Oldnotdead is not a big fan of Morris’ D philosophy…

Here’s oldnotdead…

Merlin is entirely correct when he talked about the secondary playing flat-footed. Morris is ultra-conservative and calls his game like a frightened DC. It's why I'm constantly harping about it's not the players, and it's not the scheme as much as how it's being played. Morris' lack of concern about contesting receptions IS A HUGE RED FLAG. He's got his players waiting and reacting instead of reading and anticipating.

This is the same thing as it was with the OL. Everyone blamed the players or maybe the scheme. But the truth is that it's not either of those. The problem lies with how the DC is playing, i.e. using his players. There is a huge difference in playing zone in a drop and react style (Morris) and a drop, read and anticipate style (Staley) and we are seeing it play out this year.

Now that OCs see how Morris plays his personnel, they can attack it and it will become less effective. Morris is conceding the aggressiveness and putting his players on the defensive and at a disadvantage. His players will always be a step or two behind because he's not allowing them to read and anticipate. Rapp is an exceptional SS if he's allowed to read and anticipate the play. Morris steals that not just from Rapp but from guys like Williams as well. There is something wrong when a coach degrades the performance of his players because he wants to play it safe. It's not a coincidence that suddenly Rapp and Williams seemingly can't play well.

The only player Morris has turned loose is Ramsey. I absolutely have no problem with moving Ramsey around. But WTF is he using Ramsey his best cover CB to rush the QB?? He weakens his secondary for a low percentage stunt?

The most telling stats IMO is that in 3 games the Rams have only 1 INT out of 131 passes attempted 91 were complete (70%). This is because Morris doesn't care if a pass is completed in the short zone he basically leaves it wide open. I'm sorry but that is simply mind-boggling that a DC would do that. For a QB like Murray who is defense reading challenged it's a godsend gift. In Murray's last game only about 8 of his 28 passes were outside of 10 yards with the vast majority within 7 or 8 yds. Murray is licking his chops seeing that.