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Now you all might be saying "Woah there Alex, what are you on?!" But hear me out. While the 2011 season didn't result in what happened during theirs, there's a lot of promise for our 2012 Squad. Lets take a look shall we?
For beginners, the Rams Defense lead the NFL in Rush Defense (74.3 YPG) and tied for first in Sacks with the Jaguars (57). These two numbers seem easily attainable for the Cardinals Defense. With emerging pass rushers Sam Acho and O'Brien Schofield, combined with the likes Calais Campbell and Darnell Dockett, coupled with a Blitz heavy Defense from DC Ray Horton we could see Arizona break both those numbers. (Not the records) We could however see Arizona find it's way to the top 5 teams for most sacks in a season, that record held by the 1984 Chicago Bears at 75. The 4th and 5th place names on that list are in the low to mid 60's, something Arizona could possibly get to. As for the 74.3 YPG, the Cardinals certainly can shut down the run. We saw that quite a bit last season. While they may not break any records, they can certainly be known for what they did.
The Rams gave up 242 points over the season compared to our 2011 total of 348, with 183 of those coming before the Defense found it's groove. While we may not be blessed by the Football gods with a high powered offense like the 1999 Rams, our Defense will be able to win us plenty of Games this coming season.
So what do you think? Do we have a shot at breaking some of their records? And is it fair, or to early to see or make some comparisons between the two defensive units?