[PARAM]

Few thoughts.......

This game shouldn't have been this close, except for the punting team giving up a TD. And what is wrong with Hecker? On that play, he tried (and FAILED) to pick up the ball and run with it, instead of just falling on it for a safety. In addition to that FAIL, his punts were terrible! Maybe we should have traded Hecker instead of that other punter.

Sometimes, you'll get good and bad breaks in any football game. Like a tipped pass leading to an INT, or designing a run play for Kupp when Indy had a perfect run blitz call from the edge.

I understand the effectiveness of the Rams "bend-but-don't-break until we get to the redzone" defense but they need to stop giving up those 3rd-and-15 passes for 1st down.

I hope that McVay will show us more variety in the redzone pass plays, like back-shoulder fades or jump balls to Harris.

Actually, I was glad he didn't fall on it for a safety. That would have put the Colts down 1, with the ball and they could have made it an 8 point game with a TD drive. I had more confidence in our offense than defense at that point, so I figured we'd get the ball and retake the lead, which we did. It's a lot tougher to score a TD AND get the 2 point to tie, had it been a safety and then TD.

[69RamFan]

My Assessment against the Colts.

The RAMs O came out fast in their first series and they played pretty good the whole game.

The only mistake the RAMs offense did was giving up an INT.

It was a good balance of run to passing, 29run to 30passes. Time of possession: RAMs 28mins Colts 32min

The OL played outstanding most of the game, only giving up a sack that came from Whitworth getting beat inside. The OL pass protection stats: one sack, two TFL, 3 QB hits

The receiving corp had four drops, that should have been caught, 2 by Woods, 1 by Jefferson and one by Henderson.

Stats: Main contributors

Stafford:
19comp/30atts 63%comp, 278yd, 2/TD, 1/INT, 1/sack Passer rating: 101.8 His passer rating should have been high, but his WR had four drops. In which he should have had 118 rating with over 300yds and 76%comp in the game.

Kupp: 11/targets 9/Rec 163yds. 2/TD

Michel and Henderson combine for 99yds.rushing.

Hopefully Henderson recovers from his rib injury soon.

Defense:

I thought they played great in the red zone. Coming up with an INT and stopped a fourth down play.

Giving up only 17/pts.
Team D: 3 sack/27yds, 3 TFL, 11/QB Hits, 2/INT

AD: Just a monster causing havoc. and not getting holding calls, especial against Nelson, this one pass play, it was obvious AD beat him inside and you can see his arm across his neck while holding AD outside underneath his shoulder pads by the arm pit... What was the Ref looking at, how could he missed that?

SJD: with 6 tackles and 3asst for a total of 9combine. 1 sack/10yds lost, 1 TFL, 2/QB Hit.

The Bad:

ST, giving up that first KO for 41yds.

Then the snap from the C hitting Nick Scott in the arm and Hekker couldn’t handle it and the Colts came up with the ball and a TD.

Tutu receiving a punt and he got lucky by not calling a fair catch, he could of cause a fumble.

Point Differential: +23/Fifth in the league
Points: 61/pts/fifth in the league
Points Against: 38/pts/eight in the league.

All in all, we came out with a W.

This was Q. Nelson holding AD and he doesn't get the call.

[Joe Pendleton]

.. and the ref missed that? Geesh

[69RamFan]

Personnel Grouping VS Colts

PG/Personnel Grouping,,, DB/Drop back,,, RA/Run Attempts

11PG 55/plays 92% DB/30 RA/25
12PG 3/plays 5% DB/0 RA/3
00PG 2/plays 3% DB/1 RA/1

Total 60/Plays DB/31 RA/29


McVay used a heavy dose of 11PG

He kept a nice balance game between the run vs pass ratio.

RAMs 31min vs Colts 28min

Our OL/TE/RB play looked good in the pass protection only giving up 1 sack, and 3 QB Hit, helped produce opening up holes for the run game at 101yds and 278 passing yds, that should of been over 300yds if not for four drop passes by our recievers.

Overall, the offense played a good game.

[aeneas1]

mcvay made a huge splash as the rams new head coach by fielding an explosive offense, an offense that ranked 2nd (2017) and 3rd (2018) in offensive scoring, and second only to the chiefs for the 2017-2018 stretch.

it was an explosive offense built on 11-personnel groupings (3-wr, 1-te) - no team ran 11 more than the rams during 2017-2018.

but mcvay migrated from 11-personnel to 12-personnel (2-wr, 2-te) in 2019 & 2020 as pass pro began to struggle, especially against 6+ man fronts and cover 0 schemes - and with the change came a huge drop-off in offensive scoring.

in 2019 the rams ranked 15th in offensive scoring and in 2020 they ranked 23rd - for the 2019-2020 stretch the rams ranked 18th in offensive scoring, bottom half of the league.

anyway, the 2021 rams are back to fielding 11-personnel, they rank second in 11 usage thru week 2 - in fact the rams are back to fielding a lot of 3+ wr sets (including 11) and a lot fewer 2 te sets, just as they did in 2017 and 2018.

but even with much fewer 2 te sets, stafford is currently the 3rd least pressured qb.

1st and 2nd downs - 2 or fewer wr sets:

2017 - 10%
2018 - 11%
2019 - 26%
2020 - 40%
2021 - 15%

1st and 2nd downs - 3 or more wr sets:

2017 - 90%
2018 - 89%
2019 - 72%
2020 - 59%
2021 - 86%

[PARAM]

It seems to be working well....again. 34 and 27 points, 30+ ppg? 86% on the 1st and 2nd downs? And still the 3rd least pressured QB? Is that the OL or the playcalling? Or both?

Thanks for those stats A1!!! And all the other info packed threads/posts. It seems the Rams offense isn't the only thing working well!!

[aeneas1]

that's what i was most curious about heading into 2021, what sort of scheme would mcvay roll out with stafford under center, would he return to high 11-personnel usage, would he continue with high play action / under center schemes (something stafford didn't do a lot of in detroit, was more of a shotgun guy), etc., etc.

through 2 games it seems that mcvay has simply returned to his 2017 & 2018 playbook... once again kupp and woods are running deeper routes, tight ends are all but forgotten, qb is bootlegging and rolling out, jets are back, there's a speedster to stretch the field, offensive points are being hung on the scoreboard, etc., etc., etc. it's great to see.

wonder tho if defenses will start the 6+ man front / cover 0 stuff again and, if so, how mcvay + staffford will fare?

It seems to be working well....again. 34 and 27 points, 30+ ppg? 86% on the 1st and 2nd downs? And still the 3rd least pressured QB? Is that the OL or the playcalling? Or both?

Thanks for those stats A1!!! And all the other info packed threads/posts. It seems the Rams offense isn't the only thing working well!!

[PARAM]

wonder tho if defenses will start the 6+ man front / cover 0 stuff again and, if so, how mcvay + staffford will fare?

That's going to be interesting to see. If they're getting chewed up by 11p, why wouldn't they try it? Between McVay and Stafford you'd think they'd have an answer.

[CRamsFly]

Indeed, it will be interesting to see how the offense plays against 6-man fronts and cover 0, but I'm hoping that with Stafford's experience and ability to read defenses pre- and post-snap, he can make defenses pay for playing cover 0 more often than Goff did.

[PARAM]

Indeed, it will be interesting to see how the offense plays against 6-man fronts and cover 0, but I'm hoping that with Stafford's experience and ability to read defenses pre- and post-snap, he can make defenses pay for playing cover 0 more often than Goff did.

I would think. And how about the O line? Are they any better than 2020? Or does Stafford make them better. Hopefully both.