Tag: rams stats

Rams are 1st team in 20 years to pull off a win like Sunday’s vs. Patriots

This insane stat shows how unlikely the Rams’ win over the Patriots was when you consider New England’s numbers on offense

The Los Angeles Rams came away with a win over the New England Patriots on Sunday afternoon and the numbers suggest it was an unlikely victory. It would be a stretch to say the Rams were outplayed by the Patriots (because they weren’t) but New England’s stats on offense were good enough to win this game.

The Patriots had 382 yards, 26 first downs, went 6-for-14 on third down, ran 73 total plays and possessed the ball for 37 minutes and 20 seconds. The biggest difference? The Patriots settled for three field goals, two of which were 32 yards or shorter. The Rams, meanwhile, scored four touchdowns and should’ve added another three points if not for a missed 26-yard chip shot by Joshua Karty.

According to Boston Sports Info on X (formerly Twitter), the Patriots are the first team since 2004 to lose a home game in regulation where they had at least 375 yards, 37 minutes of possession and a passer rating of 100. The last team to lose such a game was the 2004 Titans against the Chiefs, a 49-38 shootout in Tennessee.

Query Results Table
Tot. Tot.
Rk Team Date
▼		 Tot ToP Rate Week Opp Result
1 NWE 2024-11-17 382 37:20 100.2 11 LAR L 22-28
2 TEN 2004-12-13 542 37:59 130.6 14 KAN L 38-49
3 NYJ 1991-11-10 436 37:27 102.7 11 IND L 27-28
4 HOU 1990-10-28 425 37:30 104.9 8 NYJ L 12-17
5 PHI 1990-09-30 409 38:55 109.2 4 IND L 23-24
6 WAS 1983-09-05 447 37:18 105.7 1 DAL L 30-31
Provided by Stathead.com: Found with Stathead. See Full Results.
Generated 11/18/2024.

Since 2005, teams had been 112-0 in those games before the Rams beat the Patriots on Sunday.

The Rams didn’t possess the ball for very long because their four drives that ended in punts were all less than 3 minutes long. And two of their touchdown drives were 4 seconds and 50 seconds long.

The Patriots, as a result, ran a lot more plays (73 to 51), but the Rams’ explosiveness on offense was the difference in the game.

There’s no question the Rams were the better team, and as ugly as the Patriots’ record is, this was a tough game for any team to win on a short week after flying across the country for an early 1 p.m. ET kickoff. The Rams deserve credit for this victory more than the Patriots deserve blame for losing it.

Rams-Packers advanced stats comparison: LA has the edge in almost every area

Looking at the advanced stats, it’s clear the Rams have the edge in just about every area over the Packers

Sunday’s game between the Los Angeles Rams and Green Bay Packers is a matchup of two former NFC powerhouses that have struggled through the first eight weeks of the season. The Rams come in having lost three of their last four, while the Packers have lost four straight entering this matchup.

Much of this one hinges on whether Matthew Stafford plays or not, but the advanced stats show the Rams have been the (slightly) better team than the Packers this season. According to Sumer Sports, the Rams rank higher than the Packers in most categories, from EPA per play to explosive play rate.

Out of 11 categories, the Rams have the advantage in 10 of them, with the only exception being pass rate over expected; the Packers are 16th and the Rams are 18th, which just means the Packers throw the ball more than expected depending on the situation.

The Rams’ biggest edge comes on the ground. Los Angeles is surprisingly fifth in EPA per rush this season, while the Packers’ rushing attack is only 18th. The Rams are also better at creating explosive plays, with a rate of 9.3% (18th) compared to the Packers’ 7.2% (27th) rate.

Check out the full comparison of these two teams below.

Rams have overcome lack of takeaways, poor field position with highly efficient offense

The Rams are the only team in the NFL that hasn’t started a drive in opponent territory, yet the offense is still scoring at a high rate

For as well as the Los Angeles Rams have played through four games, they could be even better if the defense forced a few more turnovers. The Rams have just two takeaways up to this point, which is tied for the fifth-fewest in the NFL.

As a result, the offense’s average starting field position is their own 26.4-yard line, which is also the fifth-worst in the league. Defensively, teams are starting at their own 32.3-yard line on average against the Rams, which ranks 30th in football.

So not only are the Rams starting drives with awful field position on a weekly basis, but the defense is also being put in tough spots because of turnovers by the offense and missed field goals by Brett Maher.

In fact, Los Angeles is the only team in the NFL that hasn’t started a single drive in its opponent’s territory. The Bills, meanwhile, have had eight such drives, the most in football.

It’s honestly impressive the Rams are even 13th in points scored and 15th in points allowed despite these troubling stats. The way they’ve overcome it is with efficient play on offense and long, sustained drives.

