McVay on Play Action ...

[Riverumbbq]

Preseason showing play-action will be crucial for Sean McVay's Rams
4:00 AM PT

• 
  
  Alden GonzalezESPN Staff Writer

THOUSAND OAKS, Calif. -- Four of Jared Goff's first five passing attempts against the Raiders this past Saturday came off play-action, including his touchdown. A week earlier in the preseason opener against the Cowboys, play-action produced his longest pass of the afternoon.

If you can't already tell, play-action passing will be a big part of Sean McVay's offense with the Los Angeles Rams.

"Being able to have plays that start out looking the same that are different," is how McVay described the benefits of successful play-action. "I think it forces the defense to kind of have to adjust and react accordingly. You have to be able to run the football for them to honor the play-action pass. You have to show that you can be a threat in the play-action game, so now maybe you're going to dictate a different box count, and now you’ll get some better run looks. So, it all ties together."

stimulating offensive showing this past Saturday, in an eventual 23-21 win, began with Todd Gurley, who was able to pick up 38 yards on only eight carries. It ultimately helped the Rams sell the threat of the run. Goff faked a handoff and found Robert Woods and Gerald Everetton back-to-back pass attempts, with each of them able to get into the open field for big gains. Later, he faked a handoff to Gurley and found Cooper Kupp wide open over the top for a 23-yard touchdown. Seven days earlier, Kupp also hauled in a 19-yard pass near the sideline off play-action.

McVay's 2016 Redskins offense sported the NFL's best completion rate off play-action (72.6 percent) and its second-highest yards per attempt off play-action (10.96). That success is even more impressive when considering that those offenses averaged only 106 rushing yards per game, 14th in the NFL. The threat of the run wasn't necessarily there, but they were somehow still effective at selling it.

"We did run the ball efficiently," McVay corrected, alluding to the fact that the Redskins ranked ninth in rushing yards per attempt at 4.47. "I just had to give us a little bit more opportunity in terms of calling some of those runs last year."

McVay's Redskins were seventh in the NFL in passing attempts per game last year, but his Rams may be a little more run-heavy. The personnel is different, the strengths are elsewhere. That Redskins team had a polished Kirk Cousins at quarterback and a bevy of accomplished receivers, including Jordan Reed, DeSean Jackson and Pierre Garcon. The Rams have done a nice job of improving at receiver this calendar year, but Goff is only 22 and Gurley remains their best offensive player.



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"It’s hard to be a dominant offense if you’re not balanced," said Rams center John Sullivan, a backup in Washington last year. "You have to be able to make teams worry about both facets, the run game and the pass game. Obviously, everybody loves to see big-chunk plays and throwing the ball vertically down the field. But the way that you open that up sometimes is by running the football effectively. The one feeds off the other."

Effective as last year's Redskins were on play-action, they didn't go to it frequently. Eleven teams ran play-action more often. And only 22.5 percent of the Redskins' passing plays that went 20 or more yards came off play-action, which ranked 14th in the NFL. The Falcons, the team with the NFL's most explosive offense last year, led the NFL in that department. An NFL-best 36.9 percent of Atlanta's 20-plus-yard passing plays came off play-action.

The quarterbacks coach for that team was Matt LaFleur, who is now the offensive coordinator with the Rams.

 

[Riverumbbq]

Spell check messed up McVay. Anyone that can tell me how to correct the title, i'd appreciate the help.

 

[Farr Be It]

Spell check messed up McVay. Anyone that can tell me how to correct the title, i'd appreciate the help.

I'm sorry @Riverumbbq you need to stew in your mistake.

:rant:Now let that be a lesson to you!

 

[LACHAMP46]

Balance is the key
@Riverumbbq .....for a plate of burnt ends.....LOL

when you go to your post, it may be a smaller "edit" type button near your headline....I remember being able to add to a title...but editing was difficult. It may be easier now...they always update the site...a moderator....could help...

 

[Merlin]

McVay's Redskins were seventh in the NFL in passing attempts per game last year, but his Rams may be a little more run-heavy. The personnel is different, the strengths are elsewhere. That Redskins team had a polished Kirk Cousins at quarterback and a bevy of accomplished receivers, including Jordan Reed, DeSean Jackson and Pierre Garcon. The Rams have done a nice job of improving at receiver this calendar year, but Goff is only 22 and Gurley remains their best offensive player.

Gonzalez needs to go back to baseball. He just doesn't have a strong feel for the game of football IMO.

The WCO, which is what McVay runs and is steeped in as a coordinator, uses short passes in place of runs in many situations. McVay's history of passing the ball is not just due to Cousins. Cousins and his ridiculous completion percentage were in large part derived from the strengths of the scheme. He did a great job executing it of course, but still it is a very QB friendly system as long as the QB is capable of dishing it with mental speed.

