It doesn’t take a film junkie or football expert to realize the Rams’ offensive line played awful against the Buffalo Bills on Thursday night. Matthew Stafford was pressured on 19 of his dropbacks, he was hit 15 times and the Bills got to him for a sack seven times.
He had very little time to find open receivers, a big reason the Rams were only able to score 10 points against Buffalo. The Bills deserve credit for being a top-tier defense, but the Rams could do very little right to protect Stafford.
The Rams’ pass protection surprisingly wasn’t the worst of Week 1. According to ESPN’s pass-block win rate metric, the Rams were ranked 23rd in that department, better than nine other teams.
They won their pass-block reps 52% of the time, 11% better than the lowest-ranked Lions (41%). The Bears had the highest pass-block win rate against the 49ers, coming in at a clip of 88%.
The Rams actually led the NFL in pass-block win rate last season, so this is quite the stark contrast from what they were used to in 2021. Stafford had excellent protection for most of last season, and now the offensive line is reeling with Brian Allen injured.
In the next couple of weeks, the Rams will have three new starters on their offensive line compared to last year’s group: Joe Noteboom, Coleman Shelton and Tremayne Anchrum Jr.
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