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Teams are playing keepaway from Rams
• BY JIM THOMAS
http://www.stltoday.com/sports/foot...cle_730e7d27-a81d-5d68-ac21-1babcc2936e5.html
Two games into the season, time of possession and ball control have been killers for the Rams. They were able to get away with it against Seattle; not so much in Week 2 against Washington.
Seattle had the ball 9 minutes 56 seconds longer than the Rams in that overtime game. The disparity was even worse this past Sunday, with Washington having the ball a whopping 15 minutes and 28 seconds longer than the Rams.
Those lopsided possession numbers have resulted in the Rams running only 101 plays on offense this season, a league low. Meanwhile, their opponents have run 145 plays against them in two games – the second-highest total in the league.
Put the two together, and the Rams have run 44 fewer plays than their opponents this season – a league-wide high in terms of disparity between plays run by a team and plays run by its opponent.
That’s a big number. In a league where each team normally gets about 65 plays a game on offense, it’s as if the Rams are giving opposing teams three or four extra offensive series a game. Give anyone enough extra chances in the NFL and they’re going to eventually score. So if the Rams don’t change that, and change it quickly, they’re not going to win many games.
It’s a multi-faceted problem but the solution is obvious: The Rams need to get off the field on defense, and stay on the field on offense. Neither was the case against Washington.
“Third down is a problem,” Fisher said. ‘We need to improve that on both sides of the ball.”
On offense, the Rams converted only two of 12 third-down opportunities against Washington, or 17 percent. And one of the two conversions, a 14-yard completion to tight end Jared Cook, doesn’t really count. It came on the final play of the first half, when Washington’s only concerns were avoiding the big play and keeping Rams ball carriers from getting to the sideline and stopping the clock.
In recent years, the league average for third-down conversions is just under 40 percent, so 17 percent is way off the pace.
“The third-and-longs are always difficult to convert, the percentages say,” Fisher said. “We’re just not making our plays. We had two first downs in the first two drives, and then we had three-and-outs. You’ve got to get chunks on the early downs and stay out of third down.”
Or at least get to third-and-short. The Rams were in a true third-and-short situation only once at FedEx – a third-and-2 early in the second quarter. And they got in third-and-2 only because Washington outside linebacker Ryan Kerrigan was flagged for being offsides on third-and-7.
Six of the Rams’ 12 third-down plays on offense were third-and-10 or higher. The worst was a third-and-23 hole following a pair of penalties late in the third quarter. At that point, it was a one possession game with the Rams trailing 17-10.
The Rams also had what some would call “third-and-manageable” on five occasions – plays in which they faced between a third-and-4 and third-and-7. Their only true conversion of the day came on third-and-4 late in the fourth quarter, when quarterback Nick Foles completed a five-yard pass to Cook.
“The run game offensively needs to get better,” Fisher said. “We had three 3-and-outs and four 4-and-outs in the game, and that doesn’t give your defense a chance to even rest, let alone give your offense a chance to make plays.”
One of the hallmarks of Fisher’s best teams over the years in Tennessee was an ability to run the football and control the clock. The Rams have been trying to do that for three-plus seasons under Fisher in St. Louis, selecting five running backs in four drafts under Fisher and general manager Les Snead.
In terms of beefing up the offensive line, the Rams have tried the pricey free agent route. See: Scott Wells and Jake Long. And they’ve tried the draft, selecting left tackle Greg Robinson No. 2 overall in 2014 and picking four O-linemen last spring.
Even with all those resources used on the run game, the Rams have finished no better than 19th in rushing offense under Fisher. They’re 27th so far this season, averaging 71.5 yards per game.
You know things aren’t what they should be when a wide receiver, Tavon Austin, is the team’s leading rusher. Austin has 57 yards on eight carries. Rams running backs have accounted for only 74 yards, on just 2.8 yards per carry.
Speaking of the Washington game, Fisher said: “We had some good runs, but then you have tackles for losses or you have those runs for a yard, two yards (where) something goes wrong. We had a number of instances where had the back pressed the hole, then we might have picked up some additional yards. Or had we read it right and cut back.
“Everybody was taking their turn on the runs that were not effective for us. In addition to that, we didn’t get the opportunities, either. We didn’t have 37 rush attempts (Sunday) for 60 yards.”
No, they had 13 attempts for 67 yards. It was Washington that had the 37 rushing attempts – for 182 yards.
So it has become quite the vicious cycle. The Rams haven’t been able to get into a rhythm on offense partly because their defense hasn’t been able to get off the field. But their defense has been on the field a lot in part because the offense can’t sustain drives.
“Getting into a rhythm (on offense) is up to us,” right guard Rodger Saffold said. “Once again, it comes to just consistency.
“If we’re going 3-and-out, like we were at Washington, we’re not giving our defense enough rest to be able to stop anything.”