The Rams have run the most plays in the NFL (286) through four weeks, average the second-most plays per drive (7.02), the sixth-most yards per drive (36.5) and the eighth-most points per possession (2.3). Of their 43 offensive possessions this season, 48.8% have ended in points, which is the sixth-best rate in the league.

What’s helped Los Angeles maintain these long possessions is a high conversion rate on third down, moving the chains 43.9% of the time, which ranks eighth in football.

It may not seem like a major accomplishment to rank 13th in points scored through four weeks, but when you’re starting deep in your own territory as often as the Rams are, it makes that stat all the more impressive.

At some point, the defense will have to increase its takeaway count. Los Angeles only has one interception, a miraculous play by Ahkello Witherspoon against the Bengals, and one fumble recovery, which came against the Colts.

If the defense can start forcing more turnovers and giving the offense some short fields to work with, the Rams will put up even more point and hopefully lead to more wins.

This stat comparing Rams’ current offense to 2017-2021 is hard to believe

The Rams have more games with less than 200 yards this season than the last 5 years combined

It has not been fun to watch the Rams’ offense in its current state. Without Cooper Kupp and Allen Robinson, the receiving corps might be the worst in the NFL. They’re down to their fourth starting quarterback and have started 12 different offensive line groups, and prior to Monday night, they were the only team without a single touchdown scored by a tight end.

Even when Matthew Stafford and Kupp were healthy, this was a bottom-tier offense. It really is unlike any offense we’ve seen in nearly six full years under Sean McVay. There are stats to put this season into perspective, too.

After putting up just 156 total yards against the Packers on Monday night, the Rams now have two games with fewer than 200 yards in a game this season. The other was in Week 12 against the Chiefs when Los Angeles had 198 total yards. The Texans are the only other team in the NFL with two games of fewer than 200 yards.

In the previous five years combined, the Rams had just one game with fewer than 200 yards: Week 6 of the 2019 season against the 49ers. That includes the playoffs, so it’s a total of 91 games from 2017-2021. Only three teams had fewer sub-200-yard games than the Rams in those five years.

When you compare last season to this year, it’s also shocking how far the offense has fallen. The Rams gained at least 340 yards in 17 of their 21 total games in 2021. This year, they’ve had 340-plus yards just once in 14 games. That was in Week 6 against the Panthers when they gained 360 yards in a 24-10 win.

A regression was always possible this year after dominating offensively in 2021, but no one could’ve seen this type of season coming. The Rams went from having a top-10 offense to having the second-worst offense in football in a span of one season.

Hopefully with everyone healthy in 2023, the Rams will bounce back from what’s been a dreadful post-Super Bowl campaign.

[mm-video type=playlist id=01eqby8n025panb709 player_id=01eqbvhghtkmz2182d image=]

Rams must improve in goal-to-go situations

The Rams were only average in goal-to-go situations last season, an area where they must improve

Last season, the Los Angeles Rams improved noticeably on offense. They were much better and significantly more explosive with Matthew Stafford at quarterback, scoring from all over the field with big plays through the air.

The Rams went from 22nd in points scored in 2020 to seventh last season, seemingly getting better as the season went on. However, there’s always room for improvement – something Sean McVay, Matthew Stafford, Cooper Kupp and everyone else on offense will tell you.

According to Warren Sharp, the Rams were only tied for 15th in goal-to-go efficiency. In other words, they were just average when getting inside the 10-yard line on the door step of the end zone.

It wasn’t due to a high number of turnovers, either. Inside the 10, Stafford completed 50% of his passes with 22 touchdowns and only one interception. What hurt the Rams was poor production running the ball in the red zone. Sony Michel led the team with 24 rushes inside the 10, but he gained just 42 yards and only scored four touchdowns on those plays. Darrell Henderson Jr. had five touchdowns on only 13 rushes inside the 10.

The hope is that Cam Akers, with his physical running style, can help the Rams improve in goal-to-go situations. However, in 2020, he converted just two of his 21 rushes inside the 10-yard line into touchdowns. That’s not a great rate.

If the running game continues to struggle near the goal line, McVay won’t hesitate to put the ball in Stafford’s hands, especially knowing he has Kupp and Allen Robinson on the outside. Kupp was awesome inside the red zone, and Robinson is a big, physical receiver who can make difficult catches in traffic.

The Rams should get better in this area next season, and they’ll need to if they want to stop stalling out in the red zone.

ESPN projects 2022 stats for Rams players: How many yards for Stafford and Kupp?

ESPN’s Mike Clay put out his annual stat projections for the Rams’ top players. How many yards will Stafford and Kupp finish with?

Projecting any player’s stats in a given season is incredibly difficult. ESPN’s Mike Clay, as he does every year, undertook the task of projecting numbers for just about all of the starters in the NFL, including the Rams’ top players.

Sorted position by position, Clay shared his projections for players such as Matthew Stafford, Cam Akers, Cooper Kupp, Allen Robinson, Aaron Donald and others. He doesn’t see Kupp topping his historic numbers from last season, but Clay still expects the Rams receiver to produce another 1,300-plus-yard season with double-digit touchdowns.