McVay is going to run the WCO. Goff will benefit and put up good numbers similarly. And if not, well then McVay will still run his offense just with another QB. The dude is not going to change the fundamental identity of what he does and the scheme he runs. The WCO typically puts up a lot of short passes, but also tends to demonstrate good balance due to the use of the entire field in spreading the defense out. This Rams offense will pass a lot just like the Skins did, and the difference Gurley will bring is more ability to flip the field with big runs when he gets a seam than what the Skins had.

 

[Selassie I]

Spell check messed up McVay. Anyone that can tell me how to correct the title, i'd appreciate the help.

I got you.

 

[Riverumbbq]

I got you.

Thank You Sir !

 

[-X-]

Effective as last year's Redskins were on play-action, they didn't go to it frequently. Eleven teams ran play-action more often. And only 22.5 percent of the Redskins' passing plays that went 20 or more yards came off play-action, which ranked 14th in the NFL. The Falcons, the team with the NFL's most explosive offense last year, led the NFL in that department. An NFL-best 36.9 percent of Atlanta's 20-plus-yard passing plays came off play-action.

The quarterbacks coach for that team was Matt LaFleur, who is now the offensive coordinator with the Rams.

Translation:

"Play-action is crucial for McVay, even though they didn't use it often in Washington. But you know who did? Atlanta. And WHOOOOO was the QB coach in Atlanta? LaFleur. And WHOOOOO is the OC for the Rams now? LaFleur. So you know what that means? It means that LaFleur was the reason for Atlanta's play-action success even though he didn't call or design the plays. And LaFleur is the one who's going to make it crucial for McVay. Even though McVay is really the boss of the offense, it doesn't matter because .... Atlanta."

That's how stupid I thought that whole thing was.

Play-action is no more important for the Rams than it is for any other team trying to be balanced.
The run sets up the pass, and vice-versa.
We get it.
Duh.

 

[DaveFan'51]

Preseason showing play-action will be crucial for Sean McVay's Rams
4:00 AM PT

• 
  
  Alden GonzalezESPN Staff Writer

THOUSAND OAKS, Calif. -- Four of Jared Goff's first five passing attempts against the Raiders this past Saturday came off play-action, including his touchdown. A week earlier in the preseason opener against the Cowboys, play-action produced his longest pass of the afternoon.

If you can't already tell, play-action passing will be a big part of Sean McVay's offense with the Los Angeles Rams.

"Being able to have plays that start out looking the same that are different," is how McVay described the benefits of successful play-action. "I think it forces the defense to kind of have to adjust and react accordingly. You have to be able to run the football for them to honor the play-action pass. You have to show that you can be a threat in the play-action game, so now maybe you're going to dictate a different box count, and now you’ll get some better run looks. So, it all ties together."

stimulating offensive showing this past Saturday, in an eventual 23-21 win, began with Todd Gurley, who was able to pick up 38 yards on only eight carries. It ultimately helped the Rams sell the threat of the run. Goff faked a handoff and found Robert Woods and Gerald Everetton back-to-back pass attempts, with each of them able to get into the open field for big gains. Later, he faked a handoff to Gurley and found Cooper Kupp wide open over the top for a 23-yard touchdown. Seven days earlier, Kupp also hauled in a 19-yard pass near the sideline off play-action.

McVay's 2016 Redskins offense sported the NFL's best completion rate off play-action (72.6 percent) and its second-highest yards per attempt off play-action (10.96). That success is even more impressive when considering that those offenses averaged only 106 rushing yards per game, 14th in the NFL. The threat of the run wasn't necessarily there, but they were somehow still effective at selling it.

"We did run the ball efficiently," McVay corrected, alluding to the fact that the Redskins ranked ninth in rushing yards per attempt at 4.47. "I just had to give us a little bit more opportunity in terms of calling some of those runs last year."

McVay's Redskins were seventh in the NFL in passing attempts per game last year, but his Rams may be a little more run-heavy. The personnel is different, the strengths are elsewhere. That Redskins team had a polished Kirk Cousins at quarterback and a bevy of accomplished receivers, including Jordan Reed, DeSean Jackson and Pierre Garcon. The Rams have done a nice job of improving at receiver this calendar year, but Goff is only 22 and Gurley remains their best offensive player.



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"It’s hard to be a dominant offense if you’re not balanced," said Rams center John Sullivan, a backup in Washington last year. "You have to be able to make teams worry about both facets, the run game and the pass game. Obviously, everybody loves to see big-chunk plays and throwing the ball vertically down the field. But the way that you open that up sometimes is by running the football effectively. The one feeds off the other."

