Play-action prowess critical for Jared Goff, Sean McVay in 2020

[den-the-coach]

Play-action prowess critical for Jared Goff, Sean McVay in 2020

Mark Schofield

(In this series, Touchdown Wire’s Mark Schofield takes a look at one important metric per NFL team to uncover a crucial problem to solve for the 2020 season. In this installment, it’s time to look at how the Los Angeles Rams and in particular Jared Goff struggled on play-action in 2019, and how Goff and Sean McVay might address that issue in 2020).

Two seasons ago the Los Angeles Rams rode a forward-thinking offense and a stout defense to Super Bowl LIII. Jared Goff seemed light-years removed from the potential draft bust he looked as a rookie and anyone who ever bumped into Sean McVay on the street was interviewed for a coaching job with another organization.

Their offense was one of the major reasons for their success in 2018. The Rams were second in the league in yards per game, averaging 421.1 yards in each of their contests. They were second in the league in points per game, averaging 32.9 per outing. In terms of Defense-adjusted Value Over Average, the Rams were also the second best offense in the league, with an Offensive DVOA of 24.6%, and a Weighted Offensive DVOA (which places an emphasis on recent performance) of 19.3%.

Full Article--
[touchdownwire.usatoday.com]

 

[den-the-coach]

Goff rolling out is the key, seems when this was added the offense improved immensely.

 

[Merlin]

Bottom feeder run game. Poor pass protection. And yet Jared still finished in very respectable range in many stats and most importantly we were 11th in scoring in the face of that. Now as we know much of the reason is McVay's creative scheming and as you point out Den the rollouts helped us enormously late in the season. But you cannot rely on a single strat like that to counter personnel shortcomings for very long in this league.

The league is going to adjust to those rollouts quickly. So the pass pro has to be there. And the run game has to be there to threaten the play action.

Honestly I think Goff could be a top passing QB with zero run game IF he had good pass pro. I do. But that's only going to win you regular season rewards and result in disappointing playoff exits. It's about winning the big game and from that perspective we need to run the ball well too and make defenses defend both.

It's gotten so old to talk about the OL. But yeah it's gonna come down to the big guys again and they need to show dramatic improvement for us to do a fucking thing in the playoffs, let alone get in.

 

[Flint]

Goff rolling out is the key, seems when this was added the offense improved immensely.

Goff’s not the most fleet of foot and defenses had zero respect for the run and that equals pin your ears back and get to the qb but all of a sudden Goff isn’t where he’s supposed to be and the pass rushers are going the wrong way. It was a good change of pace but all we need is to have Bosa guess right and put Goff on IR. Plus, unless you’ve got an arm like Mahomes, you don’t want to throw across the field so you’ve done the defense a favor and cut the field in half.
The rams have to run the ball effectively, whether it was the line or the rb or both, if this offense is going to work they better figure it out.

 

[CGI_Ram]

It was a good change of pace but all we need is to have Bosa guess right and put Goff on IR.

Very good point. I liked when they put Goff in motion... but there are risks.