Below is a breakdown of Clay’s projections for key players, with the full breakdown available here.

ESPN projects 2021 stats for Matthew Stafford, Cam Akers and other Rams

Will Cam Akers top 1,000 yards rushing? Who will lead the Rams in receiving this year?

Each year, Mike Clay of ESPN projects individual stats for key players on every NFL team. It’s a good way for fans to set their expectations for the upcoming season, especially from a fantasy perspective.

For the Rams, he expects a strong season from Matthew Stafford and Cam Akers, as well as 1,000-yard campaigns by both Robert Woods and Cooper Kupp. But who will be the third-most productive receiver? And who will finish second in sacks behind Aaron Donald?

We highlighted some of the top players from Clay’s projection for Los Angeles, but the full sheet can be found here.

Matthew Stafford is one of the NFL’s best at making big-time throws

Matthew Stafford knows how to make big throws into tight windows, ranking among the NFL’s best in that department.

Matthew Stafford is a gunslinger at the quarterback position and has been for his entire career. He’s a player who isn’t afraid to take chances down the field or by throwing into tight windows with defenders draped over his target.

Part of that has to do with the fact that he’s had some elite contested-catch receivers such as Calvin Johnson, Kenny Golladay and Marvin Jones Jr., but he also has the arm talent to make those throws with a good rate of success.

The Rams will get a taste of that next season with Stafford as their quarterback after agreeing to trade Jared Goff and three draft picks to the Lions for Stafford. What separates him from Goff is not only arm strength and accuracy, but also the willingness to take chances.

Pro Football Focus has a metric called “big-time throws,” which the site says is best described as “a pass with excellent ball location and timing, generally thrown further down the field and/or into a tighter window.”

Essentially, it’s a really tough throw to make.

Stafford is one of the best quarterbacks at completing big-time throws, and has been for years. According to PFF, Stafford completed 32 big-time throws last season, which was eighth-most in the NFL.

Since 2006, Stafford is tied with Tom Brady for the most big-time throws made in a single game, going all the way back to 2012 when he made nine such throws. In that game, Stafford completed 31 of 61 passes for 441 yards with two touchdowns and no interceptions.

But wait, there’s more!

Since 2019, Stafford has been clutch on third-and-long. He’s made 15 big-time throws on third-and-7 or more, which is tied with Matt Ryan for the third-most in football. Patrick Mahomes, unsurprisingly, is No. 1 with 26 big-time throws in those situations, nine more than any other player.

When the game is on the line in the fourth quarter or overtime, Stafford knows how to come through in the clutch. Last season, he made 13 big-time throws in the fourth quarter and overtime, once again tied for third-most in the NFL.

What’s incredible is the fact that the Lions only won five games last season, and four of them came on the back of a game-winning drive led by Stafford.

One of those game-winning drives came against the Falcons, with Detroit marching 75 yards in 1:04 despite having no timeouts.

As you can see in the video below, Stafford was sharp on the drive, completing every pass he threw (except for a spike). His most impressive throw was a deep shot into tight coverage over the leaping linebacker and into the waiting arms of Kenny Golladay for a huge gain.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HSVB79H1Hq8

The Rams should be much better in late-game situations with Stafford under center, which isn’t a knock on Jared Goff. But Stafford simply knows how to get it done with big throws in clutch moments; he’s led the NFL in game-winning drives three times in his career.

It’s easy to see why Sean McVay and the Rams are so excited to have Stafford in L.A.

9 crazy stats from Rams’ playoff win vs. Seahawks

It was quite the performance by the Rams, who held Seattle to its third-lowest yardage total in a playoff game since 2012.

The Rams did what few people expected them to do on Saturday, going up to Seattle and beating the third-seeded Seahawks at their place. The win punched the Rams’ ticket to the divisional round, where they await their next opponent, the Packers or Bucs.

But before we look ahead to their next matchup, let’s revisit some crazy stats that came out of Saturday’s game – including Cam Akers’ historic day, the Rams’ first turnover-less game and a dominant performance by the defense.

Rams’ recipe for success in playoffs comes down to four things

The Rams can have success in the postseason as long as they succeed in four key areas.

The Los Angeles Rams are about to embark on yet another postseason journey, their third in four years. The first ended in the wild-card round, while the second resulted in a Super Bowl appearance.

This year’s Rams don’t have the offense of the 2018 team, or even the first squad that went to the playoffs in 2017. But the defense is better than ever and as it’s often said, “defense wins championships.”

That’s harder to buy into in today’s pass-heavy, high-scoring game, but the Rams will try to ride their defense to another championship game. The defense can’t do it alone, though. The offense must pull its weight and keep the Rams in the game.

For the Rams as a whole, their recipe for success in the postseason is fairly simple, and it comes down to four things.