OL Cutups

[WestCoastRam]

Interesting side note: Vinny said in chat today that coaches have been raving about Allen. Says Noteboom didn't play that well at Panthers but improved at Saints. Needs to play better in general.

Plug for the Athletic here: It's pretty cheap and I think you get good Vinny content along with all the other content across NFL and sports.

 

[Merlin]

9:09 2nd Quarter, Rams on the Saints' 43 following an end around to Cooks, 2nd and 8. McVay goes back to the air here and IMO Jared makes a very underrated throw here to not only get the first down but also keep his receiver from getting killed by throwing him to a safe spot.

Pre-snap (Saints are all over the pass with only 6 in the box):

Protections at the drop. Brown nice chip to help Whit after taking the play action fake. Pocket looking shaky but Goff steps right to buy a little time:

Coverages at the drop (can see Boom losing Davenport here, who ends up getting pressure at the throw):

Goff gets it out with Davenport almost literally breathing down his neck lol:

Goff's veteran ball placement to keep his wideout safe and convert the first down:

 

[Merlin]

Interesting side note: Vinny said in chat today that coaches have been raving about Allen. Says Noteboom didn't play that well at Panthers but improved at Saints. Needs to play better in general.

Yeah been trying to tell people Allen played great. It's that stigma thing I guess lol.

Re: Boom keep in mind he drew Davenport on some of the pass plays which was clearly a matchup the Saints forced to get pressure. That's a really tough matchup for any young OG.

I am very happy with both of them tbh.

 

[Merlin]

7:34 2nd Quarter, Rams on opposing 22 yard line, 3rd and 4. McVay dials up a quick hit on a slant to Woods to try to sustain the drive.

Pre-snap (another 6 man box with wide gaps for the rush completely ignoring threat of the run even though the Rams only need 4 yards):

Protections at the drop. Another good pocket for Goff, although Blythe has some terrible position and body lean goin on:

Coverages at the drop. Goff notes outside leverage vs Woods:

Goff pulls the trigger with a nice pass, goes incomplete but we get the penalty:

 

[Jacobarch]

Good stuff. Thing I've been noticing is Goff isn't stepping up in the pocket half the time making it hard on his tackles. Definitely something he needs to work on

 

[Merlin]

6:51 2nd Quarter, Rams on the opposing 24 yard line, 1st and 20 due to a ticky-tac call of a block in the back against Boom on what should have been a TD. McVay goes back to the air here...

Pre-snap:

Protections at the drop (decent pocket but Blythe gettin ready to crumble):

Coverage at the drop (When Goff starts using his eyes defenses are in trouble, because if he were to look off then hit Brown with an outside shoulder have to think good things would happen:

Blythe hits the ground and Goff gambles with a risky throw. Still, he ALMOST completes it to Higs but it's a bit too high:

 

[Merlin]

Good stuff. Thing I've been noticing is Goff isn't stepping up in the pocket half the time making it hard on his tackles. Definitely something he needs to work on

Yeah his pocket movement was hit and miss. He also needs to learn how to throw it away on some plays but then again I love the way he keeps his eyes downfield. IMO the eye control is the final part of his game that will give him mastery over defenses.

 

[Merlin]

6:45 2nd Quarter, ball on the opposing 24 yard line, 2nd and 20. Rams get a nice look on the left side with open field to work with and pitch it to Brown.

Pre-snap:

At the pitch we get a beautiful crackdown by Kupp on the DE, and you can see Allen get a nice jump on the backer. Boom doesn't get position for sealing his guy but has him walled off nicely. The DB there outside the end is about to be neutralized by Woods:

Brown gets to the edge with a great look, hats on hats and Whit rollin in front. This would be a guaranteed TD if Todd Gurley is carrying the ball. Look at that seam just damn:

Brown takes it too wide (IMO) and cuts back too late:

Still the blocking is so damn good that Brown gets 13 yards:

 

[Merlin]

6:26 2nd Quarter, Rams ball on the opposing 11 yard line, 3rd and 7. This is the drive-defining play, which btw would not have been required if the back reads the previous play correctly. A recurring theme of the first half really, where the Rams moved the ball great but maneuvered themselves into poor situations. This is the big no-call the crybaby Saints fans think would have won them the game. Effin bandwagon hopping morons.

