What Sean McVay is telling the Rams with playoff hopes slipping away

The Rams aren’t going to go down without a fight in the last two weeks of the season.

It’s been three years since the Los Angeles Rams were in a position where they didn’t have a firm hold on a playoff spot entering the final two weeks of the season. They won the NFC West the last two seasons, earning a first-round bye in 2018, but this year, they’re on the outside looking in.

In order for Los Angeles to make the playoffs, it will need to win its last two games with the Vikings losing their last two. It’s not impossible, but it’s also highly unlikely and the Rams probably know it.

As slim of a chance as the Rams have to make the playoffs, the team isn’t giving up just yet. Sean McVay won’t let his players throw in the towel, telling them to “attack the day.”

“I think we’ve got a lot of guys that love football – I love football, our coaches do. Really, you cherish these opportunities to go compete,” he said. “You’re only guaranteed 16 of them, we’ve got two left for sure. No matter how this thing shakes out, I think what we’ve talked about is you’re not going to have any regrets as long as you go for it. You go compete to the best of your ability and I trust that’s what we’re going to do. At least, you’re saying, maybe you give yourself a chance, but even if we (didn’t) even have a chance of continuing to play afterwards, we’ve got an opportunity to go get our ninth win. Like I said the other day, there’s a lot of prideful guys. When you love what you do and you love the people you’re doing it with, you want to make sure you do right by them.”

McVay is a great motivator, so fans can fully expect the Rams to come out and play hard against the 49ers. Yes, they’re playing for a playoff spot, but also for their own pride.

Sean McVay on 49ers pass defense: ‘They’re up there in league history’

Sean McVay had some high praise for the 49ers defense.

The last time the Rams faced the 49ers, they put together one of their worst offensive performances under Sean McVay. In the 20-7 defeat, Jared Goff had 78 yards passing on 24 attempts, Los Angeles finished with only 10 first downs and 157 yards, and the offensive line allowed four sacks.

Nothing went well for the Rams in Week 6, running into one of the best defenses in the league. The 49ers defense hasn’t been as dominant as it was in that game, allowing 75 points in the last two weeks, but it’s still one of the top units in football.

Sean McVay would even consider putting San Francisco’s pass defense among the best ever, based on the numbers it has put up.

“They did a great job. They’re a great defense, they’re one of the top defenses in the league and they’ve got one of the better pass defenses,” McVay said Tuesday. “Arguably, you just look at the numbers, they’re up there in league history. They’ve done a great job.”

Needing to win their last two games of the season, the Rams would probably prefer not to face the 49ers in Week 16, but McVay hopes the offense can put together a better performance than it did in October.

That won’t be easy, especially with Richard Sherman and K’Waun Williams expected to return from injury.

“Hopefully, we’ll have a better showing, but we certainly know what a great challenge it will be, because of what a great job Robert Saleh does leading the way, and then all the great players that they have executing the scheme,” McVay added.

One thing that helps the Rams is the fact that Todd Gurley will be available, which he was not in their first meeting with the 49ers. That game was handled by Malcolm Brown and Darrell Henderson, the latter of whom fumbled it on the first play of the second half to put the Rams in a deeper hole.

“I think just playing like what we expect him to,” McVay said of what he expects from Gurley this week. “Whenever his number is called, doing a good job of just being efficient, seeing things the right way, leveling things off, being able to create some stuff on his own if that’s what the look dictates, and being sound in protection. Just playing his position the right way snap in and snap out.”

The Rams are 6.5-point underdogs this weekend, which is the largest spread against them since McVay took over as the head coach. A loss will end any chance of Los Angeles making the postseason, so this is a huge game for the defending NFC champions.

Sean McVay highlights Rams’ biggest issues in lopsided loss to Cowboys

Tackling and poor execution on blocks were two of the Rams’ primary issues against Dallas.

Since Sean McVay took over as head coach, there haven’t been many instances where the Rams were embarrassed and completely dominated by an opponent. Sunday against the Cowboys was undeniably one of those instances, though.

They went into AT&T Stadium and laid an egg, getting blown out 44-21 by a sub-.500 Cowboys team. At one point, the Rams were down 37-7 before scoring two touchdowns in the final four minutes to make the final score a bit more respectable.

