How bad was the Rams 2019 offense, really?

[PressureD41]

Its simple, have a real good OL, control the LOS and clock, and we can win 10+. And those assholes from NoCal have a really nasty DL now. We got to be able to handle them PERIOD. Find a friend to pair w/ AD99 on the DL is also a high priority.

 

[Jacobarch]

I agree, the OLine was an issue, not the only issue but most problems start there and create other problems. However, I don't believe the injuries were our problem. I actually think they were a solution to an Oline that was misjudged in the offseason. Noteboom is not a good LG or RG. He can't anchor and that is very important on the interior of any Oline. Allen, wasn't ready. He's decent enough but I don't see him as a starter unless he gets stronger at the point of attack. His problems might have been more of a combination of Blythe and Boom playing poorly next to him.
Big Rob H. has been figured out. No other explanation for his sudden fall from greatness. If you watch Hav's previous seasons and games you can see he was always susceptible to the dip and faster Edge rushers. He doesn't have enough bend for that type of athleticism and teams exploited it to the max. His play was also degraded because of Blythe to an extent.

Look at last season this way, Edwards, Evans and Corrbett only got playing time because of injuries and bad play. Evans and Edwards surprised a lot of us, they had their issues but overall they played well once they settled in. Blythe is a better Center than Guard and it's very obvious. Evans played very well at RT even against some of the better passrushers in the NFL. Corrbett started out rough but the guy is a solid player, Towards the end of the season his run blocking greatly improved.

My main concern is Whit. He's old, he's going to break in one way or another, mark my words. By mid to late season we will be calling for him to be benched. Age is undefeated and he's not playing QB behind a good Oline so father time is going catch up and soon. We better have a viable solution for his position and it better not be flip flopping players because that's almost never the answer.

Beginning of season Lineup

Whit/Corb/Blythe/Edwards/Evans

Mid to late season

Evans/Corb/Blythe/Edwards/Hav or (draftpick FA)
or alt
Edwards/Corb/Blythe/Draftpick-FA/Evans

 

[tempests]

We need the threat of a deep passing game back. Something else that was missing from the 2019 Rams.

 

[Dodgersrf]

Here’s a very simple question: Why was Jared and Todd disconnected last year? I would love to hear your guys’ take on that one question.

Poor run blocking and poor pass blocking.
We really need to look no further than 2016.
Poor oline, poor offense

 

[Merlin]

Poor run blocking and poor pass blocking.
We really need to look no further than 2016.
Poor oline, poor offense

Except for the fact that a poor offense for McVay is 11th in scoring.

 

[Dodgersrf]

Except for the fact that a poor offense for McVay is 11th in scoring.

Yeah. We really have it rough!

 

[Tano]

Personally, once McVay figured out how to get the TE involved, our offense was actually really good.

I know quite a few of us were calling for us to use the TE for most of the season. We kept saying, the TE will be open. Use him. Once we did, the offense did extremely well.

I think the only thing we absolute need this season is an above average nose tackle that is great in the run game. (A very good center wouldn't hurt as well and finding a replacement for Littleton if he goes.)

The only games we lost in the last 5 weeks were due to the poor run defense in those two games and I blame not having an above average nose tackle that can team with Donald. Joseph, at best, is a middling nose tackle that can do okay against teams with average to poor offensive lines.

Dallas and Baltimore had very good to great offensive lines and we need a very good to great Nose Tackle to assist Donald so that teams can't gang pile Donald. I still remember the one play against Seattle that 4 guys were teaming up to block Donald.

Free up Donald to do his thing and let the Nose Tackle jam the middle and I don't see other teams scoring 30 or more points to beat us.

Our offense in the last 5 weeks were good enough to score at minimum 25 points if the Defense could have held them to 20 or less (Dallas being the outlier - we still scored 31 against SF). And I think we would have had a much better chance against Baltimore too.

 

[fearsomefour]

This. Until they can blow people off the LOS everything else is wishful thinking. Have to get physical and nasty up front. Same goes for the D line. It can't be Donald and 3 guys watching him.

Look at the Titans and Whiners. Deep playoff runs with physical dominant OL play. Both teams controlled games and covered up weaknesses (Tenn, QB-WR, SF QB) with dominating OL play and clever design. The Rams OL won’t get back to that level in one year but even a solid run game really makes the rest of the O explosive.
The DL needs another playmaker. That is where I would invest the 2nd round pick. Not a giant run stuff NT, a play maker.
If the Rams are content to run Fox or Smart to start with Donald and Joseph-Day.....well, the whole D suffers.

