Key to Entire Season - McVay

[WarnerToBruce]

I am no football expert. But I have watched the Rams and the NFL for too many decades to be proud of, so here is my unsolicited opinion.

THIS SEASON BOILS DOWN TO McVAY CONTINGENCY PLANNING.

All teams have good players. All teams have good coaching. The football always takes funky bounces. But one thing that is clear to me is that in the past, our coach has been slow to adjust to a defense that has "caught on" to his approach.

This is a normal part of the NFL game that I think makes or break the Rams season. It's not if, but WHEN, a team tweaks it D to take away the new wrinkle(s) McVay has installed this season, has he set up (and trained his team) to go to Plan B, or even Plan C?

There is one rule in which I firmly believe: You can't take away everything. A defense has to make choices. So I'm hopeful McVay has already been working and training his team on his countermoves when the expected adjustments by opposing defenses kick in.

He's clearly smart enough. He has boundless energy. This seems like a given. But his track record does not make it 100% certain to me.

That is my $0.02 on what could be a GREAT season for our Rams!

Of course, I will be watching with great interest as this story develops...

 

[PhillyRam]

Curious what he does this weekend.

They have had problems in the past with the Eagles interior pressure. And the Eagles saw their plan yesterday to mitigate that. So the Eagles should have some answers for that approach.

Now what will McVay come up with to tweak it and give them a diff look?

 

[Jacobarch]

Curious what he does this weekend.

They have had problems in the past with the Eagles interior pressure. And the Eagles saw their plan yesterday to mitigate that. So the Eagles should have some answers for that approach.

Now what will McVay come up with to tweak it and give them a diff look?

Well the Eagles for some reason has always played us well and given us problems. I'm sure McVay has a good gameplan set up for them. They didn't look good week one at all versus the Warriors or whatever they're called now.
One huge thing for us sunday is no crowd noise. That stadium can be toxic with those nasty east coast loser fans. lol

 

[PhillyRam]

If Blythe & Co. can handle Cox for most of the game then the Rams should win.

 

[Mojo Ram]

I've said in pre season posts that going into this season that defenses were going to bottle up the passing chunk plays, go after Goff, takeaway Kupp and force the Rams to move the ball on the ground and in the short game.

It looked like that was sort of in play last night with the exception of throwing blitz after blitz at Goff which didn't happen until late in the game. McV seemed to be ready for that with his short game attack.

Im still annoyed by this long standing trend of McV/Goff not being prepared or executing a hot route vs a blitz in this offense. There's never anywhere to go with the ball. Or Goff doesn't see it. Or the receivers don't see it. Idk. ?

Anyway, not forcing the chunk plays was a good thing, even though as a fan i got a bit frustrated at times. IMO defenses are going to let our RB's and TE's (the short game) beat them. Last night it was good enough and Goff wasn't forced into making deep throws on 2nd and 3rd down to keep moving the chains.

I'm surprised Dallas didn't blitz more. I suppose it could have something to do with their LB injuries.

Bottom line for me is that Brown/Akers and co will have opportunities moving forward. The Rams need to get defenses scared of our ground attack again so Goff can get back to what he did so well in '17 and '18.

 

[RamFan503]

Well the Eagles for some reason has always played us well and given us problems. I'm sure McVay has a good gameplan set up for them. They didn't look good week one at all versus the Warriors or whatever they're called now.
One huge thing for us sunday is no crowd noise. That stadium can be toxic with those nasty east coast loser fans. lol

I wonder if there are rules in place as to what kind of noise, volume levels, etc that can be piped in.

 

[Jacobarch]

I wonder if there are rules in place as to what kind of noise, volume levels, etc that can be piped in.

I'd assume so

 

[Psycho_X]

4 of the next 5 games are away and 3 of those are on the east side of the country and teams aren't allowed to stay away from home in between away games during covid rules. The team is going to need that McVay energy over the next 5 weeks. Luckily I don't think any of those away games will have fans so thats a plus. We'll get @Philly, @BUFFALO, @Washington, and @Whiners out of the way without fans.

 

[Mackeyser]

Philly looks to have injury issues on both lines.
Buffalo looks good, but we'll see how they progress. Hard to tell against the Jets
Washington may be legit, especially that defense.
SF is legit, but I think the Cards showed a bit of how to beat them (even not including Kyler Murray)

We very well could win all of those games, but it wouldn't surprise me to not be favored in any of them (because much like Rodney... we don't get no respect)

 

[MachS]

If Blythe & Co. can handle Cox for most of the game then the Rams should win.

Cox will be lined up over Noteboom for majority of the game, you can take that to the bank. Hope McVay has a plan to help him out. We might see RBs staying in protection a lot this week to help the interior.

