In a Los Angeles Rams season that will be unpredictable, at times chaotic and always interesting, we’re going to learn a lot about the young and older players each week.
We’ll put the most interesting or relevant of these developments here, in nicely organized sections. Just for you!
My three things from Week 1:
Matthew Stafford fixes long downs
The Rams’ quarterback was truly outstanding in Sunday’s 30-13 win at Seattle. Stafford’s 0.45 EPA/dropback was the second-highest of any quarterback in Week 1 (behind Tua Tagovailoa’s 0.60), according to TruMedia. He completed 24 of 39 pass attempts for 334 yards and no interceptions (also no touchdowns, but the Rams scored three times on runs). Three of the incompletions were drops. Some of his throws, including a sideline shot to rookie receiver Puka Nacua, were special.
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Stafford was also the reason the Rams survived their hardest downs. The Rams faced second-and-long (five or more yards to gain) and either converted or had corresponding third downs 29 times Sunday. He completed 16 of 21 pass attempts on those downs, for 238 yards and 14.87 yards per pass play. On second and third downs overall, Stafford had a respective 0.56 and 0.67 EPA/play. He also added nine yards on a second-and-10 via a scramble.
The Rams showed a ton of necessary variety in their run game, but were not ahead of the sticks on those plays as much as they wanted to be nor on first downs in general. Stafford’s accuracy worked them out of the corresponding “harder” downs, even in must-pass situations that are tells for a defense.
“We were pretty efficient in some of those second-down-and-longer situations, which you don’t want to make a habit in living in those,” Rams head coach Sean McVay said. “We need to be more efficient overall in the early downs. I thought that was something that we can definitely improve upon even though we were able to overcome it. I don’t think that’s a sustainable model and method for playing the kind of ball that we want to be able to play.”
Stafford especially targeted the middle of the field, which Seattle Seahawks inside linebacker Bobby Wagner said often was more open because the Seahawks’ defenders had to account for receivers running routes outside of the hashes. Against the San Francisco 49ers on Sunday, it’s unlikely that the middle of the field will be as susceptible.
Stafford over the middle of the field yesterday:
14/17 for 144 yards
0.76 EPA per play
+5.7% CPOE
8.5 YPA https://t.co/dhS4VxFFRB— Deryck (@DeryckG_) September 11, 2023
Offensive line confidence boost
Stafford was only hit twice, and didn’t get sacked. There will be tough sledding ahead for the Rams’ re-shuffled offensive line, with San Francisco, Dallas and Philadelphia looming. But Sunday went a long way for the confidence of a group that, from left to right, featured Alaric Jackson, Steve Avila, Coleman Shelton, Joe Noteboom and Rob Havenstein.
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According to TruMedia, the Rams gave up nine pressures (tied for fifth-best from Week 1). But the offensive linemen only accounted for five of those (others could be attributed to tight ends or running backs). Havenstein, Jackson and Noteboom allowed one apiece, while Shelton allowed two.
Avila, a rookie who made his debut on Sunday, did not give up a single pressure.
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“Rob Havenstein actually came up to me before the game and was like, ‘You know what the difference is between college football and the NFL? Nothing,'” said Avila, who added that Havenstein’s comment helped to settle his nerves. “It’s just football.”
The Rams had about an 80/20 percentage split between their standard 11 personnel (three receivers, one tight end) and 12 personnel (two tight ends). McVay praised Tyler Higbee and Brycen Hopkins’ contribution to the Rams’ pass protection and run blocking.
“Those guys are an extension of the offensive line, especially when you’re committing them to the blocking surface,” McVay said. Clues that pointed to an increase in 12 personnel this season included McVay’s decision to keep four tight ends on the initial 53-man roster (Hunter Long is currently on injured reserve after a hamstring popped up before Week 1), and the increased variety of run concepts the Rams now deploy including gap scheme. The absence of top receiver Cooper Kupp through most of training camp or the start of the season likely encouraged more work out of the personnel grouping. The Rams only played 12 personnel on 7.5 percent of their offensive snaps in 2022.
Higbee also caught all three of his targets for 49 yards, including a 12-yard pass on third-and-4 and a 30-yard pass on second-and-8.
Defensive lockdown and composure
The Rams’ defense held Seattle to just 12 net yards in the second half, nine of which were gained on a garbage-time run with five seconds to play.
Outside linebacker Byron Young tied for first among all rookie outside linebackers in their Week 1 debut with five pressures. Defensive tackle Kobie Turner added two pressures, and the two players also recorded a half-sack apiece.
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The Rams only hit quarterback Geno Smith five times (two sacks), but finished the game with a 44.8 percent pressure rate, which ranked No. 7 in Week 1. Their pressure rate increased in the third and fourth quarters in part because they were playing with a lead, and in more known passing downs. In the first half, the Rams had some trouble in sealing their edges against outside runs (Kenneth Walker broke off two explosive runs of 15 and 13 yards around the outside).
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One first-half sequence set the energy tone for the defense, though. First, Aaron Donald and Ernest Jones combined for a stop on Walker for no gain in the first quarter. Then, Jones had a major tackle for a 6-yard loss on Walker in the flat. Those two plays occurred right after a third-down pass interference penalty had moved the Seahawks’ offense well into the Rams’ red zone. Ultimately, Seattle settled for a field goal there. The Rams’ offense then went on its 16-play touchdown drive that ate 9:30 off the clock and allowed both sides of the ball to stay in their “A-plus” plan because they were playing with a lead. Later in the half, when Seattle had regained a three-point lead, missed tackles on a Seahawks punt return allowed Smith and the offense to start their drive at midfield. A young Rams defense kept its composure and again held Seattle to a field goal despite the excellent field position (and the 15-yard run by Walker).
Jones, by the way, finished with five “splash” plays as documented by TruMedia, which are inclusive to things like run stuffs, tackles for loss, sacks, interceptions, etc. Jones had three tackles for loss and two run stuffs.
The Rams’ defense is built to stop the explosive pass play, but this summer players and coaches workshopped tighter coverages out of their match zone foundation because they believed they’d be playing with a lead more frequently in 2023 and that would allow them to play more aggressively (you can read about that in greater detail here). Cornerback Derion Kendrick, who did give up a touchdown to DK Metcalf but also covered for a long time with Smith working out-of-structure to break up a potential touchdown pass, noted that the Rams’ defense wanted to match down onto Smith’s checkdowns if he couldn’t throw his deadly deep ball.
On a third-and-2, Smith was out-of-structure and did get a 28-yard pass out to Metcalf. But no other pass play went longer than 10 yards in the air. The Rams gave up just three explosive plays (two of those were runs), tied for second-least of any team in the NFL in Week 1, and only one first down through the entire second half.
The Rams played 87 percent of their snaps in some form of a zone Sunday (inclusive to sub packages that featured extra inside linebackers and also Quentin Lake as a dime linebacker). But that zone got tight.
“I thought we did a great job of still being able to be sticky, to not have as much air in the coverage,” McVay said, “but still be able to do some things that are in alignment with what we believe philosophically (in terms of preventing explosive pass plays).”
(Top photo of Sean McVay and Matthew Stafford: Steph Chambers / Getty Images)
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