Touchdown Wire’s Laurie Fitzpatrick shows how the Rams used run looks to pass against the Bengals in Super Bowl LVI’s most important drive.
The Los Angeles Rams had three healthy running backs who were ready to set the pace in Super Bowl LVI. That did not happen. Cam Akers rushed for 21 yards on 13 carries, Darrell Henderson only carried the ball four times for seven yards, and Sony Michel picked up only 2 yards on two carries. In total, the backfield had 19 carries and only gained 30 yards.
With all this said, as the clock continued to tick, the Rams still refused to abandon the run. Many were asking why.
Across Twitter, analysts were asking why the Rams continued to run it up the middle, gaining few to no yards.
The Rams stuck with it because the tight formations forced the Bengals to stay within the hashemarks. Since the defense was getting behind the line of scrimmage, clogging the middle and dominating the run; the Rams had one drive at the end of the game to exploit the Bengals pursuit and they did.
Let’s check out each play in that drive to see how the Rams reached the red zone…
In the fourth quarter, in order to set up that last drive, the Rams kept their tight end lined up outside the offensive tackle as a blocker selling the run.
The Rams noticed that when they would run play-action off this look, the Bengals defense would drop into zone.
So, when the last drive started, the Rams knew they would continue to run the ball and then once they decided to pass, it was just a matter of finding who was open.
On the very next play after the run, from the same look, Kupp motions and then takes a jet sweep with only one guy on the outside to beat. (clip below)
Bengals cornerback Mike Hilton stayed in his zone as Kupp motions. Kupp knew he was getting picked up by no. 24 on the other side, so just as long as he followed his blocks, he would have a chance to beat his guy in open space.
The Rams kept the up-tempo and tight formation to keep the Bengals at the line of scrimmage. As they continued to call run plays condensing the defense, the Rams then spread the field wide.
Once the Rams knew that the Bengals would drop into zone keeping an eye on the flat, Stafford only had to find the gaps in the middle of the field and identify mismatches.
With the Rams’ up-tempo offense, the Bengals had no time to adjust.
On the next play, a linebacker was across from Kupp and even though Van Jefferson runs a perfect route in that open zone, Stafford goes to his number one receiver, Kupp, who is mismatched against a linebacker in the slot.
On the new set of downs, the Rams used the run to first condense the Bengals defense, then spread them wide (putting a guy in the flat), in order to exploit the middle of the field as shown above. They continued the plan for the entire drive.
On very next play after the run, using that same look, the slot runs a seam route, and the Rams get a running back into the flat.
As you can see, Stafford is still seeing the middle of the field wide open in between the Bengals zone. This sets up the throw of the game.
As Kupp is lined up on the outside, the Rams run a Hi-Lo concept, so if the corner creeps inside and takes away Kupp, the underneath would still be open.
Stafford does an amazing job to look off the safety in the middle of the field putting the ball right on the money giving the Rams a new set of downs.
After six straight throws by Stafford, the Rams come out in a spread look, and instead of throwing it, they go back to the ground game leading to their most effective run of day; giving them a new set of downs with less than two minutes left in the game.
We all know what happened next. Kupp took over with underneath routes to get inside the end zone.
In the end, the Rams offense had to switch up their entire game plan in the fourth quarter. They knew the Bengals were honoring the run, so they took those tight looks, disguised the ground game and took advantage of the Bengals’ zone defense. Once the Rams found the openings in the secondary, the Bengals simply didn’t have the time to adjust.
Kupp ended up getting the mismatches the Rams needed to get inside the red zone, take the lead, and become Super Bowl champions.
