With bye week at midpoint of season, Rams get time to reflect and prepare for crucial stretch

Similar to last year, the bye week falls right at the halfway point of the 2020 season for the Rams.
A 5-3 through the first eight games provides confidence, but they also recognize that there's still room to improve as the second half of the season approaches.

"We've got some time to reflect, get away from it, come back," Rams quarterback Jared Goff said during his postgame video conference. "We're 5-3, we're right in it. We've got to win some games though. Got some gritty games coming up and we'll be ready."

From wide receiver Robert Woods' perspective, the common thread between Los Angeles' wins and losses in the first half of the season was the offense's ability to get off to fast starts and sustain that tempo throughout the game.

In the their first four wins, the Rams scored a touchdown on their first offensive possession in each game, averaging 8.5 plays and 4.5 minutes on each of those possessions. Their fifth win – Week 7 against the Bears – was an exception; however, they bounced back and mounted a five-play, 2.5-minute, touchdown-scoring drive on their second offensive series.

In their first two losses, the Rams didn't score until the second quarter. In their third loss, a sack-fumble by defensive lineman Aaron Donald set up a three-play, 15-yard touchdown-scoring drive, but the Rams' own turnovers made it difficult to replicate that success.

"I've been saying the same thing for a while now, got to start fast and play consistent throughout the whole game," Woods said during his postgame press conference. "You see our defense playing and play well. It's really just playing consistent, starting fast."

Week 8 aside, the Rams have otherwise been able to overcome deficits and slow starts thanks to the performance of their defense after halftime.

The Rams' defense has allowed seven or fewer points in the second half in seven of their first eight games, also coming up with timely turnovers that have helped spark rallies or clinch victories.

That said, it's not a reason for L.A.'s defense, offense or special teams to be complacent during the bye week.

"I think that Woods said it best, don't take this week off, find something you can get better at, watch film, just improve your game," Rams defensive lineman Michael Brockers said during his postgame video conference. "Don't take this week as a week off to do whatever you want to do. Actually stay in tune, stay with it and come back ready to go."

As Goff alluded to, Los Angeles' record has it positioned a half game behind Arizona for second in the NFC West standings entering Week 9. Those standings overall: 6-1 Seattle, 5-2 Arizona, 5-3 Los Angeles, 4-4 San Francisco.

At the same time, the Rams face the Seahawks, Buccaneers, 49ers and Cardinals – all of which have a combined 20-9 record – coming out of their bye week. With that kind of stretch on the horizon, now is the time to rectify mistakes and prevent them from repeating down the road.

"We won five out of the eight, probably could have won six, maybe seven, depends on who you ask," Rams safety John Johnson III said. "We're playing some good football, we're seeing some good flashes but we really want to play our best football in late November and December, so that's what we're working towards."

This article absolutely encapsulates why I believe the lion's share of the blame for the Rams offensive woes yesterday fall on McVay's shoulders. Now please note - I am not giving Goff a pass for his bad play. Nor am I giving any of the pass catchers slack for not getting open or hanging onto balls that hit them in the hands. And I'm not excusing the OL for their poor job pass blocking yesterday, nor the RB's for their failures on blitz pickup.

But evidence presented here clearly indicates, McVay chose to attack the strength of the Dolphins defense, rather than their weakness. We can speculate as to why, but in the end, his plan failed and failed spectacularly.

McVay is a smart guy, but he has to stop being so stubborn and adjust to the reality before him. That reality is that, while the Rams have the talent to be a good offense, maybe even very good, they don't have the talent to be an elite offense, as they were in 2017-18. While our OL is better than it was last year, it's not where it was during those two years, when it was easily a top 5 unit. During all of 2017 and the first 2/3 of 2018, we had an elite RB at the top of his game who could kill you in both the passing game and the running game. And we had at least one true deep threat on the outside both of those years. In 2020, we have a good OL, but it's not elite. While I certainly like our RB's, nobody can say they are equivalent to Gurley of 2017 and 2018 weeks 1-11. Our receivers are all very technically sound, but none of them is really a deep threat (well, maybe Jefferson, but that's a big if).

