Explosive plays often determine the outcome of a game and a team’s success over the course of a season. If you’re creating big plays on offense and limiting them on defense, there’s a good chance you’ll win a bunch of games.
Unfortunately for the Rams, they’ve been on the wrong side of that battle through two games this season. Not only are they giving up way too many big plays, but they’ve struggled to create explosives on offense – particularly on the ground.
Let’s look at the data.
According to Jake Grossman, the Rams have only generated nine explosive plays (10-yard rushes or 20-yard passes) on offense, tied for the 11th-fewest in the league. Eight of those have been through the air, which is the fifth-most in football, but they have just one rush of at least 10 yards. That play came on Ronnie Rivers’ 12-yard carry against the Lions. Kyren Williams’ longest carry has gone for just 9 yards, a surprisingly low number for him.
Every team besides the Rams and Raiders have at least two carries of 10-plus yards, which shows how bad the rushing attack in L.A. has been, in large part because of the injuries to the offensive line.
Which NFL offenses have generated the most explosive plays in the first two weeks of the season?
– Packers on top and have 13 explosive runs
– The Raiders and Rams are creating big plays through the air while the Patriots and Chargers are relying on the run
– Bengals👀 pic.twitter.com/9sqFUJjEDP— Jake Grossman (@jakegrossman0) September 17, 2024
The defense’s inability to limit big plays is what’s even more concerning. Through two games, the Rams have allowed 18 total explosive plays, tied for the second-most of any team. It’s an even split between rushing and passing plays, too, with nine each. Their nine rushes of 10-plus yards allowed are the fifth-most in the NFL and their nine passes of 20-plus yards allowed are the second-most.
With a ratio of minus-9 in the explosive-play battle, the Rams are getting crushed. It’s why they’re only 16th in total offense and 32nd in total defense this season. They’re only averaging 5 yards per play on offense and allowing 6.9 yards per play defensively compared to last year when they averaged 5.6 yards per play and allowed just 5.3 on defense.
Here are explosive plays allowed by NFL defenses through week 2 (reposting because there was a slight data error) pic.twitter.com/ne9vludo2f
— Jake Grossman (@jakegrossman0) September 17, 2024
The defense is even worse when you take a more detailed look at the plays they’re allowing.
20-yard passes: 9 (2nd-most)
30-yard passes: 4 (most)
20-yard rushes: 3 (most)
30-yard rushes: 1 (4th-most)
This was a huge problem against the Cardinals, obviously. James Conner’s longest run was 22 yards, Kyler Murray had a 26-yard carry and even Emari Demercado had a 41-yard run. Through the air, Marvin Harrison Jr. had a 23-yard touchdown catch, a 60-yard touchdown reception and a 32-yarder after Murray scrambled out of the pocket. Trey McBride and Michael Wilson also had catches of 20-plus yards.
It’s a sign that the defense isn’t playing cohesively, with lapses in coverage and communication on the backend plaguing Chris Shula’s unit. It’s something that has to improve because up next on the schedule is the 49ers, who have generated the fourth-most explosive plays and then the Packers in Week 5, who lead the NFL with 18 explosive plays.