At halftime of the Arizona Cardinals’ Week 6 game in Los Angeles against the Rams last season, they had no idea of the Kyren Williams blitzkrieg that was coming.
The Cardinals led 9-6 over the 2-3 Rams and their running back had only four yards on two carries.
Things changed in a hurry.
Williams went for 17 yards on the first play of the third quarter, added two more runs of 10 and 14 yards in that possession and after a 6:03 drive, the Rams led 13-9. In two other scoring drives, Williams had runs of 27 and 31 yards, and when the dust had cleared, the Cardinals lost 26-9 and Williams totaled 154 yards on 18 carries in the second half.
Of those yards, 99 came on five plays and 85 on three.
However, Williams suffered an ankle injury late in the game. Placed on injured reserve, the Rams lost three of their next four games to fall to 4-6.
Help was coming, just in time for the next game against the Cardinals in Week 12.
Williams returned and picked up where he left off, rushing for 143 yards on 16 carries and adding 61 on six receptions, including two touchdowns. He had explosives of 24 and 56 yards rushing and 24 receiving.
Add it all up and Williams rushed for 301 yards against the Cardinals with 297 coming in six quarters and totaled 362 yards from scrimmage. More than half of his rushing yards (155) came on five plays.
Significantly, the Rams won five of their first six games with Williams back and earned a playoff spot with one game remaining, which resulted in him getting the final week off.
Surely, the Cardinals will have to find a way to contain him Sunday, close to what the Lions did in Week 1, limiting Williams to 50 yards on 18 carries (2.8 average) with a long of only nine.
Head coach Jonathan Gannon said of the Rams ground attack, “They shift and they motion, and they do a lot to gain your eyes, and create leverage and angles. It’s a well thought-out operation.”
When defensive coordinator Nick Rallis was asked about Williams, he first said, “He’s a really good player” and then explained how the Rams make it all work.
“I have a lot of respect for what they do in the run game,” Rallis said. “The nuances of the different ways that they run 2-0 versus mid-zone versus wide zone; it’s detailed out with how they can manipulate the blocking, the points, how they can use those receivers to bluff the outside ‘backers or go right through them and run wide zone. Against us, they had a unique plan going into that first game and into the second game with using the receivers to really get in there and block outside ‘backers.
“Dig out safeties, all of that. So they do a great job of 11 in the run game. And then on top of that they have a really good back and so you can’t let that back get leaky yards. We got to be efficient tacklers, but also we have to have a really good plan for that run game because it’s very detailed and it’s a good rush plan.”
Rallis also noted that the Rams often throw changeups into their plan that forces adjustments to be made on the fly.
He said, “Obviously, you set up a plan going into the week with what you think you’re going to get and then you have to be able to adjust and change. As you see things, if it’s not what you thought, or if they have a tweak in what they’re doing, which they’re definitely an operation that can come in with some nuances that you maybe weren’t ready for that they’ve put in that week and that they’re executing at a high level. So you got to be ready to combat those type of things.”
As for the leaky yards Rallis noted, safety Jalen Thompson referenced it when emphasizing the importance of hopefully eliminating the explosives.
“One hundred percent,” he said, “Our coaches harp on that all the time. No leaky yardage on the tackle and try to swarm him. We need as many people to the ball as we can.”
Safety Budda Baker said, “He’s great at running those stretch opens, pitches, whatever they asked him to do.”
“He runs hard. He runs low. Hits the whole fast,” Thompson added. “We gotta make sure to make tackles with our pads down, get him to the ground. He rushes. He can catch the ball out of the backfield. It’s gonna be a tough matchup for us.”
As defensive lineman Roy Lopes simply said in endearing fashion, “He’s a dog.”
The Cardinals can only hope Williams doesn’t eat them alive again.
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