Pre-snap (once again run-disregarding MFers look at those gaps):

Protections at the drop looks great except for Hav losing his dude, look at his feet lol:

Coverage at the drop. Nice job by the Saints' defense, no real options here for Jared:

Hav tries to work Jordan deep. As he closes in it looks like Jared wants Woods (bottom screen) back of the endzone which tbh is extremely risky:

Demby gets beat here too btw. Fumble and turnover:

 

[Merlin]

2:39 2nd Quarter, ball on their 38 yard line, 1st and 10. Last drive of the first half. I think at this point McVay noted the open space on the outside run on the previous drive and pulls the trigger with TG carrying the ball and good thing...

Pre-snap shows a nice 4 on 3 on the right edge with open hash space:

At the pitch Jordan almost wrecks our day. I wonder whether Demby was supposed to take him instead of the interior DL (would make sense since Demby is the new element on the OL and the DL should be out of the play by the pitch action) but it was close either way:

Gurley looking at great blocking now. Allen erases the LB. Woods as usual has his guy covered. Hav and Higs out in front that's a lot of beef.

TG picks up a cool 20:

 

[Merlin]

2:00 2nd Quarter, Rams ball on opposing 28, 1st and 10. Rams looking to kill the clock and finish the drive and here once again McVay elects to use the hashes to his advantage with a pitch and attack the edge. Note how this change of plan he's got rolling keeps those two edge rushers a little more honest and neutralizes their rush advantage just a little bit by making them think. I love it.

Pre-snap:

At the pitch it looks like the Rams have already won the snap. Boom gets his step and seal. Higs blocks down with good position. Whit kicking out like a freight train. And guess what? That's right, Allen serving up more LB abuse.

Gurley cuts it inside last minute to keep Whit's guy honest. Allen's got himself a pancake. Higs still driving his dude. Boom's assignment will make the tackle:

Ends up only a 3 yard gain due to great play by Onyemata:

 

[Merlin]

15:00 3rd Quarter, Rams ball on their 25 yard line, 1st and 10. Rams want to come out and get a nice drive going and at this point in the game I was expecting a TD dammit! This ends up being an irritating series however, and this particular play the Rams protections are garbage. But I said I'd include the bad ones sooo....

Pre-snap:

At the drop (snapped shotgun) we get an instant look of hideousness and Gurley is lined up left side outside the hashes so isn't there to help. Demby gets turnstiled almost immediately and Davenport makes an inside move with a late reaction from Boom, who at this point is getting ready to turnstile himself.

Goff sees only the right half the field here due to protections:

Davenport forces the incompletion (note that Allen's dude is locked up):

 

[CGI_Ram]

These are a joy to read. Crisp. Well done!

 

[Merlin]

14:54 3rd Quarter, Rams on their 25 yard line, 3rd and 10. McVay had tried to pass on 2nd down, protections were ok but the coverages were so good it led to incompletion. Now he's in a must-pass situation and both him and the Saints know it...

Pre-snap:

Protections at the snap show that Goff knows the pain is coming. Boom's guy has him beat inside (doh!), and Hav is about to be beaten to the outside:

Coverage at the snap show a whole lotta nuthin:

Jared's pocket movement here is fantastic though:

Completion to TG will go for 9 yards and Rams punt:

 

[Merlin]

9:49 3rd Quarter, Rams on their 25 yard line, 1st and 10. Game is tied 6-6 at this point which is absolutely ridiculous with the opportunities the Rams have had in the game. Rams know it, we know it, Saints know it. So McVay dials up a nice aggressive pass play here lol...

Pre-snap shows the Saints preparing for more passing with another undermanned front that is just begging for a run play :

At the drop all's well on the left, but Jordan has already beaten Hav with an inside move:

Coverage at the drop shows Cooks with a nice cushion from the DB, and good thing for Goff too lol:

Should have been a big play for Jordan tbh but Everett saves the MFing day with a clutch block down on him that gives Goff room to make the throw:

Result is one MFing pro pass by Goff:

 

[A.J. Hicks]

Is this the illegal man downfield on Allen? Pretty ticky tac...

When I rewatched the game I played this play over a couple of times. It was pretty obvious that he was downfield. It looked like he got lost a bit and he was farther down field than this at one point.

