Sean McVay’s offense is one of the most unique in the NFL. Few teams utilize more pre-snap motion and play action than the Rams, and for the last few years, no one relied more heavily on 11 personnel than McVay.
He’s expectedly made some tweaks to the Rams’ offense since he was hired in 2017, but based on the way the team has played this season, it’s getting better with age. And even in McVay’s fourth year as head coach, we’re still learning new things about his offense.
After Sunday’s win over Washington, Jared Goff revealed an interesting fact about the Rams offense. Unlike most teams, they don’t script any plays to open the game or the second half. McVay just calls the plays he feels best about at the moment, giving Goff some easier completions and utilizing the Rams’ best running plays.
“I think usually on those drives, we’re just running some of our best stuff. I don’t think – well, I know we don’t script anything, so it’s not like we’re running set plays,” Goff told reporters. “It’s really just kind of what we’ve liked throughout the week and what has a good feel with and what we have a good feel with on offense – our best runs, our best passes, usually balls that we’d like to get out and throw completions with. Like you guys are seeing, when we get the ball in these guys’ hands, they make things happen and it’s exciting. Our O-line is playing their balls off. I’m sorry. Excuse me. Playing their butts off, I guess. But they’re playing great. Yeah, it’s been good on those opening drives, just getting out fast.”
The Rams have been remarkably good on their opening drives this season. They’ve scored touchdowns on four of their first five possessions, which is the most in the NFL. Goff is a near-perfect 20-for-21 on those drives, picking apart defenses to open games.
Obviously, defenses adjust to what the Rams are doing, but the offense has been almost unstoppable to open games this season – and it’s all without scripting any plays during the week.
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