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Rams can learn from Vikings' sweeps
By Nick Wagoner
http://espn.go.com/blog/st-louis-rams/post/_/id/11480/the-rams-and-the-jet-sweep
EARTH CITY, Mo. -- If someone had promised the St. Louis Rams that they would hold Minnesota Vikings running back Adrian Peterson to 75 yards on 21 carries in the season opener, they probably would have taken it without a second thought.
With that type of performance against Peterson, it would have stood to reason the Rams had shut down the Vikings' run game, forced them into third-and-long situations and turned up the heat with their pass rush. But while the Rams were able to slow Peterson, his running between the tackles was good enough to open up things on the outside for multi-purpose weapon Cordarrelle Patterson.
When the day was done, Patterson had three carries, all off the right edge, for 102 yards, including a 67-yard touchdown. In the process, he became the first Vikings receiver to rush for more than 100 yards in a game and became the first receiver since the AFL-NFL merger to score rushing touchdowns of 35-plus yards in three consecutive games.
So how did he get there? Well, his first two carries came on the ever-popular jet sweep, a play Seattle used regularly with Percy Harvin in this past Thursday's regular-season opener. Those two carries went for a total of 35 yards as the Rams struggled to set the edge.
As Peterson continued to hammer away at the middle of the Rams' defense, Patterson really made them pay when Minnesota called for a more basic toss sweep in the third quarter. Patterson broke multiple tackles and weaved his way through the defense for the electrifying touchdown.
“We have to do a better job up front setting the edges," Rams coach Jeff Fisher said. "We had people running behind blocks, not crossing over. On a couple plays we had poor angles out of the secondary. We also had an alignment error on the long touchdown run. We’re going to have to continue to work at that and we’ll get that fixed. (Defensive Coordinator) Gregg [Williams] is very much aware of it and not happy right now, so we’ll get it fixed.”
The Rams had better get it fixed because they'll see plenty of other teams running jet sweeps and similar plays throughout the season. They have two meetings against Harvin and the Seahawks and will also see players suchas Denver's Emmanuel Sanders along the way.
On the flip side, the Rams could also take a page from the Vikings and get the ball to speedy receivers Tavon Austin and Chris Givens in similar ways. They did run a fake to Austin with a handoff to Givens around the right edge that went for four yards, but Austin's three carries were almost exclusively between the tackles.
Moving forward, the Rams can learn a lot from how Minnesota utilized Patterson to improve themselves on both sides of the ball.