Criticism of Chris Shula Is Missing the Bigger Picture With Rams Defense

Since the Los Angeles Rams lost to the San Francisco 49ers in Week 1, it has been the defense that has gotten the majority of the blame. With the Rams set to take on the New York Giants in Week 2, all eyes will be especially focused on Chris Shula and the defense.

Head coach Sean McVay and quarterback Matthew Stafford will certainly take the blame for the loss. Stafford noted after the game that the offense had two good drives the entire game, while McVay said that the offense lacked communication.

However, that doesn’t make the defense blameless. The Rams trailed by three points at halftime before the 49ers scored a touchdown to start the half and then allowed a 99-yard touchdown drive following a missed fourth-down conversion from the offense.

Put together, it simply wasn’t good complementary football. The defense was certainly put in a bad position with a long kick return to start the second half. Despite the offense not scoring from the one-yard line, the defense needs to find a way to get a stop. It wasn’t just one unit that deserved blame, but all three phases.

That doesn’t mean that multiple things can’t be true. Yes, more is expected from the offensive side of the ball. At the same time, there are places where the defense can be better.

“With the exception of the one explosive, I think what ended up happening is there were a lot of screens early on and a good commitment to the run where they were able to be in shorter third down situations,” said McVay on the Coach McVay Show this week. “There were some opportunities where we did get stickier than people realize because of the way that we align…I have tremendous trust and confidence in Chris Shula leading the way, our defensive coaches. And then we’re always looking at where those opportunities are to put players in the positions that allow their best traits and characteristics to come to life on a consistent basis, and you’ll see that moving forward.”

Why the Rams Didn’t Play More Man Coverage

The last sentence is the one that many have been examining since the end of the game. During the offseason, the Rams spent significant capital to acquire cornerbacks Trent McDuffie and Jaylen Watson. Against the 49ers, McDuffie played 25.7 percent of his coverage snaps in man coverage, which was the fourth-lowest rate in his career.

However, since entering the league in 2022, McDuffie has played man coverage on 43.5 percent of his snaps, the ninth-highest rate among defensive backs with over 1,000 coverage snaps in his career. The same can be said about Watson, who was also brought in as a man-coverage cornerback.

Richard Sherman is concerned about the Rams defense. Where does it start? How they use their corners. He explains in *very* good detail:

“You don’t use a Corvette to Uber. You get in a Corvette, you’re racing…you pay them their money, let him do what he was doing.” https://t.co/g3U1WboIDZpic.twitter.com/hQRtnyGEng

– Kevin Clark (@bykevinclark) September 15, 2026

Before we get into that, it’s important to add context to the philosophy of the defense. It may be up to Chris Shula to call the defensive plays and add his own twist to the scheme. Still, it is on the head coach to decide the overall philosophy.

McVay certainly gives his coaches on the coaching staff more schematic freedom. With that said, the general ethos of the defense remains how McVay wants it to look. It’s why the complaints from Raheem Morris to now Chris Shula have remained the same.

Sean McVay’s Influence on the Rams Defense

It’s important to understand what McVay wants in a defense. It simply goes back to one of the turning points in NFL history. That turning point was the Rams’ 2018 loss to the Chicago Bears and the defense led by Vic Fangio. The Rams lost that game 15-6, and it was arguably the worst offensive performance of the McVay era.

As The Athletic’s Jourdan Rodrigue wrote, “in the following years, McVay became “obsessed” with elements of Vic Fangio’s defense.”

McVay would hire Brandon Staley, who was Fangio’s right-hand man, to be his defensive coordinator in 2020. When Morris took over after Staley left, he continued many of those same principles. Morris maintained the foundation that Staley built built on lighter fronts and two-high safeties. Shula has since continued those defensive ideas established by Staley and Morris after working under both coordinators.

How Much of the Rams Defense Falls on Chris Shula?

It all goes back to the same underlying question. At what point is Shula not to blame for the Rams’ defense? Raheem Morris was criticized by the fanbase for three years for playing ‘soft coverage,’ ‘not being creative enough,’ and ‘not blitzing.’

However, look no further than the last two times the Rams have played a Morris defense. The Rams’ offense had arguably their worst performance of the season against Morris and the Falcons in 2025. Meanwhile, Morris and the 49ers completely shut out the Rams in the second half of Week 1. Morris simply isn’t the bad defensive coach that he was made to be for three years in Los Angeles.

Why the 49ers Complicated the Rams’ Defensive Approach

It’s very possible the 49ers and Shanahan were a reason for the Rams not running as much man coverage as they may have wanted. In general, man coverage is a bad idea against Shanahan. He’ll draw up man-beaters all day and create chaos. One play, they’ll make the guy covering Deebo Samuel fit the B gap, and the next, they’ll split Christian McCaffrey out with a linebacker on him in space. That’s not necessarily a world a defense wants to live in.