Effective as last year's Redskins were on play-action, they didn't go to it frequently. Eleven teams ran play-action more often. And only 22.5 percent of the Redskins' passing plays that went 20 or more yards came off play-action, which ranked 14th in the NFL. The Falcons, the team with the NFL's most explosive offense last year, led the NFL in that department. An NFL-best 36.9 percent of Atlanta's 20-plus-yard passing plays came off play-action.

The quarterbacks coach for that team was Matt LaFleur, who is now the offensive coordinator with the Rams.

This was a really enjoyable read. I love the insight McVay give you into the way he schemes his run vs pass balance!

 

[TexasRam]

Translation:

"Play-action is crucial for McVay, even though they didn't use it often in Washington. But you know who did? Atlanta. And WHOOOOO was the QB coach in Atlanta? LaFleur. And WHOOOOO is the OC for the Rams now? LaFleur. So you know what that means? It means that LaFleur was the reason for Atlanta's play-action success even though he didn't call or design the plays. And LaFleur is the one who's going to make it crucial for McVay. Even though McVay is really the boss of the offense, it doesn't matter because .... Atlanta."

That's how stupid I thought that whole thing was.

Play-action is no more important for the Rams than it is for any other team trying to be balanced.
The run sets up the pass, and vice-versa.
We get it.
Duh.

The play action vs the Raiders was deadly effective. Especially when you run those outside stretch zone runs all day. Watching the Raiders safety's, often they were running the wrong way, Goffs way when Gurley was running the other way. Someone is doing good quality control and teaching all 11 how to sell it.

Gurley also benefits from it. If he ran with more power and burst through the zone he probably has 100 yards in the first half vs the Raiders. I think he was being cautious. Justin Davis as a slasher may be really a great fit with the scheme.

But yeah it's a play action heavy scheme for now.

 

[Loyal]

Translation:

"Play-action is crucial for McVay, even though they didn't use it often in Washington. But you know who did? Atlanta. And WHOOOOO was the QB coach in Atlanta? LaFleur. And WHOOOOO is the OC for the Rams now? LaFleur. So you know what that means? It means that LaFleur was the reason for Atlanta's play-action success even though he didn't call or design the plays. And LaFleur is the one who's going to make it crucial for McVay. Even though McVay is really the boss of the offense, it doesn't matter because .... Atlanta."

That's how stupid I thought that whole thing was.

Play-action is no more important for the Rams than it is for any other team trying to be balanced.
The run sets up the pass, and vice-versa.
We get it.
Duh.

Quit being negative..don't you know this is a Kool aide zone, up in here?

 

[Fatbot]

McVay is going to run the WCO. Goff will benefit and put up good numbers similarly.

I agree with this and I think it's exactly what we are seeing play out in the preseason. Throwing a lot of short passes against basic vanilla defenses & second stringers will always put up good numbers (except maybe in Fisher's version of offense). The question for the regular season is what will make McVay's offense different from everyone else's?

With the Redskins the answer was a surprising vertical game. So far we've gotten a little taste -- for example, I liked the 2nd and 10 pass beyond the sticks and making the defense pay on a couple broken coverages -- but nothing really special yet in terms of philosophy, mostly looks like boring WCO garbage.

Which is kinda why I think Martz was popping off a bit, since Martz ran offense that was talent-based vertical insanity and probably sees what McVay's doing as a boring system-based conservative approach. A classic gourmet scoffing at the fast food that is the short passes that make up 90% of NFL plays now, it seems.

Me personally, I'm going to stay patient and not pigeonhole McVay into something yet. I admit, however, I am similar to Martz. I'm biased against the WCO-tree because to me it screams "pussy offense", and I believe in 40 yards instead of 4. The danger to me of what the Rams are showing is the temptation to fall back into the WCO so-called "smart football" cliches of "take what the defense gives you" and "protect the football", versus the Martz way of "screw 'em all, we're gunning it and the defense can move out of the way or get run over".

In context of where this Rams team and where Goff is, it's hard to argue against what McVay is doing. There's a pretty strong argument that this team can win just throwing a bunch of short passes, running Gurley, and playing great defense. But I will be disappointed as a fan if it stays this stereotypical of a WCO instead of a more aggressive vertical passing offense -- especially once Sammy takes the field. Of course, it can't be as disgusting of a WCO as Fisher was attempting, so I'll probably be happy no matter what.

 

[-X-]

The play action vs the Raiders was deadly effective. Especially when you run those outside stretch zone runs all day. Watching the Raiders safety's, often they were running the wrong way, Goffs way when Gurley was running the other way. Someone is doing good quality control and teaching all 11 how to sell it.

Gurley also benefits from it. If he ran with more power and burst through the zone he probably has 100 yards in the first half vs the Raiders. I think he was being cautious. Justin Davis as a slasher may be really a great fit with the scheme.

But yeah it's a play action heavy scheme for now.

