Guide to beating Rams starts with Jared Goff

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Zero

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Love these breakdown segments with Samuel Gold


Guide to beating Rams starts with Jared Goff



http://nflbreakdowns.com/jared-goff-la-rams-film-room-breakdown-highlights-falcons-guide-seahawks/


JaredGoffINT2_Breakdown.png


After the horrendous Sunday beatdown in which the Green Bay Packers absolutely dismantled the Seattle Seahawks 38-10, I wanted to turn my efforts towards Week 15 instead of reliving the painful past; the Seahawks look to rebound against rookie Jared Goff and the Los Angeles Rams.

A few weeks ago, I took a deeper dive into Jared Goff’s debut performance versus the Miami Dolphins. During that game, Goff was inaccurate, his offensive line was horrendous in pass protection, and his receivers did nothing to help their rookie quarterback. Well this week was very similar to Week 11 and his second interception with 9:04 remaining in the second quarter is a great example of that.

The Rams run a slant-flat concept on the right side of the field while they run a curl-flat concept on the left side of the field. The Falcons defense actually runs Cover 3 Sky with one deep safety and the outside defensive backs dropping into their deep one-third zones. LA should be in good shape, but Goff misreads the coverage and throws a pick-six.


JaredGoffINT2_Breakdown.png


How did Goff misread the play?

First, both of the offensive concepts that the Rams are running are designed to beat Cover 1 or to beat Cover 3. Judging pre-snap with the single high safety and the cornerbacks playing with outside technique, Goff has to immediately guess Cover 3. If he did that, he might have made the correct read.

Why is this an incorrect read?

The actual key for this quarterback on this play is the flat defender or in this case cornerback (34) Brian Poole. Notice how he takes the flat responsibility. Based on this, Goff is actually supposed to throw to the slant, however, this ignores the other defenders.

Pre-snap, the slant-flat concept is on the boundary side. With a linebacker sitting just inside the right hash marks, this is a very tight window for Goff, so he needs to adjust and read the opposite side of the field. If he did this, then he would have targeted (89) Tyler Higbee on the flat route for a five yard gain or more.

Maybe Goff thought the running back would draw the linebacker away from the play?

The slant-flat concept is run off a quick three-step drop. There is not enough time for the running back to get past his offensive line to pull the linebackers since the throw is made off his Goff’s third step.

While (44) Vic Beasley pushed right tackle (79) Rob Havenstein with a speed-to-power conversion, the pass was already thrown before any pressure arrived so that was not a factor. Simply put, Goff failed to read the coverage correctly and threw an avoidable pick-six to (45) Deion Jones.


View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RUdAKpbsc0E



In addition to poor play by Goff, his receivers were beyond awful. Combined they dropped five catchable passes. One of those dropped passes turned into Goff’s first interception of the game which ended a really good opening drive down the field.


View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eO8RTD6zcs0


Before the snap, Goff motions (83) Brian Quick across the formation. Atlanta slides their linebacker protection over, but no man follows indicating zone coverage to Goff. After the snap, the inside linebacker drops into the middle third zone creating their Tampa 2 coverage.

Goff looks to his right, sees that (18) Kenny Britt has inside leverage on Robert Alford. He then fires the pass accurately into his receivers’ chest. Instead of a quick completion, the pass deflects off of Britt’s arms for (37) Ricardo Allen to make an easy interception. With Britt’s size and positioning, he needs to do a better job of boxing out Alford to prevent this from happening.

I mentioned this in my Dolphins film breakdown earlier in the season, but the Rams offense needs a new left tackle and it desperately needs a wide receiver that does not have a history of making drops.


View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lNxfiL2xVkc


On the season Tavon Austin has eight drops, while Kenny Britt and Lance Kendricks both have five, respectively.

While the offensive line generally did a poor job in this game, especially versus Vic Beasley, Goff’s pocket awareness is not always the best. He slides away from the pressure laterally but he needs to step up into the pocket to help his lineman seal out edge rushers more easily. I definitely blame Havenstein for the majority of the sack since he did not set deep enough for Beasley’s speed rush, but Goff is not 100% innocent in this play either.


View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G32ifH2e6Es


In general, the offensive was an issue for a lot of these plays, but what was particularly interesting is that Goff is actually used to pressure that he typically does a good job of finding the underneath checkdown receiver to not allow the pressure to affect him. As evidenced in this table below, Goff actually performed his best whenever the Falcons blitzed.

