Our 3 Big Problems & How to Fix Them

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Rhami

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Dec 11, 2019
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Name
Rhami
Based on what I saw in the last game against the Cardinals and most of the season, here are the 3 biggest problems I'm seeing and my suggestions to fix them:

1. We have no speed on offense. Even before the Adams injury our offense was slow. Puka, Adams, Kyren, and all of the tight ends are not speedsters so it requires us to have long, sustained drives. That puts a lot of pressure on the quarterback to be perfect or very good and puts a lot of pressure on us to not make mistakes. When you have long sustained drives like that, the odds are you're going to make a mistake. We have no home run hitters at any level and that's tough on an offense.

2. The defense is on the field for way too long. While we didn't give up any touchdowns, we were giving up long sustained drives and couldn't get off the field.

3. Special teams. I'm not going to go into this in detail as I think everyone's beaten it to death. Again we have no speed at the return position and just overall really poor special teams, which affects the entire game in terms of field position, momentum and energy. Special teams is like the glue of the game and ours is leaking everywhere.

Some possible fixes:
I'm not going to pretend that I have the answers but a few things that might be able to help are:
- using Tutu more
- potentially trading for another receiver
- injecting some youth/rookies into the lineup
- adding a guy like Brennan Presley as a returner instead of Bachman, who has zero speed or shiftness

Also don't forget we were missing McDuffie and Garrett last game so hopefully we get those guys back soon, which should be a huge boost to the defense and the entire team!

The season's not over yet, we need to put our big boy pants and start grinding to outwork the other teams. It feels like we felt entitled to win just because we had a great roster in paper but now it's time to start actually putting in the work and seeing what we're made of.
 
Here's the recipe to go on a roll, which is possible. 2-4 is not the end of the season.

Run the Offense thru Williams and Corum.
20+ carries a game to Williams and 10+ to Corum to spell Williams. Williams should be the bell cow now.
Take some pressure off Stafford and let him manage the game.
Get Klare and Atwell into the game and get the ball in their hands. McVay can scheme those up.
DO NOT TRY AND WIN BY FORCING 20 PLUS TARGETS TO NACUA.

Tackle on defense. Blitz on early downs and try and force some mistakes. Nothing you can do about Landman at this point, just hope he can play average at this point.

Special teams just tackle.
 
Here's the recipe to go on a roll, which is possible. 2-4 is not the end of the season.

Run the Offense thru Williams and Corum.
20+ carries a game to Williams and 10+ to Corum to spell Williams. Williams should be the bell cow now.
Take some pressure off Stafford and let him manage the game.
Get Klare and Atwell into the game and get the ball in their hands. McVay can scheme those up.
DO NOT TRY AND WIN BY FORCING 20 PLUS TARGETS TO NACUA.

Tackle on defense. Blitz on early downs and try and force some mistakes. Nothing you can do about Landman at this point, just hope he can play average at this point.

Special teams just tackle.
As soon as teams realize we can't throw the ball they'll stack the lines and we will not be able to run the ball at all.
 
Here's the recipe to go on a roll, which is possible. 2-4 is not the end of the season.

Run the Offense thru Williams and Corum.
20+ carries a game to Williams and 10+ to Corum to spell Williams. Williams should be the bell cow now.
Take some pressure off Stafford and let him manage the game.
We do not have this kind of team. We do not have the ability to line up and run the football over and over again. All of our success in the running game comes from McVay running the ball in advantageous situations. 2nd 2, 2 and 3. Or on first down against sub packages playing light boxes. Last season against light boxes we were the best rushing team in football. When teams stacked the box to stop the run, we fall to the mid 20s. You also see this manifest in short yardage situations. If we could line up and mash teams the way you suggest, McVay wouldn’t be calling up dive plays to Davis Allen on 4th and 1.

It’s one of the biggest misconceptions about this team. Yes it can run the football but it’s strictly due to constantly getting lighter boxes because people being scared of our passing game. And also due to McVay being extremely smart in when he runs the ball.
 