McVay was understandably frustrated after the game and in his press conference Monday, he admitted the film was reflective of just how poorly the Rams played as a team the day before.

“Yeah. It wasn’t very good. Really, in a lot of instances, it’s never as bad, it’s never as good as you think, but a lot of the things that we felt like after the game, I think, kind of showed up,” McVay said. “The expectation and the confidence that I do have in our players and in our team to be able to execute and just do the fundamental things that you have to be able to do to win in this league, we really just didn’t do. That’s not the norm for us.”

The Rams rushed for only 22 yards, Jared Goff threw a costly interception before halftime that led to a Cowboys touchdown and Dallas gained 263 yards on the ground in the win.

There was a lot that went wrong for the Rams, from their lack of protection for Goff to their inability to tackle, which led to Dallas scoring 44 points. For a defense that had been playing so well, this was a huge surprise.

McVay pointed out issues that plagued the team on Sunday, from missed tackles to poor execution on blocks.

“Defensively, not tackling, not maintaining some of our gap integrity, playing our leverages right in coverage. Those are things that we pretty much, for the most part, done a really nice job of. We didn’t do that yesterday” he said. “Again, you give Dallas credit for being able to force some of those missed tackles and things like that. That was a big result as some of the production that they had. Just not finishing some of the plays and then offensively, a lot of the same. Not attacking some of the blocks the way that we had talked about, not just making standard throws and making the catches, creating some separation. A lot of the things that are really just instrumental from a fundamentals and techniques standpoint to be able to play good football, we didn’t really do and didn’t give ourselves a chance to be in that game as a result of that.”

McVay acknowledged the problems the Rams had on offense, but he did come away pleased with the way the offense closed out the game. It doesn’t make the end result any better, but he did like the way Goff and company finished with two touchdown drives.

“Really, we just didn’t have really any sort of drive continuity. We weren’t converting on third downs, they did a good job on their offensive side being able to sustain some drives and then the next thing you know, the score is what it is,” he said. “We make no excuses about it, we didn’t play good enough – I was pleased with the way the guys finished. You don’t ever have any sort of moral victories, but I was interested to see how we continued to compete, especially offensively, even though it was, what it was and they were playing more softer zone-coverages and just to get some completions, get into a little bit of a rhythm was important to finish out that way.”

The Rams will take on the 49ers at Levi’s Stadium on Saturday night, which will help decide their playoff fate. A loss will end any chance of them making the postseason. A win by Minnesota on Sunday will do the same.

McVay’s squad doesn’t have much left to play for, but he expects to see a better team against the 49ers than the one that played in Dallas this week.

Jared Goff injured his hand early vs. Cowboys but says he’s fine

Jared Goff remained in the game after injuring his hand, indicating afterwards that it’s not a concern.

Jared Goff didn’t exactly have a stellar performance against the Cowboys, throwing an interception and gaining only 284 yards passing on 51 attempts. He and the Rams offense got nothing going until late in the game, which is when they scored 14 of their 21 points.

The final score of 44-21 doesn’t accurately portray how lopsided the game was, because the Cowboys controlled every aspect of it from start to finish. Goff was under pressure often and got no help from the running game, which led to an underwhelming showing at AT&T Stadium.

Sean McVay revealed after the loss that Goff injured his hand early in the game, but it doesn’t seem to be a concern. He was never pulled from the game and insisted afterwards that he’s OK.

“I saw him just continue to compete,” McVay said of how Goff played. “Got his hand banged up and just as a gutsy competitor, remained out there with his teammates finding a way even though – I’m always interested in how we continue to compete, even when the game was out of hand, just to see guys just continue to battle, have some pride about it. I thought Jared did a nice job.”

McVay didn’t know which specific play the injury happened on, but said “he did it earlier in the game.”

When asked how his hand was feeling, Goff simply said “my hand is fine,” indicating it’s no big deal and won’t keep him off the field moving forward.

Sean McVay shares his thoughts on coin-toss controversy vs. Cowboys

Sean McVay and Jared Goff were both confused by the coin-toss mix-up before the Cowboys-Rams game.

