[safer]

To run a stud 3-4 D you HAVE to have at least one elite player on the line. We no longer do.
Think about this.....who had the best 3-4 D's over the years? Patriots---Vince Wilfork at NT; Saints, back the 80-90's did and theirs was an exception---they had four superior lbers, and three of them went into the HOF. Sam Mills was one of them. Ravens, with Ray Lewis-- NT Tony Seragusa (sp?) always required a double team upfront; the Texans ran one with stud JJ Watt; and of course, the LA Rams with AD being an all-time stud.
Seriously, why not switch in and out of it? On a play today, we had three down men and our backers were off of the line. Yep, right up the middle for 6 or 7. Our young guys are talented and bust their butts, but we continue to put them at a disadvantage in the 3-4 scheme.
I do like when we crowd the line in passing situations, but when they have a 13 point lead in the 4th and we aren't in a 4-3....everybody knows they want to run the clock out...... I know I've harped on this before, but honestly, when you are as bad at run D as we are, why not friccken try it? It makes no sense to me.

[ramsman34]

We typically play a 30-under front. It’s basically a 43 but both OLBs are on ball. We don’t have prototypical Sam, Will, and Mike players. And to move one of our rush OLBs off ball would be eliminating their strengths.

What we do need, as you pointed out is an above average to elite NT. Turner at the 3 is well above average, approaching elite, IMO. It’s the other tackles who are average at best. And that’s being kind. We also don’t have DEs who can play from the 5 to wide 9. Unless you want to convert Young and/or Verse to DE. Verse could do it. Did it at Fla St. young is a pure 34 edge.

What would your front 7 look like in a traditional 43 front? Who would be where??

My guess; Verse - Turner - Brown - Fiske or Verse - Fiske - Turner - Hoecht
Rozeboom (Sam) - Reeder - Young (Will)
I don’t see how that improves our run D and it weakens our pass rush. IMO.

[safer]

I'd put Turner and Fiske inside; Hoeght at DE along with Verse . As for Verse, he is our best run defender already. He just fucks everything up when they run at him. I'd be fine with him still up, (even with a backer outside him) because of his great versatility, Drop Young back at olber; with our other two backers. I want to see Speight too. Look at how terrible we are at D. Most points allowed in the NFC; worst run D, and our offense is struggling, though a lot of that has been due to injuries.
I think we have better talent upfront than it shows, but when they have 5-6 big guys getting after us, and we only have 2-3 down in the trenches, there's just too many seams that open up. Do you see any way in hell we will become a better run D with the guys we have, playing in a 3-4? I have zero confidence in that.

[ramsman34]

I'd put Turner and Fiske inside; Hoeght at DE along with Verse . As for Verse, he is our best run defender already. He just fucks everything up when they run at him. I'd be fine with him still up, (even with a backer outside him) because of his great versatility, Drop Young back at olber; with our other two backers. I want to see Speight too. Look at how terrible we are at D. Most points allowed in the NFC; worst run D, and our offense is struggling, though a lot of that has been due to injuries.
I think we have better talent upfront than it shows, but when they have 5-6 big guys getting after us, and we only have 2-3 down in the trenches, there's just too many seams that open up. Do you see any way in hell we will become a better run D with the guys we have, playing in a 3-4? I have zero confidence in that.

So my second guess is how you’d play this. In reality, the Rams have 5 on the LOS with their current 30-under front:
Young - Fiske - Turner - Gallimore/Brown/Davis - Verse
With Rozeboom and Reeder inside

Watch to see if they do use your 43 front occasionally against the next heavy run team. They won’t switch outright but may incorporate that heavy look occasionally.

I am hoping they replace one of the current ILBs with Speights starting with the Raiders game. Time to see if he can handle the reps and assignments.

[safer]

Why would we think that after losing arguably the best DT in NFL history that it justifies just doing the same-o thing? I just googled this. The most common D front in the NFL is the base 4-3. It seems to be working for a lot of teams, ALL of whom have a better run D than we do. Without having to re-invent the wheel here, why not at least try it a majority of the time? Whatever we are doing vs. the run, our D is the absolute worst in the NFC.
Do you believe that with our current roster, we have the specific 3-4 talents to become solid this year? I don't. Do you? And if not, why not at least become proficient vs. the run? We now have cb Williams back and Witherspoon on the other side. We have the talent back there to handle their own shit, once we get it together in communicating.
As for our switching our D front at various times, we should do it more, not the same or less.
We are still dead f'n last vs the run!!
Hey, I do appreciate your responding to my posts, but I'm kinda stunned that most here seem to think our roster justifies that the 3-4 is the answer ( since no others even wish to discuss this). This is beyond my comprehension!

[/zn/]

3/4s are traditionally strong against the run. If you have the players. This just happens to be a young group, with a couple of holes in the starting line up and a couple of injuries. Changing to a 4/3 is not going to fix that.

[Dare]

The current 3 - 4 is still the best overall scheme to run. The problem is that these young players lack the technique, i.e. gap defense awareness. Too many times the OLB (edges) allow themselves to be out flanked on perimeter runs and QB scrambles. They don't read the cues properly so they are caught out of position. That comes with experience and continued coaching. I expect them to be much better with this extra coach time focusing upon their technique.

The hybrid 3-4 is played much like a traditional 4-3 with the added advantage of being able to be flexible with their alignments. Traditional 3-4 schemes are two gap for their 3 down linemen who's job is to eat blockers to allow the LBs to stay clean to make the tackles. The hybrid version that the Rams use is also a one gap scheme with the advantage of the DL tends to be bigger guys. It's why most NFL teams have adopted the scheme.

With the exception of not setting a hard edge the primary issue is in the secondary. The communication has been poor thus far. Also, White got benched because he simply kept breaking coverages and getting burned for it. As Durant gains experience his play will improve. His development was stunted by Morris benching him. So he's over a year behind where he should be. Having Williams will help. If Woods can develop into a solid SCB this would help the secondary. As such I believe Woods got dinged so they were forced to play Wallace and Johnson who are basically zone safeties as they lack the athleticism of someone like Lake as he's been playing more nickel.

The issue in the secondary IMO is as McVay has said, it's communication. They are out of sync which again is symptomatic of young inexperienced players. Shula has been very aggressive in rotation in the front 7 but the problem looks like the rotational guys are struggling with their assignments due to poor technique.

People wrote the Rams off when they went into the bye. But they came out a different team. This early bye is a blessing in disguise allowing for intensive coaching up of key players. I don't think Shula will be so quick with his front 7 rotations. Also, the heavy part of their schedule was before the bye. If they are going to make a run this would be the time to do it. There are 12 games left. They can afford maybe 3 more losses and still make the playoffs.

Dotson needs to return to form. They need Avila back. The OL is the problem on the offense. If the Rams get both Kupp and Nacua back by mid Nov, or early December and Avila in that same time frame they can turn this offense around. The starting DL is solid it's when the rotational guys come in that things get out of hand, particularly against the run.

This season is a long way from being done.

[Lancer]

...Too many times the OLB (edges) allow themselves to be out flanked on perimeter runs and QB scrambles. They don't read the cues properly so they are caught out of position...

It feels like they're a bit tunnel visiony at times? Will push beyond where the ball is, and then out of the window where they can successfully make a play.

[ramsman34]

The problem with the Rams 3-4 or 4-3 Under is the ILBs when it comes to the run game. You have to be able to take on and quickly defeat blocks while keeping gap integrity. Ours don’t get off blocks and get washed out of gaps consistently. Solve that, clean up the first contact tackling, and this front will be stellar against the run.

[ramsman34]

And make sure whomever is supposed to set the edge, sets the fucking edge.