Goff_Pressure_Chart.png


In aggregate, this game should give the Seahawks defense a basic guide to defeating Goff and the LA offense.

As many know, Dan Quinn was Seattle’s ex-defensive coordinator and runs the same defense as his old team. This is useful since the Seahawks can study what exactly Atlanta did that was so successful and they can also look at what wasn’t.

Something that was successful was their use of tackle-end stunts (below) or by lining up their edge rushers in Wide 9 technique (above).


View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rvy1GhZA1Qg


Finally, as we saw in the table above, Goff performed his best while blitzed. In my opinion, Seattle should sit back in zone coverage and force Goff to read the defense. It might seem counter-intuitive, but since Goff had such a porous offensive line at Cal, you might consider attacking him by playing more conservatively. I’d consider rarely blitzing and dropping seven into coverage while sometimes dropping eight.

For Thursday night, a lot hinges on how well Russell Wilson and the Seahawks offense will respond to their performance versus the Packers. While I didn’t touch on that here, the entire offense needs to execute better fundamentally. Drops, penalties, interceptions, and poor pass protection were all issues on Sunday.

If Seattle can shut down the Rams offense like they did in the first match-up, and Wilson finds some resemblance of rhythm, the Seahawks have a good shot in this match. If they don’t, it’s going to be another low scoring game.



NFL Breakdowns Ep 30: Bobby Wagner as Mike LB in Seahawks' Defense vs Rams


View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AF143w5vr_0
 

RamFan503

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Good stuff. Not sure about the title though.

The guy points out a lot of stuff that is easily contributable to Goff being a rookie, the offensive scheme and weapons being poor, and the O-line not getting it done.

I look forward to seeing how Goff corrects his part of the equation with another season and a hopefully better scheme.

But then if you think about it, the key to beating the patsies, Packers, and a slew of other teams is by beating their QB. Giants Superbowls anyone?
 

bluecoconuts

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If you think about it, it's kind of an upgrade from before if the key to beating us is the QB. We haven't been there since what? Bulger was throwing to Bruce and Holt? I'll take that.
 

Zero

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  • Thread Starter Thread Starter
  • #4
Good stuff. Not sure about the title though.

The guy points out a lot of stuff that is easily contributable to Goff being a rookie, the offensive scheme and weapons being poor, and the O-line not getting it done.

I look forward to seeing how Goff corrects his part of the equation with another season and a hopefully better scheme.

But then if you think about it, the key to beating the patsies, Packers, and a slew of other teams is by beating their QB. Giants Superbowls anyone?
Agree with everything you said except, instead of using
the word "hopefully" I think you meant say to definitely.:whistle:
 

jrry32

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He was 100% right about the 2016 Rams. No reason to blitz us when you can get pressure rushing 3 or 4 and congest the passing lanes. That's going to make things really tough on a rookie QB. Especially with our predictable offense.
 

RamFan503

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Agree with everything you said except, instead of using
the word "hopefully" I think you meant say to definitely.:whistle:
Yep. It would be very hard for it not to be better. I stand corrected.
 

Zero

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Here is another one for anyone interested.

Jared Goff’s debut for Rams highlights problems in his game and offense as a whole

http://nflbreakdowns.com/jared-goff-debut-film-video-breakdown-highlights-rams-dolphins-inaccuracy/

JaredGoffRamsDolphinsCover.png


LA Rams quarterback Jared Goff, the number one overall pick in April over Carson Wentz and many others, made his first official start on a rainy Sunday versus the Miami Dolphins. The highly-anticipated debut was already on shaky ground as many questioned how a player taken that high couldn’t sniff the field for 10 weeks as his team fell below .500 largely due to inefficient play at quarterback. By the time the game was over, the shaking only got worse rather than being subsided.

This was an ugly game for both sides offensively, but the Rams drives stalled due to overly conservative play calling and a lack of a downfield attack. LA converted just two of their 13 third down attempts while only gaining 12 total first downs. The Dolphins, on the other hand, didn’t score until the fourth quarter, managing two late touchdowns to win the game with under a minute left.

For his part, Goff completed 17-of-31 passes for only 134 yards. Often as former starter Case Keenum would do, Goff didn’t manage a score but unlike Keenum didn’t turn the ball over and was sacked just once.


