Reviewing the St. Louis Rams 2009 Season

St. Louis Rams running back Steven Jackson (39) yells in frustration after being stopped for a 5-yard loss during the fourth quarter of an NFL football game against the San Francisco 49ers, Sunday, Jan. 3, 2010, in St. Louis. The Rams lost the game, 28-6, to finish the season 1-15. (AP Photo/Tom Gannam)

Before the 2009 NFL regular season began, I wrote a handful of season previews for a few teams. Since I started the blog in July, I really didn’t have enough time to do all 32 teams. However, I should have enough time to complete a season review of all of the teams. At least, that is what I am planning. We’ll see if I get through them all. With that said, this is the first review. For teams in the playoffs, a review would not be complete without including where they finished, particularly if they win the Super Bowl. For that reason, I am beginning with the teams with the worst records first and working my way up to those that made the playoffs. At 1-15, the Saint Louis Rams will have the first pick in this year’s draft, so I will cover them first.

In these posts, I will follow a somewhat set formula. That formula will be to first look at the team’s Offensive and Defensive values and ranks for total yards, points, passing and rushing. This will give a general feel for the team’s season. The next step will be a set of tables that will compare the team’s points scored and allowed as well as their total yards, and passing and rushing yards, gained and allowed for each game. These values will be compared with the respective opponent’s corresponding averages, with the differences between the team’s value and the opponent’s average calculated. Finally, I included a sum of the differences for the entire season. This should give a good indication of how the team’s various units performed with respect to their opposition as well as which units performed better or worse. (Note: All stats are from Pro-Football-Reference.com)

With that background description, let’s see how the Rams performed this season. First, we’ll look at their raw numbers in terms of offensive and defensive yards and league rankings.

Team Offense	Value	Rank		Team Defense	Value	Rank
Points	175	32		Points	436	31
Yards	4470	29		Yards	5965	29
Cmp	312	—		Cmp	315	—
Att	543	—		Att	491	—
Pass Yards	2686	28		Pass Yards	3764	25
NY/A	4.6	31		NY/A	7.3	31
Pass TD	12	29		Pass TD	22	14
Pass INTs	21	28		Pass INTs	8	31
Rush Yards	1784	20		Rush Yards	2201	27
Rush TD	4	32		Rush TD	24	31
Y/A	4.3	11		Y/A	4.4	20
Sacks	44	26		Sacks	25	30

Table 1

Well, as one might expect for a 1-15 team, the Rams have weaknesses everywhere. They rank in the bottom 4 in almost every category, both offensively and defensively. The only real bright spot was Steven Jackson’s rushing. He was largely responsible for their healthy rushing average of 4.3 yards per attempt. They were also in the top half defensive passing TDs allowed, but that was probably because teams could just run the ball at will on them.

Now that we’ve looked at the general overview, let’s look at the game by game statistical tables. Table 2 contains the Rams’ points scored and allowed in each game next to the opponents’ average defensive points allowed and average offensive points scored. It also shows the Rams’ points scored minus the opponent’s average points allowed and the Rams’ points allowed minus the opponent’s average points scored. For the Diff1 column, a positive number would be good, while for the Diff2 column, a negative number would be good.

	Ram Pts	Opp D		Opp Pts	Opp O
Opp	Score	Avg Pt	Diff1	Score	Avg Pt	Diff2
Seattle Seahawks	0	24.38	-24.38	28	17.5	10.5
Washington Redskins	7	21	-14	9	16.63	-7.63
Green Bay Packers	17	18.56	-1.56	36	28.81	7.19
San Francisco 49ers	0	17.56	-17.56	35	20.63	14.38
Minnesota Vikings	10	19.5	-9.5	38	29.38	8.63
Jacksonville Jaguars	20	23.75	-3.75	23	18.13	4.88
Indianapolis Colts	6	19.19	-13.19	42	26	16
Detroit Lions	17	30.88	-13.88	10	16.38	-6.38
New Orleans Saints	23	21.31	1.69	28	31.88	-3.88
Arizona Cardinals	13	20.31	-7.31	21	23.44	-2.44
Seattle Seahawks	17	24.38	-7.38	27	17.5	9.5
Chicago Bears	9	23.44	-14.44	17	20.44	-3.44
Tennessee Titans	7	25.13	-18.13	47	22.13	24.88
Houston Texans	13	20.81	-7.81	16	24.25	-8.25
Arizona Cardinals	10	20.31	-10.31	31	23.44	7.56
San Francisco 49ers	6	17.56	-11.56	28	20.63	7.38
Sum Difference			-173.06			78.88

Table 2

Just from a points standpoint, the Rams were bad on both sides of the ball. But, they seemed to be worse offensively than defensively, just judging by how much more poorly the offense performed compared to opponents’ averages. We see a similar story in Table 3 below.

