Rams are bucking the trend with heavy dose of ground game on early downs
Cameron DaSilva
September 29, 2020 12:35 pm ET
Last season, no quarterback in the NFL threw more passes than Jared Goff’s 626. The Rams turned into a pass-heavy offense that lacked efficiency and balance. This year, it’s the ground game that’s pacing the league.
Through three weeks, the Rams have an NFL-high 111 rush attempts, the third-most rushing yards (511) and the second-most rushing touchdowns (6). By just about every measure, the rushing attack led by Darrell Henderson, Malcolm Brown and Cam Akers is humming and doing an excellent job.
And it’s why Sean McVay feels so comfortable running the ball as often as the Rams have on first and second down. In fact, no team in the NFL runs the ball on early downs more frequently than Los Angeles.
Check out the following chart, which shows early-down pass frequency for each team. The Rams rank last, throwing the ball about 42% of the time. By comparison, the Chiefs are No. 1 with a pass rate on first and second down of more than 60%.
View: https://twitter.com/benbbaldwin/status/1310990823115325441?s=20
One thing you’ll notice about the graph is that many of the NFL’s best offenses are at the top with heavy pass frequency on first and second downs. The Cowboys, Packers, Bills and Chiefs all rank in the top five in total yards this season, while the Seahawks rank fourth in yards per play.
The Rams are second in yards per play and third in total yards, but they’re at the bottom of Ben Baldwin’s chart showing early-down pass frequency. That’s a rarity and also a testament to the effectiveness of the Rams’ ground game.
The running backs’ ability to pick up 4 or 5 yards on first down has been huge, keeping the Rams ahead of the sticks and making third down easier to handle. That’s certainly not lost on McVay.
“I mean, it’s big. I think the ability to be efficient on those early downs keeps us in third-and-manageables. I think that’s been a result of why we’ve been a little bit better on third downs,” McVay said last week. “So, a long way to go, but I think the first two weeks have been reflective of some things that we’ve wanted to focus on and being able to get a bunch of carries off is good because it means you’re able to control some of the possession as well, which I think has been good for our team.”
Keeping up this pace of running the ball so often on first and second down is going to be difficult, especially if the efficiency falls off as the season wears on. Right now, the Rams are averaging 6.5 yards per play on first and second down, which is tops in the NFL. But if they continue to run the ball as often as they have, that average could slip a bit, just based on the fact that teams average more yards per attempt throwing the ball than they do running it.
For now, there’s little reason to change their approach on offense because things are working to near-perfection.