• BY JIM THOMAS
http://www.stltoday.com/sports/foot...cle_730e7d27-a81d-5d68-ac21-1babcc2936e5.html
Two games into the season, time of possession and ball control have been killers for the Rams. They were able to get away with it against Seattle; not so much in Week 2 against Washington.
Seattle had the ball 9 minutes 56 seconds longer than the Rams in that overtime game. The disparity was even worse this past Sunday, with Washington having the ball a whopping 15 minutes and 28 seconds longer than the Rams.
Those lopsided possession numbers have resulted in the Rams running only 101 plays on offense this season, a league low. Meanwhile, their opponents have run 145 plays against them in two games – the second-highest total in the league.
Put the two together, and the Rams have run 44 fewer plays than their opponents this season – a league-wide high in terms of disparity between plays run by a team and plays run by its opponent.
That’s a big number. In a league where each team normally gets about 65 plays a game on offense, it’s as if the Rams are giving opposing teams three or four extra offensive series a game. Give anyone enough extra chances in the NFL and they’re going to eventually score. So if the Rams don’t change that, and change it quickly, they’re not going to win many games.
It’s a multi-faceted problem but the solution is obvious: The Rams need to get off the field on defense, and stay on the field on offense. Neither was the case against Washington.
“Third down is a problem,” Fisher said. ‘We need to improve that on both sides of the ball.”
On offense, the Rams converted only two of 12 third-down opportunities against Washington, or 17 percent. And one of the two conversions, a 14-yard completion to tight end Jared Cook, doesn’t really count. It came on the final play of the first half, when Washington’s only concerns were avoiding the big play and keeping Rams ball carriers from getting to the sideline and stopping the clock.
In recent years, the league average for third-down conversions is just under 40 percent, so 17 percent is way off the pace.
“The third-and-longs are always difficult to convert, the percentages say,” Fisher said. “We’re just not making our plays. We had two first downs in the first two drives, and then we had three-and-outs. You’ve got to get chunks on the early downs and stay out of third down.”
Or at least get to third-and-short. The Rams were in a true third-and-short situation only once at FedEx – a third-and-2 early in the second quarter. And they got in third-and-2 only because Washington outside linebacker Ryan Kerrigan was flagged for being offsides on third-and-7.
Six of the Rams’ 12 third-down plays on offense were third-and-10 or higher. The worst was a third-and-23 hole following a pair of penalties late in the third quarter. At that point, it was a one possession game with the Rams trailing 17-10.
The Rams also had what some would call “third-and-manageable” on five occasions – plays in which they faced between a third-and-4 and third-and-7. Their only true conversion of the day came on third-and-4 late in the fourth quarter, when quarterback Nick Foles completed a five-yard pass to Cook.
“The run game offensively needs to get better,” Fisher said. “We had three 3-and-outs and four 4-and-outs in the game, and that doesn’t give your defense a chance to even rest, let alone give your offense a chance to make plays.”
One of the hallmarks of Fisher’s best teams over the years in Tennessee was an ability to run the football and control the clock. The Rams have been trying to do that for three-plus seasons under Fisher in St. Louis, selecting five running backs in four drafts under Fisher and general manager Les Snead.
In terms of beefing up the offensive line, the Rams have tried the pricey free agent route. See: Scott Wells and Jake Long. And they’ve tried the draft, selecting left tackle Greg Robinson No. 2 overall in 2014 and picking four O-linemen last spring.
Even with all those resources used on the run game, the Rams have finished no better than 19th in rushing offense under Fisher. They’re 27th so far this season, averaging 71.5 yards per game.
You know things aren’t what they should be when a wide receiver, Tavon Austin, is the team’s leading rusher. Austin has 57 yards on eight carries. Rams running backs have accounted for only 74 yards, on just 2.8 yards per carry.
Speaking of the Washington game, Fisher said: “We had some good runs, but then you have tackles for losses or you have those runs for a yard, two yards (where) something goes wrong. We had a number of instances where had the back pressed the hole, then we might have picked up some additional yards. Or had we read it right and cut back.
“Everybody was taking their turn on the runs that were not effective for us. In addition to that, we didn’t get the opportunities, either. We didn’t have 37 rush attempts (Sunday) for 60 yards.”
No, they had 13 attempts for 67 yards. It was Washington that had the 37 rushing attempts – for 182 yards.
So it has become quite the vicious cycle. The Rams haven’t been able to get into a rhythm on offense partly because their defense hasn’t been able to get off the field. But their defense has been on the field a lot in part because the offense can’t sustain drives.
“Getting into a rhythm (on offense) is up to us,” right guard Rodger Saffold said. “Once again, it comes to just consistency.
“If we’re going 3-and-out, like we were at Washington, we’re not giving our defense enough rest to be able to stop anything.”