	Ram Yds	Opp D		Opp Yds	Opp O
Opp	Gained	Avg Yd	Diff1	Gained	Avg Yd	Diff2
Seattle Seahawks	247	356.44	-109.44	446	316.81	129.19
Washington Redskins	245	319.69	-74.69	362	312.38	49.63
Green Bay Packers	336	284.44	51.56	402	379.06	22.94
San Francisco 49ers	177	326.38	-149.38	228	290.75	-62.75
Minnesota Vikings	400	305.5	94.5	377	379.63	-2.63
Jacksonville Jaguars	262	352.31	-90.31	492	336.56	155.44
Indianapolis Colts	272	339.19	-67.19	391	363.06	27.94
Detroit Lions	362	392.13	-30.13	289	299	-10
New Orleans Saints	434	357.75	76.25	420	403.81	16.19
Arizona Cardinals	314	346.44	-32.44	444	344.38	99.63
Seattle Seahawks	364	356.44	7.56	265	316.81	-51.81
Chicago Bears	233	337.75	-104.75	248	310.31	-62.31
Tennessee Titans	240	365.63	-125.63	446	351.44	94.56
Houston Texans	237	324.88	-87.88	419	383.06	35.94
Arizona Cardinals	238	346.44	-108.44	407	344.38	62.63
San Francisco 49ers	109	326.38	-217.38	329	290.75	38.25
Sum Difference			-967.75			542.81

Table 3

In yardage, as in points, the Rams performed worse offensively than defensively, by nearly a 2-1 margin. The next two tables reflect the Rams league rankings shown in Table 1 above.

	Ram P-Yd	Opp D		Opp P-Yd	Opp O
Opp	Gained	Avg Pa	Diff1	Gained	Avg Pa	Diff2
Seattle Seahawks	170	245.44	-75.44	279	218.94	60.06
Washington Redskins	119	207.25	-88.25	237	218.13	18.88
Green Bay Packers	187	201.13	-14.13	250	261.25	-11.25
San Francisco 49ers	82	229.38	-147.38	132	190.75	-58.75
Minnesota Vikings	278	218.38	59.63	288	259.75	28.25
Jacksonville Jaguars	207	235.88	-28.88	326	209.75	116.25
Indianapolis Colts	117	212.69	-95.69	235	282.19	-47.19
Detroit Lions	212	265.56	-53.56	162	198	-36
New Orleans Saints	293	235.56	57.44	217	272.19	-55.19
Arizona Cardinals	191	233.69	-42.69	261	251	10
Seattle Seahawks	251	245.44	5.56	95	218.94	-123.94
Chicago Bears	98	211.38	-113.38	128	217.06	-89.06
Tennessee Titans	160	258.69	-98.69	286	189.44	96.56
Houston Texans	149	217.94	-68.94	367	290.88	76.13
Arizona Cardinals	150	233.69	-83.69	297	251	46
San Francisco 49ers	22	229.38	-207.38	204	190.75	13.25
Sum Difference			-995.44			44

Table 4

	Ram R-Yd	Opp D		Opp R-Yd	Opp O
Opp	Gained	Avg Ru	Diff1	Gained	Avg Ru	Diff2
Seattle Seahawks	77	111	-34	167	97.88	69.13
Washington Redskins	126	112.44	13.56	125	94.25	30.75
Green Bay Packers	149	83.31	65.69	152	117.81	34.19
San Francisco 49ers	95	97	-2	96	100	-4
Minnesota Vikings	122	87.13	34.88	89	119.88	-30.88
Jacksonville Jaguars	55	116.44	-61.44	166	126.81	39.19
Indianapolis Colts	155	126.5	28.5	156	80.88	75.13
Detroit Lions	150	126.56	23.44	127	101	26
New Orleans Saints	141	122.19	18.81	203	131.63	71.38
Arizona Cardinals	123	112.75	10.25	183	93.38	89.63
Seattle Seahawks	113	111	2	170	97.88	72.13
Chicago Bears	135	126.38	8.63	120	93.25	26.75
Tennessee Titans	80	106.94	-26.94	160	162	-2
Houston Texans	88	106.94	-18.94	52	92.19	-40.19
Arizona Cardinals	88	112.75	-24.75	110	93.38	16.63
San Francisco 49ers	87	97	-10	125	100	25
Sum Difference			27.69			498.81

Table 5

Here we see that the Rams passing game and rush defense were the worst culprits in their poor performance relative to opponents’ averages. In pass defense and rushing offense, they were actually relatively close to the opponents’ averages for this season. Again, part of this may have to do with the fact that most teams had comfortable leads in the second half, and therefore ran the ball much more than they passed the ball late in games. I would guess that since they seemed to find running relatively productive, there would be no reason not to. By the same token, with a lead, the opposing offenses probably focused more on stopping the pass and did not play the run very aggressively.

Again, the Rams have many needs, but based on these numbers, their greatest needs right now are in rush defense and passing offense. That pretty much corresponds with what VanRam at Turf Show Times concluded in this post on the Rams Team Needs. I would tend to agree with his assessment of their top 3 needs: 

1. QB
2. DT
3. WR

In general, I would say they should focus on defense first. If they draft the expected franchise QB, I’d give him a year before starting him. But, either way, this team needs plenty of help.

Tags: Saint Louis Rams, St. Louis Rams