Running the ball out of the Shotgun...

[LA_Rams_#29]

One of the many highlights of last night's win... We have now added running the ball out of the shotgun into our offensive scheme with Stafford.. That's something we haven't seen..... and I'm loving it. So much upside to that... ..

 

[Flint]

Or throwing it, they have thrown out of shotgun rarely in the past, which is interesting cuz Goff was less effective using play action the last few years. It also left them vulnerable to the kind of post snap games that Fangio and his disciples like to use.

 

[Elmgrovegnome]

I don't see an advantage personally.

 

[WestCoastRam]

They've got to prepare for it, plus it has the added advantage that teams are expecting you to pass out of that set. We had a huge set of plays out of those sets with runs, play-action, fake screens and power. It was beautiful.

And exactly what @Flint said, with more teams incorporating dynamic shifts in the secondary, being able to have your run game and play-action game out of shotgun will be helpful since you don't have to turn your back to D.

I would also expect some RPOs to come as the season progresses.

Plus, when you have the arm strength of Stafford and have proven that you can target all areas of the field, Ds will back up out of that set making runs more enticing.

 

[MachS]

I don't see an advantage personally.

I dont think its any type of advantage, running out of shotgun. Accept we might catch them with a light box every once in a while when they're expecting a pass.

But I think its McVay showing his evolution and self scouting his own tendencies. We NEVER ran out of shotgun before and it used to drive me crazy because every time we went shotgun we were just telegraphing the pass. But now because Stafford loves playing from the gun so much, it just adds a new wrinkle to the offense. It makes us more unpredictable and harder to defend. That late 4th quarter 3rd and 9 run in the red zone was beautiful. They were playing man coverage with only 5 in the box and Hendo ripped off 15yds running out of shotgun.

 

[gogoat1]

I hate it, but it worked on a few plays.
Myself, I want the RB to have a head a steam.
Throw in a I formation once in awhile and really let the RB get a head of steam.

 

[TexasRam]

It's good to see Mcvay expand his offense. He became very predictable and boxed in, not only due to his playcalling tendencies but also due to the proliferation of his offense from his minions across the league. I welcome added formations and wrinkles. It's absolutely necessary to put more on film, in order to make the opponents preparation that much more difficult.

 

[leoram]

I've been saying for two years now that the Rams both wanted and needed to become more multiple in scheme on both sides of the ball and it has finally come to fruition. New England completely changed their defensive philosophy in the Super Bowl and that taught McVay something. When the Ravens wiped the floor with us, McVay noticed how they used pre snap motions to manipulate the defense and started incorporating some of those into our offense. Our defense can morph between hybrid zone and man concepts seamlessly now. Our offense can run power and zone with similar efficiency. We used to run mostly zone concepts from 11 personnel but now we use several packages that don't tip off run or pass/power or zone. Preparing for this team is a nightmare for opposing coordinators and we've only scratched the surface of what McVay and Morris will deploy this year.

Now, let's see some special teams variety because the Rams were very vanilla the first game as it seems the goal is to be conservative and limit errors as opposed to attacking. I'm okay with the approach because they won but I'm curious what the future holds there.

 

[Flint]

It's good to see Mcvay expand his offense. He became very predictable and boxed in, not only due to his playcalling tendencies but also due to the proliferation of his offense from his minions across the league. I welcome added formations and wrinkles. It's absolutely necessary to put more on film, in order to make the opponents preparation that much more difficult.

McVay’s offense comes from the Shanahan tree, does that make him a minion?

 

[Deac]

I like having shotgun run/ shotgun draw to keep folks on their toes... But its a true feast or famine play, you get a nice chunk every once in a while, but have found when its sniffed out, it sets you back for TFL. However with defenses not as runcentric in their focus, may work better these days on average.

 

[Mojo Ram]

He's tailoring the offense to Stafford rather than Goff.

 

[TexasRam]

McVay’s offense comes from the Shanahan tree, does that make him a minion?

Yea. Most coaches are minions with their own stamps and wrinkles. Shanahan comes from a tree as well.

Some create and innovate off the initial system better than others.

Some stop innovating after a while and the league catches up.

Super Bowls are won by innovators. System innovators and in game innovators.

 

[shovelpass]

Some of our best runs came out of shotgun, longest run (15yds) being one of them.

 

[LA_Rams_#29]

They've got to prepare for it, plus it has the added advantage that teams are expecting you to pass out of that set. We had a huge set of plays out of those sets with runs, play-action, fake screens and power. It was beautiful.

And exactly what @Flint said, with more teams incorporating dynamic shifts in the secondary, being able to have your run game and play-action game out of shotgun will be helpful since you don't have to turn your back to D.

I would also expect some RPOs to come as the season progresses.

Plus, when you have the arm strength of Stafford and have proven that you can target all areas of the field, Ds will back up out of that set making runs more enticing.

exactly... that formation takes away one of the "tells" that we dealt with under Goff...if we were in the shotgun, we were probably passing before....now you put Stafford back there to make some reads and adjustments if he sees something (rather than mcvay being in his ear because he sees something).... and you have the added option of running from a formation you basically haven't run out of under McVay...

we need that diversity in our offense.

 

[Ellard80]

I don't see an advantage personally.

running out of a shotgun can be effective because the defense is often in a nickel or dime against. the pass.

 

[Ellard80]

I hate it, but it worked on a few plays.
Myself, I want the RB to have a head a steam.
Throw in a I formation once in awhile and really let the RB get a head of steam.

I formation and the defense going to stack against the run.. we dont really have the type of oline to run an i-formation type running game.

 

[jrry32]

He's tailoring the offense to Stafford rather than Goff.

Yeah, I think it's due to Stafford being more comfortable in the shotgun versus Goff running PA under center.

 

[Elmgrovegnome]

running out of a shotgun can be effective because the defense is often in a nickel or dime against. the pass.

It didn’t work well for PSU except when they had Barkeley who had insane acceleration. Many backs do better with a head of steam.

 

[Jacobarch]

Some of you hit it right on the head. It's about expanding offense scheme and philosophy. Look at all the 4 WR sets we ran against Chicago. It's something we really haven't seen much of before. While some people will bitch and moan about not running our 11 or 12 personnel as often it's time we change it up and give Defensive coordinators something else to worry about or scheme for.

It's all about keeping a defense off guard or off balance and catching them in the matchup that benefits the Rams, which we saw last Sunday night.

As far as running out of shotgun, i don't mind it as long as it's effective. Which it was Sunday night. The rams perfectly set them up for it too. If you're gonna run stuns we're gonna run delayed handoffs from the gun. Again gives the Defense just another thing to consider and keeps them honest.

 

[Curiousenigma]

He's tailoring the offense to Stafford rather than Goff.

What I don't get is...why did it take so long? I didn't have a lot of faith in Goff after the last couple of seasons...but how hard is it to hand off from the shotgun that Goff never did it? It just seems crazy that we never slipped in a run from the shotgun in forever. I just don't understand why.

It could be that its an option for the QB to hand off like an RPO and he didn't trust Goff to read and react fast enough. That would be my only guess as to why we never utilized it before.