The RAMS Forum

I was looking over some of the seasons interesting stat lines and point totals, excuse me if some of what I lay out is not in the best format. We have griped about the defense and for good reason a lot of the time, if you take away offensive turnovers, special team miscues and garbage time TD's the defense overall has performed quite well. I would even go on to say if you look at the games and what actually happened. As top tier (best in the league imo) our offense is, the games where the offense had terrible mistakes / questionable coaching decisions and our horrid special teams play was the cause of every single loss. Our defense averaged giving up 17 points a game over 18 games and 14-15 a game if you wipe off garbage time TD's, and points our offense pretty much gave the opposite team.

obviously 5 losses by a combined 11 points with horrific mistakes and freak anomaly plays in every one of those games. Point being without having to read the breakdown, if our Offense (Stafford) plays mistake free ball and how they are capable of, and our coaching / special teams does not crap the bed.. our defense plays plenty fine enough to do what it has to do.

another really interesting thing I observed... SF is the main team that consistently drove the ball down on our defense.. like many long drives tearing up yardage short and long. Where as a lot of other teams maybe had these fluke drives during the games where they went 70 yards in 2-3 plays. Point being.. as much as we should have gone 2-0 against SF and absolutely smacked them this last time we played.. they are probably the main team we do not want to see.

-Texans (9 points) 51 yard FG, 45 yard FG, 53 yard FG, Rams fumbled near the goaline 1st and 10 from the 12

-Titans (19 points (could be 13) - 6 points for Ram interception giving them ez 3 and a garbage time FG)

35 yard garbage time FG, 57 yard FG, 55 yard FG (26 yard pass on drive) 1 TD drive (10 plays 56 yards including a 23 yard pass, 33 yards over 9 plays aside from that play) Ram interception led to a short field 3 and out FG

-Eagles (27 points, not counting last blocked FG fiasco) 1 TD drive, we throw a INT on opening drive and give the eagles a 9 play 38 yard field to score TD, 26-7 in the 3rd quarter (1 FG drive we settled for: 2nd and 2 - 0 yard run and 3rd and 2 incomplete pass)

Eagles had 28 yards on 24 plays up to this point in the 3rd quarter (all positive yards on the one TD drive after our interception)

1 TD drive (38 yard pass, 33 yard TD pass) 1 TD drive (13 plays 87 yards 6:27) we turn it over on downs midfield, so do they, we have a 36 yard FG blocked, which leads to a TD drive (17 plays 91 yards which included 25 and 23 yard passes, 43 yards in 15 plays aside from those 2 plays) Rams blocked FG

-Colts (20 points) 1 drive (40 yard kickoff return and 24 yard pass led to 52 yard FG) Rams turned it over on downs 4th and 1 - 0 yard run (led to 9 play 45 yard short field TD drive) 1 TD drive (11 plays 90 yards)
Rams fumbled on 1st down, led to a quick 3 and out and 38 yard FG

-San Fran (23 not counting OT 3 points) 1 TD drive (35 yard pass - 8 plays 72 yards 4:51) 1 TD drive (17 plays 91 yards 8 minutes 15 seconds) 37 yard FG, 20 yard FG, 59 yard FG,

Rams fumble on 1st and 10 inside the redzone, Rams missed a 53 yard FG, Rams fumbled on 1st and goal entering the endzone - Rams had a first and 10 in the redzone in OT and turned it over on downs 3rd and 6 - 5 yard pass than 0 yard run on 4th and 1

-Baltimore (3 points) 37 yard FG,

crazy sequence -(Rams 11 plays missed FG, Ravens 3 plays interception, Rams 1 play fumble, Ravens 5 plays downs) Rams should have put up double their point total, into the 30's at least, maybe worst offensive game all year.