Sunday’s game between the Rams and Cowboys got off to an unconventional and bizarre start at AT&T Stadium. After the Cowboys won the coin toss, Dak Prescott told the official that Dallas wanted to kick off in the first quarter.

By saying that, he also gave the Rams the option to choose what they wanted to do to begin the second half: kick or receive. The Rams, of course, chose to receive the second-half kickoff, but they didn’t end up getting the ball as they expected to.

Because Prescott said “defer” after also saying the Cowboys wanted to play defense, the NFL reviewed the situation and corrected it. Dallas got the ball to start the second half as Prescott intended, preventing the Rams from getting an extra possession.

The score wound up being 44-21, so the mix-up probably wouldn’t have changed the outcome, but Sean McVay was asked about it after the game and shared his thoughts on what happened.

“The way that I interpreted it from the start was, they won the toss and they chose to kick in the first half, so I immediately asked the refs, tried to get the clarification,” McVay said. “We were under the impression that we were going to be able to receive the second half kick as well. I guess they went to New York. They had a microphone and they said they heard the word “deferred.” I found out right before the start of the second half, so we were always under the assumption we were going to get that kick, be able to receive that kick coming out of the half and I was told right before that that wasn’t the case.”

That sort of change can definitely impact a coach’s game plan. There’s a big difference between having to kick off to start the second half and getting the ball first, especially when trailing by 21 points as the Rams were.

Jared Goff was also confused by the situation and was under the impression that the Rams would begin the second half with the ball, which turned out not to be the case. Goff, Eric Weddle and Johnny Hekker were all holding back smiles and laughs when the coin toss played out, indicating they knew Prescott messed up.

They knew what he meant, but the rulebook interpreted it differently.

“I think by rule that’s what it is – we would get the ball in the second half, but I do think he may have then corrected himself and then said defer,” Goff said after the game. “I don’t quite remember exactly, but we knew what he meant, but by the letter of the law, I think that if he does say kick, that is a rule. I don’t know the intricacies of that rule well enough, but they said that he did correct himself and say ‘defer’ after that.

“We had talked to the referees the whole game in the first half, and we were told we would get it in the second half. I don’t think that would have changed much with the outcome of the game, but it was something a little weird, definitely.”

The Rams were dominated in every phase of the game and could do nothing right until it was too late and the Cowboys put it out of reach, so a coin-toss gaffe was hardly their biggest issue. Receiving the kick in both halves would’ve been helpful, but certainly not enough to change the outcome of the game.

Five takeaways from the Rams’ 44-21 loss in Dallas

The Rams suffered a brutal defeat at the hands of the Dallas Cowboys this week. Here’s a few takeaways from the loss.

The Rams failed to show up in Week 15 in a must-win game against the Dallas Cowboys. They were dominated on both sides of the ball in a 44-21 rout by the Cowboys. Here’s a few takeaways from the Rams’ likely season-ending loss in Dallas.

Rams never recovered from disastrous second quarter

The Rams might as well have just stayed in Los Angeles this week. It didn’t look like they had any desire to try and beat the Cowboys this week.

The Rams scored a touchdown early in the quarter. That was the extent of positive things to happen to the Rams in said quarter. Former Ram Tavon Austin scored a 59 yard touchdown the following drive on a play where Dante Fowler could have had a sack and Taylor Rapp leveled the man defending Austin.

Next, the Rams went three-and-out, but Hekker was able to pin the Cowboys at their own three yard line. That didn’t matter. Dallas embarked on an eight minute, 14 play drive that resulted in a touchdown. The Rams got the ball back right after the two minute warning, and Goff tossed a brutal interception on the second play of the drive.

Then came the icing on the cake. After stopping Dallas on third down following the interception, Michael Brockers was called for illegal use of hands and the Cowboys scored a touchdown on the next play.

Neither side of the ball picked it up in the second half until the Rams had two garbage-time touchdown drives. It was a quarter that basically ended the Rams’ season. The Rams never recovered from a 59 yard touchdown by Tavon Austin.