As soon as teams realize we can't throw the ball they'll stack the lines and we will not be able to run the ball at all.
This 100%. Simply put, for the last couple years the Rams have been a great rushing team because teams play us in a way that allows McVay to take advantage. And it’s largely because they are scared of getting hit with explosive plays in the passing game. But when teams know we are trying to run the ball, we become below average in the run game.
 
We do not have this kind of team. We do not have the ability to line up and run the football over and over again. All of our success in the running game comes from McVay running the ball in advantageous situations. 2nd 2, 2 and 3. Or on first down against sub packages playing light boxes. Last season against light boxes we were the best rushing team in football. When teams stacked the box to stop the run, we fall to the mid 20s. You also see this manifest in short yardage situations. If we could line up and mash teams the way you suggest, McVay wouldn’t be calling up dive plays to Davis Allen on 4th and 1.

It’s one of the biggest misconceptions about this team. Yes it can run the football but it’s strictly due to constantly getting lighter boxes because people being scared of our passing game. And also due to McVay being extremely smart in when he runs the ball.
Well, since McVay has not even tried this, we do not know if it can work or not.

The old Martz philosophy: Pass to set up the run. He had more talent on his Rams teams than we do - how'd it work out for him?

The old saying: When you pass, there are three potential outcomes and two of them (INT, Incomplete) are bad.

The Rams are 9th in the NFL in yards per attempt @ 4.6

Our record clearly shows that passing on > 70% of all plays does not seem to be working. Definition of insanity - try something new. Try running the ball more. Get closer to 50/50 pass/run.
 
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Our biggest problem last game was the dumbass decision made by AJ. Staffs blindside was getting blown up and it gave him jitters, making him miss a few huge open plays. Not to mention the worse run blocking. Yes, there was some other shit, but, I think if we had AJ we hang a W last game.
 
Here's the recipe to go on a roll, which is possible. 2-4 is not the end of the season.

Run the Offense thru Williams and Corum.
20+ carries a game to Williams and 10+ to Corum to spell Williams. Williams should be the bell cow now.
Take some pressure off Stafford and let him manage the game.
Get Klare and Atwell into the game and get the ball in their hands. McVay can scheme those up.
DO NOT TRY AND WIN BY FORCING 20 PLUS TARGETS TO NACUA.

Tackle on defense. Blitz on early downs and try and force some mistakes. Nothing you can do about Landman at this point, just hope he can play average at this point.

Special teams just tackle.
I like it, I like it a lot. but why won't he do that?
 
We do not have this kind of team. We do not have the ability to line up and run the football over and over again. All of our success in the running game comes from McVay running the ball in advantageous situations. 2nd 2, 2 and 3. Or on first down against sub packages playing light boxes. Last season against light boxes we were the best rushing team in football. When teams stacked the box to stop the run, we fall to the mid 20s. You also see this manifest in short yardage situations. If we could line up and mash teams the way you suggest, McVay wouldn’t be calling up dive plays to Davis Allen on 4th and 1.

It’s one of the biggest misconceptions about this team. Yes it can run the football but it’s strictly due to constantly getting lighter boxes because people being scared of our passing game. And also due to McVay being extremely smart in when he runs the ball.
oh.
 
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We do not have this kind of team. We do not have the ability to line up and run the football over and over again. All of our success in the running game comes from McVay running the ball in advantageous situations. 2nd 2, 2 and 3. Or on first down against sub packages playing light boxes. Last season against light boxes we were the best rushing team in football. When teams stacked the box to stop the run, we fall to the mid 20s. You also see this manifest in short yardage situations. If we could line up and mash teams the way you suggest, McVay wouldn’t be calling up dive plays to Davis Allen on 4th and 1.

It’s one of the biggest misconceptions about this team. Yes it can run the football but it’s strictly due to constantly getting lighter boxes because people being scared of our passing game. And also due to McVay being extremely smart in when he runs the ball.
Well..
They ran the shit out of the ball last year in 13.. by definition *not* going against lighter boxes.

Not having Ferg changes the 13 dynamic.. even though he wasn't heavily used.. he was a speed element.. against the heavier units.

I don't think they can just run, run, run.. but I also think they need to run more.
 
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We're unfortunately not physical enough to exert our will. We need to have all the diversions clicking, open playbooks, and keep Ds covering every blade.
 
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