View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eh9D8i2u7oY


In order to handle the wet conditions and Miami’s superior defensive line, the Rams turned to a quick passing game where all but four of Goff’s passes went for under 20 yards. By my tracking, 19 of Goff’s other 27 passes traveled less than six yards beyond the line of scrimmage, with the right side being Goff’s preferred throwing direction.


View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZXAwCOoXhPc


In general, Goff made the correct reads, but it was his accuracy that held LA back as he kept missing his receivers. (For once, maybe it wasn’t Tavon Austin’s fault.)

With 9:44 remaining in the third, Goff is in shotgun on 2nd and 10. Goff recognizes that his running back (30) Todd Gurley has a one-on-one match-up with a linebacker. Since Gurley is running an angle route versus (42) Spencer Paysinger’s outside leverage, Goff makes the correct decision to target him.

Goff holds onto the ball way too long throwing with zero anticipation. This allows (97) Jordan Phillips time to penetrate between the left guard and the center forcing Goff to backfoot the pass inaccurately at his target. This causes the ball to sail behind him.

All of this could have been avoided if Goff just threw the pass a second earlier right as Gurley was about to break across the middle of the field.


View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e7Zuq6hAQV4


On the next play, Goff does an excellent job avoiding the pressure from the left edge scrambling back to his right. While on the run, he finds his tight end (88) Lance Kendricks in the flat. Unfortunately, he throws the pass inaccurately: behind and too low for Kendricks to bring it in.

These were two back-to-back negative plays by Goff that forced the Rams to punt in good field position.


View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tY5EoYNjbf8


While his accuracy was spotty, Goff did a great job avoiding pressure and escaping the pocket. With 2:30 left in the third quarter, Goff recognizes quickly that his offensive line didn’t pick up the interior stunt by (50) Andre Branch, so he scrambles through the offensive line for a short pickup.

Although this scramble didn’t pick up the first down, it kept LA within field goal range, allowing Greg Zuerlein to make a 46-yard kick for the 10-0 lead.

If there wasn’t immediate pressure, there is a very good chance Goff would have seen the defensive back opposite of (18) Kenny Britt at the bottom of the screen slip in coverage. This would have been a walk-in touchdown for Britt, but the pressure forces Goff to react.


View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XNHX7dkVjH4


Even when Goff made a good play, like on this excellent 10-yard scramble below, it was called back for an idiotic penalty by left tackle (73) Greg Robinson. Watch closely as he performs an illegal block in the back on (47) Kiko Alonso. If I were Goff, I would have been furious since Alonso was not even in range to make a play anyways.


View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SlN_2XzNftk


While the pressure and the playcalling were definitely a large reason why the offense struggled, Goff did not take advantage of opportunities when he had a chance.

For instance, the Dolphins sent a three-man rush while dropping eight in coverage on this play. Goff has plenty of time in the pocket to go through his reads, scan the field, and extend the play, but he panics dumping the ball to his checkdown in the flat for a three-yard loss.


View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hA5BP6H0NSc


Looking at the general themes of the game, Los Angeles desperately needs better wide receivers. (Dang it, Tavon Austin!) They struggled to gain separation against the Miami’s defensive backs. In this play, not a single one of the receivers get off the line cleanly. Goff trusted that (83) Brian Quick would beat his defender inside, but his release off the line of scrimmage is awful, while Goff’s pass was off-target as well.


View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=67SJRkCHpFY


With over $42 million in cap space in 2017, a player like Chicago Bears wide receiver Alshon Jeffrey would be very beneficial to the team and could give Goff a legitimate receiver. Austin is great for gadget plays and as a slot receiver, but four years in the NFL he hasn’t broken 500 yards receiving in any season after being drafted eighth overall in the 2013 NFL Draft.

Due to the Rams’ trade with the Tennessee Titans to land Goff, they won’t pick until the second round in the draft. It’s possible that Clemson wide receiver Mike Williams or Courtland Sutton from Southern Methodist University could last until then. Either of them could give LA a legitimate threat on the outside for Goff to develop with.

After losing to the Rams in Week 2, the Seattle Seahawks won’t face them again until Week 15. That battle was a purely defensive one but things could be very different in the rematch; With Seattle’s revived offense, the Seahawks have a much better chance the second time around for the victory even though LA has won four of the last five meetings in the series.

Will this next one feature Russell Wilson vs Goff, and will he be able to improve his accuracy and allow Jeff Fisher to open the playbook for him? We’ll soon find out.