 

[fearsomefour]

Here’s a very simple question: Why was Jared and Todd disconnected last year? I would love to hear your guys’ take on that one question.

Bad line play, poor execution.
Some teams thrive with screen passes.....the Rams seem to have a hard time running them.
Bad line play means being kept in to block a fair amount of time.
Also, Gurley seemed to be the last check down on a lot of plays. Not a lot of plays designed to get him the ball in the passing game as we have seen before.

 

[FrantikRam]

I wonder how the season would have turned out if we'd been 5-0?

We got Wade everything he wanted for defense, and let's say the D plays just a tad better and we start 5-0 - obviously that could have led to an 11-5 record and the playoffs, but I wonder if those two losses had an impact on morale throughout the season too.

 

[Ramlock]

Bad line play means being kept in to block a fair amount of time.
Also, Gurley seemed to be the last check down on a lot of plays. Not a lot of plays designed to get him the ball in the passing game as we have seen before.

Gurley’s snap count and touches seemed out of proportion...lots of snaps, few carries...he might as well have been a tackle for all the pass blocking he was asked to do.

I know that I was frustrated by seeing that.

 

[CGI_Ram]

I wonder how the season would have turned out if we'd been 5-0?

Well, we lost in weeks 4 and 5. If we started 5-0 we would have been 11-5 and made the playoffs.

 

[FrantikRam]

Well, we lost in weeks 4 and 5. If we started 5-0 we would have been 11-5 and made the playoffs.

What I meant by that was, the offense played well enough that we should have been 5-0.

From there I'm wondering if we never hit that lull if we start 5-0.

 

[CGI_Ram]

What I meant by that was, the offense played well enough that we should have been 5-0.

From there I'm wondering if we never hit that lull if we start 5-0.

I know. Just jabbing you.

 

[So Ram]

Its simple, have a real good OL, control the LOS and clock, and we can win 10+. And those assholes from NoCal have a really nasty DL now. We got to be able to handle them PERIOD. Find a friend to pair w/ AD99 on the DL is also a high priority.

A Jeff Fisher fan ? Sometimes it’s easier said than done. The Rams had the 8ers beat.Ask Mcvay & he will tell you a lot of it comes down to Execution execution. Don’t take that part wrong or kill the Messenger.

 

[PARAM]

Timing is everything. We started out 3-0 though not in a dominant fashion. We even started slow against Tampa but the D couldn't stop them. Against Seattle we were in position to win and should have won. Against SF we started out 100% on the ground with Brown averaging 8 yards per carry (5 att) and Woods 8 ypc (2 att). Then Noteboom went down on the first play of the next series and it was lost.

Two wins against Atlanta and Cincy, then against Pittsburgh we lost Allen in the 2nd quarter. Shelton replaced him, I guess to keep Blythe at RG and we couldn't do squat. Some.of that had to do with Pittsburgh being home AND having a pretty good D. But our D played a phemominal game.

We managed to beat Chicago, though not convincingly and then ran into that buzzsaw Baltimore. A horrible game equally on both sides of the ball. After that, the OL gelled a bit, Higbee became a target and the offense played much better as we beat both Arizona and Seattle easily. The D had been playing well for 7 games, with the one exception being against Baltimore.

The Dallas game was another complete meltdown on both sides of the ball but they were at home and fightingfor their playoff lives. Not that we weren't but we had wiggle room.

The key game in the 2nd half of the season was SF and our offense played well again. Two 3rd and 16's conversions against the D with under 2 minutes left and our postseason hopes were over.

That was another game we should have won. But because we finished 9-7, much of the blame fell on the offense, particularly the much maligned OL. But they had improved once Edwards, Evans and Corbett gelled.

In a nutshell, they weren't the 2017 or 2018 offense but they played well enough to be better than 9-7. If not for a missed FG and two 3rd and 16 conversions, we could have been 10-6 or 11-5. It was the O having with problems injuries when the D was hot and when they did play well, the D let us down.

Like the saying goes, it rarely as good as it seems or as bad as it seems. New DC. New ST coach. New RB coach and a new assistant to McVay. Changes were made and next up is honing the roster. I still have confidence Snead and McVay will get us back on course in 2020.

 

[LARAMSinFeb.]

Personally, once McVay figured out how to get the TE involved, our offense was actually really good.

He may have wanted to earlier, but this came about after Edwards/Evans settled in too.

Dallas and Baltimore had very good to great offensive lines

I've always hated how Dallas is smart enough to never fall behind in their OL development.