Accordingly, the margin for error with McVay is lower. In 2017 and the first 2/3 of 2018, he might have gotten away with this, as the Rams had the talent all across the offense to impose their will on other defenses, even good ones. We don't have that now, but what we do have is good enough talent that if McVay comes up with a solid game plan that exploits the opponent's weaknesses on D, as most teams have, we will win most of our games, and we won't give away games like yesterday.

Anyway, onto the article.


There's no reason the Rams should've thrown it 61 times vs. Miami

For the most part this season, the Los Angeles Rams offense has remained fairly well-balanced. Through the first seven games of the season, Jared Goff never attempted more than 38 passes in a game. The Rams were running the ball more than just about every team in the NFL, and were doing so successfully with Darrell Henderson leading the charge.


Then Week 8 hit and that balance went out the window. Sean McVay went back to his old ways of leaning heavily on the arm of his quarterback, which got the Rams in trouble often last season.

Goff threw the ball 61 times against the Dolphins, with the Rams running it 29 times. Now, 29 rush attempts still seems like a lot, but considering they got off 92 plays, the balance simply wasn’t there.

And when looking at the team they were facing, there’s no reason the Rams should’ve thrown the ball 61 times.

Coming into Sunday’s matchup, the Dolphins ranked 30th in yards per carry allowed. They were giving up 5.0 yards per rush attempt, getting gashed regularly on the ground. The strength of Miami’s defense is in the secondary where Byron Jones and Xavien Howard comprise arguably the best cornerback tandem in the NFL, both ranking in the top 11 in completion percentage allowed.

Add in the fact that the Dolphins blitz the fifth-most in the NFL, and all signs pointed to this game being a ground-and-pound effort by the Rams. But again, McVay had other plans.

It’s easy to say, “But the Rams were down by 21 points in the first half.” Well, it was the passing game that dug them that hole, with Goff committing four turnovers on plays where he was under pressure almost immediately.

And it’s not as if the Rams weren’t having success on the ground. Henderson was averaging 5.9 yards per carry before getting injured. Malcolm Brown had 40 yards on 10 attempts, and Cam Akers looked good on his nine carries for 35 yards.


What made matters worse was how quickly McVay abandoned the run after it seemed to get going. Henderson opened the game with back-to-back carries of 4 yards. After that, McVay called three straight passes, all of which fell incomplete.

On the third drive, Henderson gained 18 yards on the first play. He didn’t touch the ball again on that possession. Brown took over and had a 6-yard run on first down, but McVay once again called two straight passing plays that both fell incomplete and ended the drive.

There were only four instances where the Rams ran the ball on back-to-back plays. And each of those times, Henderson or Akers kept the offense ahead of the sticks with runs of at least 4 yards every time.

Henderson had back-to-back runs of 4 yards to open the game. Later on in the first, he had runs of 4 yards and 7 yards on consecutive plays. In the second quarter, Akers had consecutive runs of 10 yards and 5 yards, then in the fourth quarter, he went for 4 yards and 5 yards on back-to-back plays, which was followed by a 2-yard run on third-and-1.

Again, you could say the Rams were playing from behind for most of the game, but had they stuck with the run early on instead of trusting Goff to beat zero-coverage blitzes every time, they probably wouldn’t have dug such a deep hole.

McVay’s refusal to trust the running game has become a gripe of Rams fans everywhere, especially given how well the team has run the ball this season. Early in the season, it looked like the ground game would be their identity. But recently, he’s abandoned the rushing attack and once again gotten off-balance.

Hopefully he recognizes this trend during the Week 9 bye.

This is the one that has been covered the most so let's start here...

Pre-snap Goff tells Hendy he's on the wrong side. Since we don't know the call I presume here that Hendy knew his route was on that side but missed the motion, so that leads me to think Hendy was not on protection duty


At the snap Hendy's in motion. I've put the routes on the still and you can see the play is designed with Reynolds as the HOT (red). He's the blitz beater. Reason I think that is a safe assumption is the other two clear it out and that underneath should be open. Solid design, nothing special, pretty fucking common in fact for a redzone pass play.


