Where was the creativity?

[Montanaramfan]

Wow, talk about a dismal showing on offense. Our defense plays arguably their best game of the season and the offense pisses down their leg. I blame this all on McVay. True, the OL sucked but Sean's play-calling has to be questioned. He knew NE was going to run stunts. With two weeks to prepare, how do you not cover that?

During the game vs the Saints, the Rams were in shotgun 29 times and threw the ball EVERY time. The same was true last night. Not once did we have a designed run out of shotgun. I remember one play (I think it was in the third quarter) where we were in gun and there was not a LB within 12 yards of the center. Goff could have easily handed off to Gurley and he could have had a big gain.

As Ram fans, we've seen this before, games where McVay gets so infatuated with the pass that he abandons the run. But how about adding a few new wrinkles in, showing some creativity - especially with two weeks to prepare? Watching the KC-NE game I couldn't help but think that Andy Reid's offense would be way harder to prepare for than ours. All season long we heard how McVay only runs a few plays but they all start out looking the same. Well, when you have two weeks to prepare for those few plays, I guess you can figure them out. Was there anything he ran last night that we haven't seen a million times before? I can't think of any. How about a two back set with the backs in split-back formation? How about using one of the TE as a FB? In fact, where were the TE all night? Watching the Patriots run Edelman on short crossers all night long should give McVay a clue that every pass play doesn't have to feature three receivers going deep and forcing Goff to hold the ball.

I coached high school football for 18 years and after a particularly painful one-point loss in the state semifinals, I watched that film dozens of times that year. I can tell you for a fact that you learn a lot more from a loss than from a win. I'm sure there are lots of things McVay will learn from this. Then again, I said the same thing after Philly beat us last year and the Bears beat us this year. He's young, I get that, but I think he's a great coach and have hope. On the other hand, I heard Jeff Fisher say the other day that he didn't watch film of the Titans-Rams Super Bowl for ten years. That explains some things. Okay, I've ranted. Time to get back to reality.

 

[1maGoh]

I definitely thought that Phillips would have given McVay the heads up that everything and all the tendencies you had during the season have to be changed when facing the pats in the super bowl. And I thought McVay would have listened.

I was waiting all game for the TG jet sweep. Higbee at FB. New stuff, you know. Even a heavy use of screens and short passes would have been unique enough. But we just ran the same things we have all year.

And against the him, that's as close to a guaranteed loss as you can get.

 

[CGI_Ram]

Our offense started clicking in NO when we went no huddle.

I posted in another thread I was surprised we didn’t come out the 2nd half up-tempo to stress the defense a little. I was shouting at my TV to do it.

 

[bomebadeeda]

Losing the TOP (time of Possession) to New England reduced our chances to "create" better plays. Only using the one jet sweep did nothing to slow New England down. And having Tony Romo putting his 2 cents in on every play (I don't give a fuck I would have taken the penalty just to push them out of FG range.....) doesn't bode well for the playing along at home crowd. It gives you the idea, you see a concept and all you are seeing is one guys play thoughts. He doesn't know the state of the team's injury situation, thus understand what they are trying to do overall w/ what they had. That been said, I do believe McVay got into the throw happy mode again. Not having success on first down led to forcing the ball into situations that could have really hurt us. (They were keying on that dig route we love to run. There was almost 2 interceptions that could have turned the game into a rout...). We've got to learn to be patient and take what the defense gives. Not try and impose your will upon someone.

 

[Montanaramfan]

It was interesting listening to Kurt Warner yesterday on the pregame comparing the GSOT with this team. He talked about how they used to use every formation conceivable and this version kept it basic. I once listened to a very successful high school coach at a clinic whose philosophy was "formation them to death". I liked that. It makes the defense spend countless hours on preparation even though you can still run many of the same plays out of them. I also took a football coaching class in college. We had just gotten a new coach who had been successful at his previous college. He ran the option and said, "We only have four plays in our playbook. Our philosophy is that we won't outcoach you but will out-execute you." He was gone after going 15-40. Watching yesterday's debacle reminded me of him.

 

[Montanaramfan]

Losing the TOP (time of Possession) to New England reduced our chances to "create" better plays. Only using the one jet sweep did nothing to slow New England down. And having Tony Romo putting his 2 cents in on every play (I don't give a freak I would have taken the penalty just to push them out of FG range.....) doesn't bode well for the playing along at home crowd. It gives you the idea, you see a concept and all you are seeing is one guys play thoughts. He doesn't know the state of the team's injury situation, thus understand what they are trying to do overall w/ what they had. That been said, I do believe McVay got into the throw happy mode again. Not having success on first down led to forcing the ball into situations that could have really hurt us. (They were keying on that dig route we love to run. There was almost 2 interceptions that could have turned the game into a rout...). We've got to learn to be patient and take what the defense gives. Not try and impose your will upon someone.

That's what makes New England so successful. They don't try to cram their offense down your throat. They take what the defense gives them. I've seen games where they come out and run 15 times in a row and others where they open up by passing 15 times in a row. Last night all that was working for them was Edelman on short crossers so guess what? They ran it a dozen times and that's all they needed (other than one or two passes to Gronk). McVay needs to learn that when your first option is taken away, then you need to go to Plan B and then Plan C. We've seen a few games now where he just gets pass happy and we end up losing all of those games.

 

[Mojo Ram]

We got Hoodie'd on offense. Honestly i expected that would happen early. Belichick is too good and a master evil genius with 2 weeks preparation defensively.

I did expect McVay to find something that worked eventually though. Find a way to get a first down. Find a way to sustain a drive. We battled in the 2nd half and did manufacture a TD but Cooks dropped a tough but catchable ball. Gotta make that play though in those circumstances. This was a neck and neck football game on the scoreboard all the way.

I think the performance of our defense in a losing effort upsets me more than anything. It sounds like McVay feels the same.

Coach will learn from this and he's still evolving folks. SB losses can have lingering effects on players coaches as we know. The (first)focus goal next season should be IMO winning the division. I think if you aim too high following a defeat like this you tend to invariably find ways of stumbling along the way in terms of the path and steps it takes to reach that high point again.

Win the division
Win a playoff game
Win another playoff game
Win the big game

instead of...

We got to get back there and win it this time.