However, it’s also worth mentioning that the Fangio scheme, which is very zone-heavy, is also what McVay wants to run.

The Fangio defense really comes down to three main principles:

Two-high coverages take away vertical shots, limiting explosive plays and forcing quarterbacks to live underneath.
Fangio’s philosophy centers on playing defense with defenders moving forward. By aligning deeper, defenders keep everything in front of them and can attack downhill.
Fangio defenses are built around two-high shells and lighter boxes. Showing split safeties before the snap forces quarterbacks into post-snap processing.

That is the Rams’ defense in a nutshell, and it’s also a world in which the 49ers don’t mind living in. The issue with the Rams’ defense against the 49ers wasn’t necessarily that they didn’t play man coverage or didn’t blitz enough.

Majoring in man coverage with all the motions and shifts the 49ers have can be a nightmare and lead to major assignment errors, especially with the new shifts and motions they showed. Not to mention, the NFL as a whole is trending hard toward zone coverage and split-safety… https://t.co/OFUISI9igz

– Adam Archuleta (@AdamArchuleta) September 12, 2026

For the most part, the secondary actually tackled well in space. According to NFL Pro, the 49ers had -6 yards after the catch over expected. The primary issue was the inability to stop the run, as the 49ers offense had a 56.7 percent rushing success rate. That was the highest in the NFL in Week 1.

“We always say that if we’re in this together,” said defensive coordinator Chris Shula on Friday. “I think we can play harder. I think we can play better and we can execute better, really at all levels. We can also put them in better positions.”

The Rams’ Defensive Problems Don’t Have a Simple Solution

At the end of the day, it’s more complicated than simply saying, ‘they should have blitzed more’ or ‘they should have played more man.’ That doesn’t necessarily work against the opponent the Rams faced, and it’s also against the ethos of the overriding defensive philosophy.

22 times McD locked at snap. Not including other times #35 was. This about 1/3 of snaps.

Sometimes CBs in man, LB & S in zone or match zone.

Ask yourself, if you want more “man” coverage as it is charted, means you want CMC iso on Landman/Seights?, etc?

Just asking pic.twitter.com/K33dyMqc5g

– Jim Youngblood 53 (@53_jim70721) September 17, 2026

Last season, the Rams blitzed at a rate of 20.7 percent, which was the 29th-lowest rate in the NFL. In last place was the Philadelphia Eagles at 18.8 percent, who are coached by Vic Fangio. The Rams only blitzed 11.1 percent of the time against the 49ers, ranking 31st for the week, while Fangio and the Eagles were at 21.1 percent. Fangio and the Eagles had a higher rate, but it’s also just a one-game sample. It was still outside the top 20.

It’s understandable that fans would be discouraged by the defense after allowing 27 points and following an offseason in which they spent significant resources at cornerback and added Myles Garrett. The Rams’ defense certainly wasn’t perfect against the 49ers, but the issues are deeper than the current surface-level arguments.

Again, the point here is that it’s possible that Morris and Shula aren’t as bad as they are made out to be. Ultimately, the main ideas behind the scheme itself aren’t changing, and that’s because of McVay’s obsession with the Fangio defense. Until McVay decides to change it, this is what the Rams are running.

Chris Shula Has Earned the Benefit of the Doubt

This isn’t to say that the defense can’t or shouldn’t be better. It’s not even to say that they shouldn’t play tighter and run more man coverage. However, right now, it’s just a one-game sample. The Rams’ defense ranked fourth in defensive DVOA last season and 10th in defensive EPA per play. From an advanced metrics standpoint, they were a top-10 unit. That’s not a defensive coordinator you simply fire.

While it’s true they faltered down the stretch, Shula has earned more slack than just one game. He’s earned the benefit of the doubt that Week 1 was simply a poor performance. Again, it wasn’t as if the offensive side of the ball was much better. It was a dud from all facets.

“Rams, total dud. … One of the worst games I’ve seen [Matthew Stafford] play in years.”@danorlovsky7 did not hold back on the Rams after their season-opening loss to the 49ers pic.twitter.com/yNyJMc7hxn

– Get Up (@GetUpESPN) September 11, 2026

Things aren’t going to get easier as the Rams are now without Garrett for the next month. Still, the Rams have the talent on the defensive line, and the addition of Aaron Donald should also provide a boost. If the defense continues to struggle over the next month and after Garrett returns, the Shula-on-the-hot-seat conversations can commence. Until then, much of the reaction from Week 1 is an overreaction.