Last year, as I suffered through the Rams many blowout losses, I usually felt like it was the ineptitude of the offense, far more so than the problems with the defense, that lead to the huge deficits.
So, I decided to crunch some numbers to see if my observation was accurate. Here's what I found.
In the 9 games last year that the Rams lost by 10 or more points, the Rams' defense held the opposition without an offensive TD for an average of 22:21. That means that, even in blowout losses, the Rams kept the other team out of the endzone for an average nearly one and one-half quarters.
What this tells me is that the defense often failed because it wore down due to an offense that couldn't stay on the field, didn't score points, and gave the defense bad field position.
All of this makes me wonder if the best way to fix the defense might be to improve the offense. If the Rams could add some real firepower to the offense, maybe the defense - even with the current players - would fare better occasionally playing with a lead.
I'm not saying the defense wouldn't benefit from an influx of talent. But I think an argument can be made that the offense needs it more.
So, I decided to crunch some numbers to see if my observation was accurate. Here's what I found.
In the 9 games last year that the Rams lost by 10 or more points, the Rams' defense held the opposition without an offensive TD for an average of 22:21. That means that, even in blowout losses, the Rams kept the other team out of the endzone for an average nearly one and one-half quarters.
What this tells me is that the defense often failed because it wore down due to an offense that couldn't stay on the field, didn't score points, and gave the defense bad field position.
All of this makes me wonder if the best way to fix the defense might be to improve the offense. If the Rams could add some real firepower to the offense, maybe the defense - even with the current players - would fare better occasionally playing with a lead.
I'm not saying the defense wouldn't benefit from an influx of talent. But I think an argument can be made that the offense needs it more.
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