 

[oldnotdead]

Last night the Rams had an obvious tell on many of their play-action passes. They would fake the outside zone and throwback to Woods or Kupp on the opposite side. The tell is that they did not block the outside zone the same as they blocked if it was an actual run. If I was a safety or a LB it's an easy read. It's a small detail but an obvious one. Why isn't it blocked the same? The run outside zone is a vertical concept as I was advocating for last year. The fake is the old horizontal concept.

The difference? In the vertical concept, the o-line drives the d-line and LBs off the LOS in their zone blocks. That actually creates running lanes and we have seen the difference. The horizontal concept is exactly what it sounds like. The o-line blocks along the LOS and the running lanes are dependent upon the LBs maintaining their gap control. The Boys were clearly caught off guard by the change and it disrupted their gap integrity.

So why wasn't that used last year? Poor coaching. Kromer had an entire offseason and TC to install multiple blocking schemes yet he didn't. He used a high school level technique as his one and only run blocking scheme. This year the Rams didn't have OTAs and were restricted in TC yet they installed multiple techniques. Don't tell me Kromer didn't do his job last year.

Why the difference between Brown and Akers? Brown is a vet so the game is slower for him and he plays faster. He anticipates where the holes will he and understands how to "get skinny" to accelerate through the small gaps. As Akers acclimates to the NFL game speed he will be just fine. He looked good for a first game rookie. As the game slows for him he will be able to read the blocking better and his yardage per carry will improve. Again his performance was pretty good against a good defense.

Props to the o-line to open against as good of a defensive front as they will face this regular season and play this well bodes well for the Ram season. I know this game was a comfort for those who were worried about the o-line. With good coaching, they have the personnel to be a good o-line.

One personal observation, and my props to Corbett who showed excellent mobility. Early in the game, the Rams opened with a screen to Woods who raced along the sideline. Corbett from his OG position on the opposite side was the lead blocker and put his man on the ground. He held up well against a good pass rush as well. No question in my mind that the Rams have found one of their starting OGs for a long time. He has more than validated the trade for him.

 

[rdlkgliders]

Why the difference between Brown and Akers? Brown is a vet so the game is slower for him and he plays faster. He anticipates where the holes will he and understands how to "get skinny" to accelerate through the small gaps. As Akers acclimates to the NFL game speed he will be just fine. He looked good for a first game rookie. As the game slows for him he will be able to read the blocking better and his yardage per carry will improve. Again his performance was pretty good against a good defense.

This is what I took away from the game as well in regards to the performance of Brown and Akers. Brown put together maybe his best game. Brown was decisive made great reads and took what was there. He drug tacklers for a couple extra yards at times and was generally impressive.
Akers was able to turn every rush attempt into positive yards as I remember anyway. Akers is not TG30 he is much more like Brown. He is going to take what is there but certainly has more ability than Malcolm to bust some longer runs. As the game slows he will play faster and the result will be longer runs and more production. Akers blocking/protection was above average for a rookie and he will find his place in the passing game.

 

[LARAMSinFeb.]

Im still annoyed by this long standing trend of McV/Goff not being prepared or executing a hot route vs a blitz in this offense. There's never anywhere to go with the ball. Or Goff doesn't see it. Or the receivers don't see it. Idk. ?

Yeah this bothers me too, bc it seems like the 2017 Goff used to just chuck it over their heads to Gurley for a long gain.

 

[matt30]

I'm surprised Dallas didn't blitz more. I suppose it could have something to do with their LB injuries.

The cowboys were blitzing all night. In the first half we were fortunate to run screens into most of those plays. It wasn't until we were getting into 3rd and long, pass only situations that the blitz started to hit home. At that point a hot route is useless. You either get the first down or throw it in the dirt.

 

[Mojo Ram]

The cowboys were blitzing all night. In the first half we were fortunate to run screens into most of those plays. It wasn't until we were getting into 3rd and long, pass only situations that the blitz started to hit home. At that point a hot route is useless. You either get the first down or throw it in the dirt.

Maybe so, i didn't see them start sending guys consistently until the 4th.

Well as you know, when you're throwing it away you have to have a receiver in the area to avoid the penalty. A hot route is just another way of getting rid of it(for positive yardage vs the blitz). IMO the Rams have looked lost in that aspect which is weird to me considering how prepared the offense is in every other area.

 

[Merlin]

I think it's gonna be the players. This staff is locked in. We just need the players to execute.

The OL has to grow and improve week to week or we won't be a playoff or serious contender. The defense needs to be good too, and if our OL is shaky it will need to be elite. And so on.

Right now we have some good and bad but hey we're 1-0 and I'm pretty stoked about that. Just gonna enjoy it for now.