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Something is rotten in the state of Denmark.
The Rams have the fewest sacks through five games in NFL history.
I lack a cohesive explanation, but it's an overwhelming reality. You can't have the fewest sacks in the HISTORY of the NFL without there being multiple factors at play. What's upsetting is that overall, those factors can be cited. On individual plays though, some of them fall by the wayside.
Take the idea of a quick passing game. It's true that the offenses the Rams are facing begin their games relying mostly on quicker passing plays to avoid any pass rush threat and get their QB into a short-game rhythm. That was the case again last night. The problem is that, just like against Dallas, the Rams' opponent eventually has to open up the passing game to try to carve into the early lead the Rams built. In doing so, they start dropping the QB deeper, chiefly into five-step drops, into risky situations that theoretically leave them open to the pass rush. It's just not getting there. So Gregg Williams opts to send blitzing linebackers and safeties to try to increase the level of pressure and disrupt the rhythm the QB has built with the early truncated passing game. It's just not getting there. That's the bottom line.
It's just not getting there.
That's a problem, not just for the line and not just for the defense, but for the Rams as a whole.
If you can't affect the QB's reads and eye levels by forcing him to conduct his normal responsibilities while worrying about a very large human being coming to slam his body into the ground, you're allowing to conduct his normal responsibilities unperturbed. You're letting him watch a WR, like Michael Crabtree, run a double move with plenty of time to let him head into a cavern of space in the middle of the field for a touchdown. That touchdown made it a two-possession game which, given the stagnation of the Rams' offense at that point, effectively ended the game.
It's a reverberating issue that completely changes the defensive capabilities of the Rams which in turn affects the offense. It's not good. It's been an issue that really began to show itself in the second preseason game against Green Bay, and it doesn't look it's going to change soon.