Rams post their worst defensive performance since Wade Phillips was the DC

For several years, Raheem Morris was jokingly referred to as “Porous” by Rams fans who felt the team allowed too many yards with soft coverages and a rapid decrease in talent on the defensive side of the ball. Well, what nicknames will you have for Chris Shula after the L.A. Rams posted their worst defensive game since 2019, when Wade Phillips was still the defensive coordinator?

In their 41-10 loss to the Arizona Cardinals on Sunday, the Rams allowed 489 total yards, 258 passing yards, 231 rushing yards, and 24 first downs. The end result was a defensive EPA of -26.58, L.A.’s worst EPA score as a defense since a 44-21 loss to the Dallas Cowboys (-26.77 EPA) and a 45-6 loss to the Ravens (-32.32 EPA) in 2019.

If you go back to Morris’s final season as the Rams defensive coordinator, L.A.’s worst game by EPA on defense was -16.56 in a 23-14 loss to the Eagles.

Go back to 2022, when the Rams were arguably as desperate for talent on defense as they are now, L.A.’s worst game was -23.18 in a 31-14 loss to the 49ers in Week 8.

And in 2021, L.A.’s Super Bowl season and Morris’s first as the DC, the worst game was -21.72, which also happened to be a loss against the Cardinals, -21.72. In that game, Kyler Murray had 268 yards and 2 TD with 39 rushing yards, while Chase Edmonds rushed for 120 and James Conner rushed for 50 and two touchdowns.

Those Cardinals beat the Rams almost as badly as these Cardinals beat the Rams. At least those Rams did end up winning the Super Bowl, but they have much different personnel now.

Of course, Brandon Staley’s only season as the DC resulted in the Rams finishing first in points and yards allowed. Even Staley had a bad game, a -23.74 performance in L.A.’s playoff loss to the Green Bay Packers when Aaron Donald was injured.

Last year, the most rushing yards allowed by the Rams was 184 in a 20-3 loss to the Packers, so they’ve already beaten that mark in a game by almost 50 yards. Their most total yards allowed 454 in that 23-14 loss to the Eagles, so they beat that too. The Rams haven’t given up 200 rushing yards since the Cardinals game in 2021, and they haven’t given up as many rushing yards as they allowed on Sunday since those games under Wade in 2019.

How do the Rams fix it?

There probably isn’t an immediate fix and instead Shula can only help that players will get better with time, experience, and chemistry. The defense starts two rookies, in addition to at least four or five players we didn’t expect to start a couple of months ago, like Christian Rozeboom, Troy Reeder, Cobie Durant, and John Johnson, while vet Tre White is struggling play in and play out, and I’m not sure what impact Kamren Curl is having at safety.

The Rams next face a 49ers team without Christian McCaffrey, but that has managed 400 yards in each of their first two games and still ranks third in points per drive thanks to almost 250 rushing yards by Jordan Mason and an NFL-high 550 passing yards by Brock Purdy.

Chris Shula knows what happened to Wade Phillips after games like this. He knows what happened to Liam Coen after one bad season as the offensive coordinator when the Rams lacked offensive talent. Every week is his job week.