At the drop Goff likes the matchup on 81 and is ready to throw it. But the Dolphins brought 6 and there's only 5 OL. The QB simply did not note the protection issue. Had he noted the protection issue he has two options: 1 is throwing to the HOT, and 2 is checking out of the play. Goff has full control at the LOS and could easily check out of the play but he didn't. Because he missed it.


And that's a wrap. Bet that DE's eyes were big as saucers lol. ALSO: note the DB's positioning there and tell me how you think that throw would have gone down, hard to imagine that resulting in a TD for us.

And in no particular order...

Anybody else getting queasy Linehan, Spags, Fisher type flashbacks during the three crazy bad Ram halves this year?

Don’t know what to say about Goff’s play lately. This is his 4th year under McVay and yet we sometimes still see rookie-like fundamental mistakes. One would think those would be pretty much gone by now, huh?

Might be a good idea for McVay to preplan some ‘what if’ counter plays if Goff sees more exotic D sets moving forward. Pretty sure future DC’s intend to test Goff.

Can we please see more snaps for Akers? Mostly at the expense of Brown?

Apparently, Hendy still has some improving to do in pass pro, huh?

Hope Higbee’s hand is much better after the bye. We need him as another feared threat.

Everett is so inconsistent, isn’t he? Roller coaster highs and lows for that kid even in year 4. Maddening.

I miss the days when Rams would routinely jump out to big leads early.

ARob after the bye, finally? YES!

Gawd! My kingdom for a consistent edge player. We’re 8 weeks into the season and still looking for an answer.

Staley, apparently, is just gonna have to scheme around our ILB’s the rest of the way. Sigh...

Even shorthanded our secondary has held up VERY well.

Only 26 second half points allowed through 8 games? Not a misprint. And 20 of them came in the Bills game? Amazing, especially because the D was in the process of gelling under the new DC.

Our ST under Bonamego have disappointed Big Time. Finally really bit us in the butt yesterday. And Forbath didn’t ‘fix’ anything, either. I read elsewhere that our ST rank down around #30. Geez...

What to do moving forward?

McVay needs to never get away from the run play calls. And more quickly adjust to unusual D sets such as ‘zero pressure’ or ‘wide 6’ type stuff.

Build in and allow Goff the ability to more easily change plays at LOS where needed. Rams are gonna see more copycat D schemes in the future until they prove that they can handle it. Gotta be a way for McVay/Goff to turn the tables and punish such D’s in the future.

I assume that Webster has now completely replaced Kupp as returner.

Bonamego needs to get his coverage teams back to that stellar Bear game level.

Would like to see Goff using his cadence to draw opponents offsides more. That’s an easy 5 yards, man.

Seems to me that Goff would do well to look at other than just Kupp for an open receiver. I love Kupp, but c’mon.

Garrappolo out minimum 6 wks, maybe the season and Kittle out for 8 wks.

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Clay Travis at Outkick the Coverage this morning questioning why Asshole Face kicked the FG with 1:40 left in OT rather than try to run it down and kick for the win with little-to-no time left.

And before I can even think about it I'm saying, "Why does Asshole Face do anything?"

Took a deep breath last night. Pissed off as anybody else about yesterday's game but realized something...how many times over the last 30 years would this fan-base have killed to be at 5-3 halfway through the season?

1. Man, I hate games like that.

2. Simply put, this was a classic example of giving away a game.

3. Over 300 yard disparity... and we lose by 11???? Seriously... WTF!?!?

4. Anyway, ranting won't help. Let's identify the three problems our offense is having right now.

5. Problem #1: Play calling. I feel like the feast or famine outcomes are the result of too much "trying to fool the defense" instead of "trying to beat the defense."

