Comparing the Rams 2024 defense to last year
PostPosted:3 days 8 hours ago
By Venie Randy Soares
Two things jump right to mind on L.A.’s recent improvement. One, Chris Shula appears to be settling in at defensive coordinator and two, the Rams tackling has been getting incrementally better each week.
“Meet the new boss, same as the old boss”
Not hardly. Although the Rams defense primarily uses the same 3-4 base and plays in umbrella coverages, the 2023 version shows and plays completely different. While Shula also uses a lot of sim blitz looks, he’s blitzing at higher percentage and has used multiple variants on who goes and who backs out as well as attacking from different angles.
One of the standout changes is Shula’s use of subterfuge, The Rams disguise their coverages at the highest rate in the NFL, but that’s not all. The defensive formations are all over the place, on consecutive plays you may see three standup edges, four cornerbacks, a corner and safety as inside line backers, or three down linemen in front of eight secondary players. The wild part is that the individual players manning these packages are just as varied as the formations. Shula is using a much-deeper rotation.
There is one other big similarity to last year. Early in the season, as losses and struggles mounted, fans were calling for heads on a platter and Shula was at the top of the list, just like Raheem Morris in 2023.
In the blog-verse, it doesn’t really matter if a unit goes through wholesale changes, season-to-season comparison’s are almost unavoidable. Keeping in mind all the changes, here’s how the Rams 2024 defense stacks up (at least statistically) against last year’s after seven games. 2024 in bold.
Points, drives, and conversions
Record: 3-4 / 3-4
Points allowed: 174 / 141
Points per game: 24.9 / 20.1
Touchdowns: 18 / 13
Field goals: 14 / 16
Plays allowed: 425 / 440
Yards allowed: 2462 / 2282
Yards per game: 351.7 / 326.0
Yards per play: 5.8 / 5.1
First downs: 143 / 137
Drives by opponent: 72 / 74
3rd down percentage allowed: 37.8% / 38.5%
Scoring drive: 45.8% / 39.2%
Time of possession: -3:46 / +14:30
Passing
Attempts: 197 / 229
Completions: 128 / 133
Completion percentage: 64.9% / 58.1
Yards: 1602 - 1545
Yards per game: 229.0 / 220.7
Yard per attempt: 8.6 / 6.7
Yards per completion: 12.4 / 10.9
Touchdowns: 12 / 4
Interceptions: 5 / 3
Rushing
Attempts: 214 / 198
Yards: 974 / 819
Yards per carry: 4.6 / 4.1
Yards per game: 139.1 / 117.0
Touchdowns allowed: 6 /9
Two things jump right to mind on L.A.’s recent improvement. One, Chris Shula appears to be settling in at defensive coordinator and two, the Rams tackling has been getting incrementally better each week.
“Meet the new boss, same as the old boss”
Not hardly. Although the Rams defense primarily uses the same 3-4 base and plays in umbrella coverages, the 2023 version shows and plays completely different. While Shula also uses a lot of sim blitz looks, he’s blitzing at higher percentage and has used multiple variants on who goes and who backs out as well as attacking from different angles.
One of the standout changes is Shula’s use of subterfuge, The Rams disguise their coverages at the highest rate in the NFL, but that’s not all. The defensive formations are all over the place, on consecutive plays you may see three standup edges, four cornerbacks, a corner and safety as inside line backers, or three down linemen in front of eight secondary players. The wild part is that the individual players manning these packages are just as varied as the formations. Shula is using a much-deeper rotation.
There is one other big similarity to last year. Early in the season, as losses and struggles mounted, fans were calling for heads on a platter and Shula was at the top of the list, just like Raheem Morris in 2023.
In the blog-verse, it doesn’t really matter if a unit goes through wholesale changes, season-to-season comparison’s are almost unavoidable. Keeping in mind all the changes, here’s how the Rams 2024 defense stacks up (at least statistically) against last year’s after seven games. 2024 in bold.
Points, drives, and conversions
Record: 3-4 / 3-4
Points allowed: 174 / 141
Points per game: 24.9 / 20.1
Touchdowns: 18 / 13
Field goals: 14 / 16
Plays allowed: 425 / 440
Yards allowed: 2462 / 2282
Yards per game: 351.7 / 326.0
Yards per play: 5.8 / 5.1
First downs: 143 / 137
Drives by opponent: 72 / 74
3rd down percentage allowed: 37.8% / 38.5%
Scoring drive: 45.8% / 39.2%
Time of possession: -3:46 / +14:30
Passing
Attempts: 197 / 229
Completions: 128 / 133
Completion percentage: 64.9% / 58.1
Yards: 1602 - 1545
Yards per game: 229.0 / 220.7
Yard per attempt: 8.6 / 6.7
Yards per completion: 12.4 / 10.9
Touchdowns: 12 / 4
Interceptions: 5 / 3
Rushing
Attempts: 214 / 198
Yards: 974 / 819
Yards per carry: 4.6 / 4.1
Yards per game: 139.1 / 117.0
Touchdowns allowed: 6 /9
