The future identity of the Rams

[clarasDK]

During the last many weeks the discussion in here has been centered around drafting Bradford vs Suh. That discussion is not the purpose of this thread.

What I have been missing is a discussion about the identity of the Rams and where we would like them to go long term.

Are we closer to begin The Greatest Show On Turf again or closer to posting a defence that everybody fears like back in the fearsome foursome days?

Should we go all out on offence? Going for our QB of the future and giving him some weapons?

Or should we go all out on defence and hope that SJ can keep grinding minutes of the clock and hope that we can keep games close?

Myself I became a Rams fan during the Greatest Show on Turf days and I loved offensive football.

But now after many years of watching a lot of football (not only the Rams) and gotten into the finer details in this complex game I have come to appreciate a good defence more than anything else. And I have come to be a firm believer that offence sells tickets, but defence wins championships.

Personally I think a good defence with a bad or medium offence that supports good clock management can win more games than a good offence with a bad or medium defence.

I also think that a team building on a good defence is a more stable approach over a longer time period. If you look at many of the teams who are in the playoffs again and again one thing most of them have in common are that they have a good and stable defence.

As I see it over the last 10 years only two teams have been stable primarily due to good offence (read VERY good QB’s) and that is the Patriots and the Colts. But at the end of the day I also think these two teams have had very good defences build around a core of good players and good coaching. Actually the Colts where much better when they turned down their focus on a fast scoring throw first offence and began to eat more time of the clock and thrust their defence more.

Most of the other frequent playoff visitors like the Steelers and Ravens have been good primarily because they had good defences and ok offences.

So what do you think our identity should be for the next many years? Where should we put the money?

And again this has nothing to do with picking Bradford, Suh, Clausen, Colt McCoy or Berry this year.... That has been discussed enough in other threads.

[thickandthin]

Re: The future identity of the Rams

well first of all Sue's name is spelled Suh... but enough nitpicking lol. I would like us to get back to the old days of TGSOT but things like that are VERY RARE. I think we are in the right place to get a good defense paired with some smashmouth running.

[clarasDK]

Re: The future identity of the Rams

well first of all Sue's name is spelled Suh... but enough nitpicking lol. I would like us to get back to the old days of TGSOT but things like that are VERY RARE. I think we are in the right place to get a good defense paired with some smashmouth running.

Hehe name is corrected At least I got it right one of two times

[C-Mob 71]

Re: The future identity of the Rams

When I was a kid just getting into football, I remember my dad telling me this wise little anecdote;

"If you score, you might win. But if they never score, you will never lose."

And yeah, as you said, defense wins championships.

However, I think we have a solid core of defensive players, and that our defense is better than what the stats show. The problem is, is that they are on the field for what seems like 70% of the game.

What I see our future Rams being is a team that plays solid defense, not elite ala Ravens and Bucs of old, but solid. I see our offense having a strong running game and a short quick passing offense that utilizes several wide receivers and hopefully a stud tight end.

[Ramblin` Ram]

Re: The future identity of the Rams

if we got a defensive minded head coach then the obvious choice would be a defensive minded team..however there are teams like the Ravens who have had a legendary D over the last decade but have done so under the leadership of at first a Offensive minded coach ( Billick) then a positional (on both sides of the ball) & special teams coach (Harbaugh)

what i think Spags wants in regard to team identity is just what Linehan wanted..a team thats solid on both sides of the ball ,with high picks usually being spent on prospects that are the opposite of the side of the ball they made their name coaching prior to becoming HC`s. only Linehan failed to coach up the O prospects where as i have more faith in Spags to coach up the defensive side and Flajole certainly can help him out with his great record of getting the best out of Linebackers if nothing else. we will when the re-building is complete probably have a defensive identity..but with an O that can win us games when the D has off days...

remember Ravens,Giants,Chargers,Steelers,Eagles etc..all great defensive teams that have/had 1st round QB`s..that have done great things for their teams and won their teams games when the D has been back-firing.

[RockinRam]

Re: The future identity of the Rams

I'm a firm believer that a good offense greatly helps the defense.

True, the defense needs to have some capable players, but to me, the defense gets better when the offense gets better. You can't necessarily say that vice versa.

A good offense that can consistently put points on the board every game improves the play of their defense because when your defense doesn't have to try to stop the game from getting out of hand every single time, then a lot more pressure is gone from them.

A defense plays better when up 27-3 then when a defense is down 3-27. A good offense keeps the defense fresh and upbeat, while a bad offense with no consistency or production makes the defense weary and tired.

Face it, if your offense goes 3 and out every time, you're not going to win the game. First, you're not going to win the game because you can't score. Second, you're not going to win the game because your defense only gets 2 minutes of rest then has to go out and play the part of "this is our last line of defense" every single time.


A solid defense with a crappy offense usually will never win. A solid offense with a crappy defense can still win.

Of course, there's always exceptions, but that's what they are. They're not the rule.

[rNemesis]

Re: The future identity of the Rams

Thats true, Rockin Ram. I look at like this: The Falcons went 12-4 with Matt Ryan a great offense and a MEDIUM defense. But they didnt win because they didnt have a GREAT DEFENSE. The Saints won because they had an Excellent offense and a medium defense. see thats the tricky thing. SOmetimes you can getaway with a medium defense and win it all, BUT your offense has to be EXCELLENT or GREAT, not average or good enough. The only way it seems to win with that type of offense is a GREAT or EXCELLENT defense, but nowadays as the league has evolved to a QB driven league, nobody really cares about GREAT defenses anymore because lets face it : GREAT offense beats GREAT defense anyday. Mark Sanchez and the Jets went to the AFC championship game, but their offense ran out of steam because they were not a GREAT offense; they just had a GREAT defense and was just relying on the offense to make some plays and run the football.

That is why I am so sold on getting Bradford, and getting either a RB or TE in round 2. beef up the offense so we can be explosive again and then let the much rested medium defense play some D. They might not get a stop, but it wont be so bad because all of the pressure wont be all on THEM this time.

[Bralidore(RAMMODE)]

Re: The future identity of the Rams

Im a firm believer in balance. Why can't we have a good defense and a good offense? We should lock up Bradford, then look to see what we have at 33. This is a draft where there is almost no way we can lose in terms of value as the prospects are rated now. Who knows how they will play in the future but on April 25th I think we all will pretty damn happy with what we've acquired.

Btw, Defense winning games is something the defensive coaches like to tell their players to make them feel more badass. If you somehow manage to keep an NFL offense to not score a single point, you won't lose, but you won't win either....

If you can't stop a single point but neither can the opposing defense, you can still win..

two extremes of both scales.

The two teams representing the Superbowl had arguaably the two best QBs in the game, and two of the ebst offenses in the game who were also known for the subpar defensive play...

How many primarily defensive teams win the Superbowl as opposed to primarily offensive teams. If offense wins game and defense wins championsships, we need an offense so we can win games to get to a championship dont we?

[Bralidore(RAMMODE)]

Re: The future identity of the Rams

also lets not act like this is the only draft. There IS a draft next year as well. Our building and foundation won't end with this draft.

[Flippin' Ram]

Re: The future identity of the Rams

I'd prefer to have a balanced offense and defense (with the defense being slightly better). We have way too much holes on the offense so I'd rather address them through the draft first and with the signing of Diggs and Robbins, we have a short term quick fix on the defense and we can address those positions on later drafts. (Hoping that our offense doesn't turn as ridiculous as last season..)

[#39 Fan]

Re: The future identity of the Rams

You need both to compete, day in, day out. A good Defense tires out without the support of its O, and vice-versa.