting any kind of
push in the first five weeks of the season, allowing other teams to double team
the likes of Little and Wistrom. Defensive co-ordinator Lovie Smith realised
this and was forced to blitz other defenders in order to attempt to gain pressure.
The cover 2 defense that Smith runs doesn’t work like that. It basically
relies on the front 4, and especially the defensive tackles, to get in the quarterback’s
face so that the other defenders can drop off into zones. It’s a conservative,
bend-don’t-break system that has worked brilliantly for Tampa Bay in recent
years due to the impact of stud defensive line players like Warren Sapp.
I’ve questioned several times whether the Rams have the personnel to
run the cover 2 system. For Tampa, Sapp causes havoc from the tackle position,
meaning they don’t have to blitz to cause pressure. The Rams’ tackle
rotation of Damoine Lewis, Ryan Pickett, Jeff Zgonina, Tyoka Jackson and Brian
Young simply aren’t in Sapp’s class. Sure enough, the system was
toothless during in the Rams’ early season horror show.
But the last two weeks the defensive tackles have suddenly started making plays,
allowing Lovie Smith to play more zone and producing a much more productive
system.
Lewis and Pickett are young players coming off injuries. They both seem to
be improving all the time. Could that be the reason for the Rams’ defensive
improvement? Is it simply a case of certain players getting healthier, learning
the game and performing better? Maybe. For whatever reason, Jackson is suddenly
getting to the quarterback, Zgonina is batting balls in the air, Lewis has his
first career sacks, Pickett is stuffing runs behind the line of scrimmage. The
Rams defensive tackles and, as a result, the whole Rams defense, are making
plays again.
How could there be such a difference in such a short period of time? Was Warren
Sapp cloned several times and surreptitiously sneaked into Rams uniforms? The
exact same personnel that had been woeful as defensive tackles the first five
games of the season are suddenly excelling. And the same seems to be true of
the rest of the Rams team.
It’s a mystery. Someone overnight flipped the on switch at Rams Park
after the 49er win. We still don’t know the reason it was turned off.
We probably never will. Although the rest of the season will point towards the
real answer – was it early season over- arrogance from a team that has
excelled the past three years, or is something more fundamental wrong?
As Marshall Faulk said earlier in the season, “The plot thickens.”