-Jacksonville (7 points) 1 TD drive pretty much garbage time - 21 yard pass, 25 yard pass, 34 yard TD pass

-New Orleans (10 points) 39 yard FG, 1 TD drive 27 yd pass and 11 yard TD pass after Rams missed FG

-San Fran (26 points - could have been 20 points without garbage time TD) 1 TD drive - 27 yard punt return brought them in FG range and they had a TD drive, 1 TD drive drove down, 1 TD drive drove down, 1 garbage time TD

-Seattle (19 points) 57 yard FG, 30 yard FG, 22 yard FG, 29 yard FG, 1 touchdown drive. (Rams fumbled on 2nd down and 10 in field goal range)

-Tampa Bay (7 points) 1 touchdown drive

-Carolina (24 points - not counting the pick six) 1 (35 yard td pass on 3rd and 8) 1 (33 yard td pass on 4th and 3) 1 (43 yard td pass on 4th and 2) 33 yard FG, 1 (27,18,19 yard passes) 38 yard FG

-Detroit (27 points - could be said Rams D allowed 20 points if not for the interception setting up Detroit on a 17 yard field) - 1 (17 yard pass after an interception) 1 (52 yard pass) 1 ( 31 yard TD pass) 48 and 24 yard field goals (not counting the garbage time TD at the end)

-Seattle (20 points - (not counting punt return td 8 points and the controversial 2 point conversion the Rams D technically stopped) - 3 touchdown drives - 1 (46 yard pass) 1 (55 yard td run) 1 (31 yard run and 26 yard TD pass) (not counting the 8 OT points)

-Atlanta (20 points) - 2 touchdown drives - 1 (93 yard run) 56 yard FG after a 31 yard run and 51 yard FG

-Arizona (20 points) - 2 touchdown drives - 1 (3rd and 26 - 18 yard run, 28 yard pass on 4th and 8, 43 yard td pass) 56 and 45 yard FG's

-Carolina round 2 playoffs (31 points - 7 pretty much given from blocked punt Carolina ball at inside 30 yard line) - 1 drive (7 plays 65 yards) 1 drive (5 plays 81 yards including 28 yard penalty PI, 37 yard pass and 16 yard scramble on 3rd and 10..) 46 yard FG, Rams interception near FG range led to 4 play 62 yard TD drive (52 yard pass)

just over 300 points over 18 games (not counting special teams TD's or pick six plays) - 17 points a game and about 30-40 of those points were given up as garbage time points (useless scores padding stats at the end of the game like Detroits last TD, SF's last TD game 2, Jaguars TD at the end, Tennessee FG at the end etc)

or offense turning the ball over basically giving a team the ball in the redzone for an automatic FG or easy 1-2 play TD - which would realistically bring the number more to 14-15 points a game over 18 games

Carolina actually gave us the most problems both matchups of anyone imo, SF following that, Phillys last 2 drives

Nice detailed post. Good work

Seattle scored 38 not 23. I agree one of the 2 points covernsions shouldn't be counted. So it is 36, I have no idea how did you come up with 23. I guess you are not counting the punt return Td. Even if you take that out, it is 30 points, not 23. Why are you not blaming the defense for allowing darnold to eat them alive in OT?

brasilrams wrote: ↑January 12th, 2026, 7:01 am Seattle scored 38 not 23. I agree one of the 2 points covernsions shouldn't be counted. So it is 36, I have no idea how did you come up with 23. I guess you are not counting the punt return Td. Even if you take that out, it is 30 points, not 23. Why are you not blaming the defense for allowing darnold to eat them alive in OT?

in the post I was not counting OT, so in regulation we gave up 30'points, 8 coming from a punt return TD, subtract that and we are at 22, considering our defense did technically stop that one freak 2 point conversion, our defense gave up 20 points against Seattle

so realistically our defense gave up 19 and 20 points in the 2 matchups with Seattle, against SF the number is about the same, Carolina averaged about 24 considering we gave them a pick six and basically a blocked punt td in those two matchups. Colts, ATL and Philly all around 20 (ATL had a pick six and also a 90 yard run, Philly not counting their blocked kick at the end had one really short field we gave them with the early turnover)

I detailed every drive and what happened, my main point in the detailed post of every game and the drives that happened, is our defense has actually overall in regards to scoring points allowed (if you take away special teams td's, short fields from offensive turnovers of offensive turnovers turned touchdowns, our defense has played really well, pretty much giving up 2 touchdowns a game)

and typically these teams scoring drives are busted long plays.. there are only a few times where teams really drove long sustained drives on us, SF does it consistently, Colts had 1, Philly had 2 at the end of their game for us, outside of those they did practically nothing.

