Can the Rams Handle Defending a No-Huddle Offense?

I was re-watching some film and came across the Rams' week 17 win over the Arizona Cardinals, a game the Rams clearly should've lost. The Rams' defense, for lack of a better term, was awful to end the game.

In fact, the entire final sequence of the game was a comedy of errors, errors that saw the Rams have 1st and 10 with 3:02 remaining in the game, only needing a first down to win the game, only to see them give the ball to the Cardinals on their own 36-yard-line, before the two-minute warning, with the Cardinals burning only one of their timeouts.

The Cardinals went no-huddle and the Rams could not handle it. They didn't change from their 11 personnel, they simply went fast that the Rams let the Cardinals take the ball to the Rams' five-yard line before a deflected ball was intercepted by Ahkello Witherspoon. So, how did the Cardinals get the ball downfield so quickly?

Long story short, it was Trey McBride and the inside run. The Rams did not hit McBride at the line of scrimmage once, letting him run out routes over and over again. When he didn't, Marvin Harrison Jr did, and that led to three completions on out routes.

The Rams also overloaded Murray's right side with defensive linemen to force him left, but the Cardinals countered by running the football right into the space those linemen vacated.

On top of that, the Rams were caught out of position repeatedly, only catching up when Kam Kinchens got hurt.

The Cardinals employed three simple strategies that when it was sped up, caught the Rams off guard.

Letting McBride run underneath the receiver, running the football towards Jared Verse whenever Verse was isolated, and they threw the ball to Witherspoon's side every single time, except when the Rams were out of position and there was a wide open lane for McBride to run on the other side.

That was the Rams' Achilles heel last season. When things were sped up, they couldn't counter, and offenses ran rampant.

Once again, when the Rams were fully healthy, they lost to teams with multiple avenues of speed and when the football process is being sped up, the Rams couldn't handle it. How Chris Shula fixes that will be the difference between winning and chasing a championship.

There is good news. With a new linebacker room built to cover in open space, Shula can position his defensive backs in different ways. However, success will come down to the Rams' ability to communicate effectively and efficiently, something they've already improved on in OTAs.

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