 

[Merlin]

9:25 3rd Quarter, Rams ball on their 43 yard line, 2nd and 10. Previous play was a TG pitch left for zero yards. You can see the Saints' DBs creeping up a bit now. Rams elect to pass here and I don't think anyone's surprised...

Pre-snap:

Protection at the drop shows Allen whiffed on his dude, thankfully Gurley's back there:

Coverage at the drop doesn't look good at all IMO:

Fortunately for us Goff is a GODDAMNBADASS lol. He sidesteps to buy a second and rifles a perfect pass to Kupp for a 27 yard gain and first down:

And how is it that nobody realizes in the media how good Goff is? It's crazy.

 

[A.J. Hicks]

You're welcome Memento. I enjoy it. Used my kid's account to do the ones I put up last week, and had so much fun I went against my anti-NFL stance to buy my own account for the coaches' film. Really like seeing what the secondary is doing.

I'd love to see some cutups of Joseph Day from the Saints game. He played much better than game 1.

 

[LesBaker]

There is a perception out there that the interior OL at large struggled vs the Saints front. I disagree, and figured I'd throw up some stills to demonstrate how they played. Bottom line is when you face a good front in a playoff type game you're going to get pressure, which is why the top QBs make the big dough. The Rams did indeed get pressured, but they also won enough snaps to easily get the dub.

Before we get rolling and first off, Allen (and Goff) did a fine job with the line calls. I don't recall even one free rusher, i.e. someone not noted/assigned by him pre-snap. Now the Saints aren't the most varied front when it comes to blitzes, but still that means he's making good calls. And while we don't know the extent to which Goff is involved in the line calls, it looks like Jared is focusing mostly on the secondary and coverages. So I'd guess Allen was primarily to thank for a day of good calls.

Secondly these guys definitely have strengths and weaknesses. Boom is better is pass pro than the run. Allen is better in the run game. And so on. If I had to grade Allen overall I'd say he's an average Center right now in pass pro (a dropoff from Sully who was excellent in pass pro), but excellent in the run game. Boom is a big dropoff from Saff in the run game, but just as good as he was in pass pro.

Thirdly it's pretty clear the edges were our problem vs the Saints, which is Hav (who has been roasted for it) but also Whit, who you could see wasn't his normal self right out the gate in this game. He really had an uncharacteristically poor game and I think a lot of that was the quality of the Saints' edge play. If Whit wasn't such a pro I would be concerned about him, and that's even considering that much of his struggles were the strength of the Saints' rush.

Lastly I'll mix in best and worst here. Not trying to just cherry pick what they did right.

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11:40 1st Quarter, Rams on their 32 yard line, 3rd and 16. Big early-game situation in which it looks like the Rams are going to three 'n out in their first possession...

Pre-snap (note the doubled A gap):
View attachment 30313

Going after Allen & Blythe:
View attachment 30314

Goff has time to make a sammich, oh and put up a perfect pass too:
View attachment 30315

Result... Marcus "Toast" Lattimore:
View attachment 30316

That may be the stupidest defensive alignment I have ever seen.

Just fucking stupid!

 

[A.J. Hicks]

6:26 2nd Quarter, Rams ball on the opposing 11 yard line, 3rd and 7. This is the drive-defining play, which btw would not have been required if the back reads the previous play correctly. A recurring theme of the first half really, where the Rams moved the ball great but maneuvered themselves into poor situations. This is the big no-call the crybaby Saints fans think would have won them the game. Effin bandwagon hopping morons.

Pre-snap (once again run-disregarding MFers look at those gaps):
View attachment 30388

Protections at the drop looks great except for Hav losing his dude, look at his feet lol:
View attachment 30389

Coverage at the drop. Nice job by the Saints' defense, no real options here for Jared:
View attachment 30390

Hav tries to work Jordan deep. As he closes in it looks like Jared wants Woods (bottom screen) back of the endzone which tbh is extremely risky:
View attachment 30394

Demby gets beat here too btw. Fumble and turnover:
View attachment 30393

Look at the Oline in the first picture.

Look at the huge difference in the stances between the left side of the line and the right side. Havenstein's feet are too close together and he doesn't have the bend in his knees to allow for the explosion he needs to attack that defensive end that looks like he's in a wide nine position.