Excellent post!!!
Thanks for putting this together!

I heard this stat today...Rams had 64 defense plays on Saturday. Only 12 plays were not zone defense. Of those 12 plays...3 were rushing 6-7 men. So out of 64 plays we only played man basically 9 times. That is alarming. No wonder we keep giving up 4-5 yard passes every play.

I know we don't necessarily have the personal for man-to-man but we have to change our look up more than 9 times. I am tired of this dink and dunk defense we are playing.

I agree, would like to see a more aggressive defense , more stunts and corner blitzes

we shut down the run well enough and know when teams are passing, get after them

GSOT89 wrote: ↑January 12th, 2026, 9:56 am

brasilrams wrote: ↑January 12th, 2026, 7:01 am Seattle scored 38 not 23. I agree one of the 2 points covernsions shouldn't be counted. So it is 36, I have no idea how did you come up with 23. I guess you are not counting the punt return Td. Even if you take that out, it is 30 points, not 23. Why are you not blaming the defense for allowing darnold to eat them alive in OT?

in the post I was not counting OT, so in regulation we gave up 30'points, 8 coming from a punt return TD, subtract that and we are at 22, considering our defense did technically stop that one freak 2 point conversion, our defense gave up 20 points against Seattle

so realistically our defense gave up 19 and 20 points in the 2 matchups with Seattle, against SF the number is about the same, Carolina averaged about 24 considering we gave them a pick six and basically a blocked punt td in those two matchups. Colts, ATL and Philly all around 20 (ATL had a pick six and also a 90 yard run, Philly not counting their blocked kick at the end had one really short field we gave them with the early turnover)

I detailed every drive and what happened, my main point in the detailed post of every game and the drives that happened, is our defense has actually overall in regards to scoring points allowed (if you take away special teams td's, short fields from offensive turnovers of offensive turnovers turned touchdowns, our defense has played really well, pretty much giving up 2 touchdowns a game)

and typically these teams scoring drives are busted long plays.. there are only a few times where teams really drove long sustained drives on us, SF does it consistently, Colts had 1, Philly had 2 at the end of their game for us, outside of those they did practically nothing.

To me, it ia just the eye test. Our secondary ranked 31 in the last 4 games, they ARE bad. Also it seems they can't get a stop when it matters the most. They couldn't against Seattle ( OT) and they couldn't against the falcons ( drive to Fg)...Granted they were aable to stop the panthers after the offense scored that last Td. Our defense is not entirely bad, it is just the secondary that got considerably worse in the last 4-5 games.

You know there are hybrid man to man schemes. Meaning it is a mix zone man to man coverage. But as said before too late to change scheme now.

I think bend dont break is a big reason teams come back on us. Too soft, very few PBUs, we must pressure teams more. NE did that last night against the Chargers and netted 6 sacks and endless pressures.

malibu wrote: ↑January 12th, 2026, 4:59 pm I think bend dont break is a big reason teams come back on us. Too soft, very few PBUs, we must pressure teams more. NE did that last night against the Chargers and netted 6 sacks and endless pressures.

NE has a defensive minded coach .But this is a copy cat league , I don't understand why MCvay/ Shula insist on the bend but don
't break shit as most of the times , it actually BRAKES . Panthers fans were complaining about their DC since he did the same thing and guess what happened ? Our offense went bam bam bam and scored and we won . Prevent defense only prevents you from winning .