6. That leads to Problem #2: Jared Goff does well when you fool the defense. Jared Goff does fairly well when he attacks the defense head-on. When the plan fails, and Jared Goff has to make snap decisions and improvise... bad things happen.

7. I also am of the belief that the Rams' WR corps, while extremely good, could use a speed guy to scare defenses. I and others have suggested taking a flyer on John Ross. If not, that's a role I'd like to fill next off-season (likely as a replacement for Reynolds, who I think will receive more money from someone else than we should pay).

8. For a guy trying to earn a second contract, Gerald Everett is not stepping up. His drop, leading to a long FG attempt rather than a first down inside the 30, was a killer. There's talent there, but the consistency is lacking.

9. Its hard not to miss Bones right now.

10. You have to give credit to the defense. Outstanding effort.

11. With A'Shawn Robinson and the return of Jordan Fuller after the bye, the defense may get even better.

12. Okay... breath. We're 5-3 at the halfway mark, and would be in the playoffs if the season ended today.

13. This season will be defined, of course, by our performance within the division. Last year, we were 3-3 in the division. We'll need to at least match that (meaning winning 3 of 5 in the second half of the season).

14. Not to make excuses, but the Rams' travel schedule in the first half of the season was brutal. In the second half, we have one trip to Tampa and, otherwise, will have 5 home games and two away games in the West (@Seattle, @Arizona). That could be a significant factor.

15. I was glad that the Seahawks beat the 49ers. A 3 team race is better than a 4 team race, and the 49ers are going to have to run a gauntlet (Green Bay, @New Orleans, @rams, Buffalo) to stay in the hunt.

16. Speaking of the schedule... the Seahawks travel to Buffalo next week and then come to our house. We have 2 weeks to prepare for the Seahawks' offense (which we're already familiar with). The team should be angry and fired up. Can you say "opportunity," boys and girls?

17. The NFL Defensive Player of the Year will be Aaron Donald or Myles Garrett. At this point, they are the only two candidates.

18. Really glad Jalen Ramsey does not have COVID.

19. I'll be surprised if the Rams make a trade... not shocked, but surprised.

20. Bye for now!

In the comments for the new article on The Athletic.

https://www.pro-football-reference.com/boxscores/202011010mia.htm

That dolphins game gave me Superbowl LIII PTSD. Our o line could not pick up the blitz and Goff looked horrible against the pressure.

That said, I think if the team had a true big #1 reciever, teams would not 0 cover blitz like the dolphins did. Our recievers are small and quick and although that's their best trait, it also hurts because they can't break press coverage and go over the top. No one is afraid of Kupp and Woods beating them deep.

I'm back on ROD! and I'm saying this team will never win big without a game breaking WR .

Seahawks - W - season on the line here

@Tampa Bay - can we just stay in LA and forfeit? Take an extra bye before playing the Niners, avoid a short week (when they have their bye) - this is a guaranteed loss and you may think I'm joking about the forfeit comment, but it would be better for the Rams in the long run if we just stayed home - L

Niners - W - again, season on the line here

@Arizona - W - until they beat McVay, I can't see it

Patriots - W - they're not good

Jets - W

@Seahawks - L

Arizona - W


This would have us at 11-5

4-1 against the division - if we drop one and go 10-6, we will still be in the playoffs. The good news is the only elite defenses we play in the second half are Tampa and the Niners - split those games and we should be good.

Were only really competing for a playoff spot with the Bears and Niners.

Seahawks
Bucs
Packers
Eagles
Saints
Cardinals

Rams vs Bears vs Niners

Vikings, Lions, NFC East, Panthers and Falcons are basically eliminated. We already beat the Bears and they will be losing a slew of games coming up. So if we can beat the Niners in a few weeks, that almost locks us into the playoffs

Monday Night Football: Tampa Bay Buccaneers vs. New York Giants

"Monday Night Football" features the New York Giants hosting Tom Brady and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Brady has had some memorable losses to New York in his career including two in the Super Bowl when Eli Manning was under center for Big Blue. These two teams played last year with the Giants upsetting the Bucs on the road as a late Daniel Jones rushing touchdown gave New York the win. Both Jones and Jameis Winston threw for more than 300 yards in that game. The Giants have won seven of the last eight meetings between the two teams.

