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21Dog
What roster?
Clearly a dominant D line and an all-world corner in Ramsey.
ILBs were mediocre at best. Jones is talented, but unproven. Reeder is very limited and Howard is good in coverage, but otherwise limited.
The corners outside of Ramsey? Williams rarely played up to his 2020 standard. Long is average at best. Deayon is mediocre. Rochell is a question mark.
Safeties. Rapp can't cover. Scott had a great postseason, but is still unproven. Fuller was missed, but tell me what stands out about his play? Burgess is so bad Weddle had to be coaxed out of his recliner to bail them out.
The defensive line clearly made up for talent deficiencies on the back end.
All this has been explained---also note this, went to that board, could not find oldnotdead commenting in the Morris thread. Maybe I missed it...
But here is what happened
1. Defense was not as good as 2020 for reasons you outline and perhaps others
2. Morris haters (anyone wanting to fire Morris at mid-season is a hater) EXAGGERATED how "bad"
the defense was.
They lied and lied. Defense had a few flaws. But it was NOT anything NEAR firable. Not in a million years.
It was a silly and unreasonable take led by that oldnotdead and others.
Defnese hovered between 5-6 in DVOA all that time, leading sack team, leading INTS, etc.
Their eye tests were bullpoop
3. Defenders caught the vision and the new guys stepped up, as you said, Long costs us, D. Will struggled, that is on the player, not Morris. R
Rapp was not as good as Fuller and Fuller < JJIII.
4. Haters blamed the DC not the players.
4. because of 1. 2. 3. 4. the haters were wrong, and struggle with the SB ring the defense handed the Rams...carrying
the weight from mid-season on . . .