Atlanta's was deadly effective too, but the guy didn't even mention why. A huge element of Atlanta's effectiveness was also predicated on the outside zone run. That's an area the writer left unexplored. You'd think he could somehow mention how the re-tooling of the offensive line, along with the hiring of Aaron Kromer and HIS success in Buffalo with regard to the run game, would serve to boost the Rams' running attack which ranked in the gutter last year in YPA and YPG. Which, subsequently, would lead to more opportunities to set up play-action

 

[-X-]

Quit being negative..don't you know this is a Kool aide zone, up in here?

That's the rumor.
Every other site that hates on this one claims that we don't criticize anything.
lulz.

 

[bluecoconuts]

Atlanta's was deadly effective too, but the guy didn't even mention why. A huge element of Atlanta's effectiveness was also predicated on the outside zone run. That's an area the writer left unexplored. You'd think he could somehow mention how the re-tooling of the offensive line, along with the hiring of Aaron Kromer and HIS success in Buffalo with regard to the run game, would serve to boost the Rams' running attack which ranked in the gutter last year in YPA and YPG. Which, subsequently, would lead to more opportunities to set up play-action

What, you expect these guys to actually do work and research? What kind of monster expects an article to be researched and well written?

I would report such an offensive remark but the idea of scrolling up an entire two posts is just too much work for me.

 

[Faceplant]

Quit being negative..don't you know this is a Kool aide zone, up in here?

He wasn't being negative, he was clowning the author of that article for contradicting himself while simultaneously throwing together misleading information and finally...... gracing us with the most obvious of football obvies.

 

[8to12]

Play-action is no more important for the Rams than it is for any other team trying to be balanced.
The run sets up the pass, and vice-versa.
We get it.

Yes! And, I don't think you have to average 5 yards a run for it to work. I remember the Rams running play action the past 2 seasons which got receivers open down field and they were only averaging 2.5 - 3 yds a carry. Having a threat like Gurley is probably just as effective as the actual 5 yds a carry average.

 

[Ram65]

Me personally, I'm going to stay patient and not pigeonhole McVay into something yet. I admit, however, I am similar to Martz. I'm biased against the WCO-tree because to me it screams "wuss offense", and I believe in 40 yards instead of 4. The danger to me of what the Rams are showing is the temptation to fall back into the WCO so-called "smart football" cliches of "take what the defense gives you" and "protect the football", versus the Martz way of "screw 'em all, we're gunning it and the defense can move out of the way or get run over".

In context of where this Rams team and where Goff is, it's hard to argue against what McVay is doing. There's a pretty strong argument that this team can win just throwing a bunch of short passes, running Gurley, and playing great defense. But I will be disappointed as a fan if it stays this stereotypical of a WCO instead of a more aggressive vertical passing offense -- especially once Sammy takes the field. Of course, it can't be as disgusting of a WCO as Fisher was attempting, so I'll probably be happy no matter what.

In Washington McVay increased YPPA every year. IIRC he wished he ran a little more. McVay's not married to the old WCO although that system got big gains with YAC. One of the beautiful things about that offense was limiting risk with less distance on throws. It made things easier for the QB. Look at that short pass to Everett that turned into 23 yards against the Raiders. Then the 23 yard TD to Kupp. The missed pass to Watkins was on the longer side. With the threat of Gurely behind a much improved offensive line Goff will have more time to go deep to Watkins and Co. This McVay offense will be able to gain yards in many fashions.

 

[Merlin]

In context of where this Rams team and where Goff is, it's hard to argue against what McVay is doing. There's a pretty strong argument that this team can win just throwing a bunch of short passes, running Gurley, and playing great defense. But I will be disappointed as a fan if it stays this stereotypical of a WCO instead of a more aggressive vertical passing offense -- especially once Sammy takes the field. Of course, it can't be as disgusting of a WCO as Fisher was attempting, so I'll probably be happy no matter what.

McVay definitely has a Gruden-esque spin on the WCO, which isn't a surprise of course. And stretching the field deep is something the offense is designed to do as well, they just replace a lot of runs with short passes. McVay definitely does that and yeah I'm like you in that I like teams that take shots downfield without fear.

I suspect we're going to see even the "possession" guys going deep occasionally in this offense. Reason being McVay is smart enough to anticipate that defenses will try to sit on tendencies and will flip the script on them. And make no mistake, guys like Woods and Kupp are very capable of winning deep if defenses do that.

One knock I've seen a lot of on McVay is last year's redzone efficiency, which is legit criticism. And that's where I think he learned an important lesson re: balance too btw. But then again when you look at 2015 the Skins were quite good there, so I'm not too worried about it.

All I want to see is a league average scoring offense. Not even expecting crazy high end numbers. I think this offense will get there under him no probs.

 

[Prime Time]

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