Tampa Bay (5-2) is feeling good after an impressive 45-20 road win at Las Vegas in which Brady threw for 369 yards. He completed passes to nine different players including Scotty Miller who put up 109 yards and a touchdown. Defensively is where this team shines, though, holding five opponents to 20 points or less. The Buccaneers get pressure on the quarterback and have an underrated secondary.

New York (1-6), meanwhile, has had extra time to digest a tough loss to the Eagles last Thursday night that saw the Giants blow a lead late. For the fourth time this season, Jones was the team's leading passer and the leading rusher. The defense doesn't get enough credit for what it's done, limiting four teams to 24 points or less.

Tampa Bay has not been on "Monday Night Football" since 2018 when the Bucs lost 30-27 at home to the Steelers. Meanwhile, this is the Giants' second time playing on Monday after losing at home to the Steelers in Week 1. Since 2010, they are 6-11 on MNF.

Monday Night Football: Tampa Bay at New York

Kickoff: Monday, Nov. 2 at 8:15 p.m. ET
TV: ESPN
Spread: Buccaneers -10.5

Three Things to Watch

1. Intangibles

I think there's a chance focus could be an issue for Tampa Bay. This will be the Buccaneers' third road game over the last four weeks in a stretch that featured games against the Bears and Packers. Also, there is a massive look-ahead factor with a home game against the Saints coming up, a team they lost to back in Week 1. I'm not saying Tampa is going to lose, but it's something to consider. On the Giants' side, they have had extra time to prepare after playing last Thursday in Philadelphia. A team like this cannot afford to look-ahead to anybody so that shouldn't be an issue.

2. COVID Issues?

Giants offensive lineman Will Hernandez has tested positive for COVID-19 and was placed on the reserve list. Because of this, the team has quarantined all but four offensive linemen. Two coaches also were sent home because of "close contact." It'll be something to watch as the week goes on because I can't imagine the team's backups are any good considering the starters have been brutal. Rookie tackle Andrew Thomas, the fourth overall pick in this year's draft, has had a rough introduction to NFL. He is among the league leaders in pressures allowed. Tampa Bay's defense is second in the league with 25 sacks and is no stranger to the situation New York is dealing with having faced the Raiders (at one point all but four O-linemen were on the Reserve/COVID-19 list and starting right tackle Trent Brown missed the game) last week.

3. Run game questions

Ronald Jones was enjoying being the top option in the Tampa Bay backfield, but last week he accounted for only 36 total yards. That presented Leonard Fournette with an opportunity to get more touches and he made the most of it. The former Jaguar finished with 97 total yards on 17 total touches (11 carries, 6 receptions). It'll be interesting to see how the carries are distributed on Monday night as the Buccaneers also have LeSean McCoy and Ke'Shawn Vaughn. The Giants' problem is that no one has stepped up to replace Saquon Barkley or even provided much of a spark. Devonta Freeman, Dion Lewis, and Wayne Gallman have all had their chances, but none have really grabbed hold of the job. Gallman stepped in last week when Freeman left with an ankle injury, and with Freeman no lock to play this week, he could get the bulk of the carries once again. The problem is the Buccaneers are No. 1 in the NFL against the run, giving up just 66 yards per game and only three per carry.

Final Analysis

The Buccaneers are going to win this game, but the question is by how much. The Giants' O-line story is something to watch as we get closer to kickoff because Daniel Jones will struggle if even one of the starters is out. He'll probably struggle anyway. Still, I think it's a somewhat sleepy Bucs effort as this game is a little closer than it should be.

Prediction: Buccaneers 27, Giants 17

Sorry, but McVay hasn’t been figured out and Goff is not a has-been.

A couple of fluke plays, 21 gifted points, and a completely dominated team gets a win. Yes it sucked, but let’s call it like it is.

The Dodgers and Lakers both lost 1st games of playoff series on their way to their Championships. Shyte happens. We just witnessed the 1 time out of 10 this team would beat us.

Which Rams' offensive weapon would you "fear"? I think that answer to that is also the key to our offensive woes. The absolute one man wrecking crew that was gurley is gone. The game breaking speedster in Cooks is gone. Hell, even Watkins had to be covered by the teams number 1 corner. Gone. Mcvay had a similar issue in washington. Jackson and Garcon were good , but they really needed "that guy" (it was Reed when he was healthy). Woods and Kupp need that guy to move them down the pecking order and take pressure off of them. I think the Rams badly need to be looking towards adding that guy in the off-season. If we can find the cap that is.

#31 --- D. Williams this time next year .... will be equally as good and valuable as J. Ramsey.

He doesn't posses the same ideal physical attributes ... but his football smarts and heart will put him on the same level of importance to the team, as J. Ramsey.

The Rams are going to take this out on Russel Wilson. And the hags defense is terrible. I say we win the game and get back on track.

Our Rams will not have any trouble scoring points on them and the seahags will have plenty of trouble getting in the end zone next Sunday.

We still play the Seahawks twice, Cardinals twice and the Niners one more time. Its up to us.

Don’t get me wrong. I love Kupp and Woods. But the Wr core is missing that speed threat to blow the top off of defense. With Ross then Woods and Kupp can feast on the short passes. The last 3yrs McVay had Cooks and Watkins as the deep threats. Now defenses are not concerned about us going over the top and that’s why Goff is pushing the ball downfield like he use too. If we can trade Reynolds straight up for Ross I would pull the trigger on that trade.

https://www.therams.com/video/sean-mcvay-reacts-rams-week-8-loss-dolphins

Wasn’t sure how to embed the video, sorry guys. Needless to say, coach was NOT happy about this game. He’s doing a good job of keeping composed but you can tell he is FUMING.

Just purely for fun, and of course hypothetically, would you trade right now, straight across Goff for R. Wilson?
Ya got to admit it's an interesting scenario to discuss, while we wait 14 days for our next game.

EDIT: Answer with the thought of winning more games. Don't answer with your heart on this one. Answer as if you are the head coach and the trade was real ... if you wanted to do it.



.
(what would our current offense look like, and perform like, with Wilson as QB)

1. Defense is no fluke and we're going to get a boost when Fuller returns. Being 5-3 isn't good enough in this division but the season isn't over yet and that defense is going to ensure we're in the mix all the way to the end for the playoffs. Don't know about you guys but I still appreciate mattering for the playoffs.

2. OL opened holes in the run game again. The makings of a very good run game are there. This is another thing that should help us over the remaining and very tough schedule.

3. While the WR corps has underwhelmed a bit we have a boost incoming with Jefferson. Once he settles in as WR3 we are going to feel his addition and it should help our beleaguered QB.

4. At RB we have a guy who can be the horse this offense needs in Akers. I love what Hendy's done but he can't take the pounding. He's a change of pace back. Akers offers a potential answer at RB once McVay finally gets over Brown.

5. Goff is not some garbage QB. He's a plus QB who needs good players around him. He still has room to improve and his growth is going to be a big determining factor in how far this team goes. We can't run the ball every play. We need this guy to make downfield throws and force defenses to defend the entire field and he's shown he can do that he just needs to do a better job of being in rhythm early in games. I don't know what the answer is, but the good thing is we have a fine offensive staff who should be able to figure that out.

I know folks are pissed. Just trying to throw some perspective out there: this team still matters and still has a shot.

open for 24 hrs

have at it

Well - I’m curious on thoughts about him playing against Tua. He looked good after Burgess got hurt. Punched a ball away instead of playing around & making sure the pass was not caught.I’m sure the coaching staff will help more after film sessions as well.
He has the tools to be a solid Safety.
he is a core special teams guy.

Also what happened to David Long ?

Yup.

ESPN makes me laugh sometimes...