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Instant analysis of Rams’ 44-21 loss to the Cowboys

The Rams’ season is likely over after a devastating blowout loss in Dallas.

The Los Angeles Rams traveled to Dallas riding a two-game win streak after thrashing the Seattle Seahawks last week. They faced a Cowboys team that had lost four of their last five games and hadn’t beaten a team with a winning record all season. It seemed like we were trending towards an easy victory for the Rams.

Quite the opposite happened. The Rams were lifeless on both sides of the ball and Dallas cruised to an easy 44-21 victory. Dallas totaled nearly 500 total yards on offense and made Jared Goff’s as difficult as possible on defense. The loss makes it nearly impossible for the Rams to make the playoffs and doesn’t mean much for the Cowboys’ playoff implications.

The Rams lost control of the football game in the second quarter and failed to get back into it. They didn’t look like they belonged in the same league as the Cowboys. It was the second time in the Rams’ last four games that they were dismantled on both sides of the ball.

Here’s our analysis of the likely season-ending loss.

Player of the game: Johnny Hekker

It says a lot about a blowout loss when the punter is the player of the game. Hekker felt like the only Ram who was trying on Sunday. Hekker punted five times and averaged over 55 yards per punt. One punt went for 67 yards and another pinned the Cowboys at their own three yard line. He even completed a pass for a first down. Hekker gave both the offense and the defense chances to succeed on Sunday.

Stat of the game: 143

143 was the difference in offensive yards between the Rams and Cowboys in the second quarter. The Cowboys scored a touchdown on all three of their possessions in the quarter. The Rams were lifeless on both sides of the ball after a touchdown early in the quarter, and Goff threw a brutal interception that set the Cowboys up for a touchdown late in the quarter. The game, and the season as a result, fell apart in that second quarter.

Game Notes

This has to be the ugliest performance by the Rams all season. The Ravens are the best team in the NFL, and getting manhandled by them could be more of a result of them just being that good. The Cowboys have been lifeless over the past few weeks. it’s embarrassing that the Rams were the ones who looked lifeless in this game.
Jared Goff failed to receive much protection from his offensive line and played horrible as a result. Goff has proven that he can play at a high level in this league, but it feels like he needs a perfect offense around him to do so. It is worth noting that Goff suffered a hand injury late in the second quarter and looked visibly affected by it. That being said, he wasn’t playing great before the injury, and he was able to make some solid throws in garbage time.
Tyler Higbee’s hot streak continued this week. Higbee set a career high in receptions with 12 and had over 100/yards for the third straight week. If Higbee plays like this for the duration of his recent contract extension, he’ll be worth the money.
Former Ram Tavon Austin’s 59 yard touchdown early in the second quarter was a direct result of two mistakes by the Rams. Early in the play, Dante Fowler had a chance to sack Dak Prescott and failed. Down the field, Taylor Rapp collided with Darious Williams and left Austin wide open as a result.
The Rams also had a chance to hold the Cowboys to three points after Goff’s second quarter interception, but Michael Brockers was called for illegal use of the hands after a third down stop and the Cowboys scored a touchdown on the next play. The Rams never recovered.
Starting cornerback Troy Hill left the game in the first quarter with a thumb injury. Darious Williams stepped in as a result, and didn’t do much to impress at all. It was a disastrous performance by the Rams on defense. Hill’s absence was felt, but it seems unlikely the Rams win this game with him.
The stats will look a little deceiving today, as many of the Rams padded their stats in garbage time. The Rams had 135 yards and two touchdowns on their last two drives of the game. They were empty numbers.
To make the playoffs, the Rams need to win their remaining games against San Francisco and Arizona while the Minnesota Vikings have to lose their last two games against Green Bay and Chicago. Neither scenario is likely. Barring a miracle, the Rams won’t be playing in January.

Sean McVay says he’s ‘learning a lot’ from overcoming Rams’ injuries

The Rams have gotten excellent contributions from backups after starters went down with injuries.

In the last two years, the Rams have had excellent luck on the injury front. They’ve suffered very few significant injuries, not landing many key starters on injured reserve. That’s partly due to luck, but it’s also a testament to the job the training staff does with players.

This season hasn’t been that way, though. Aqib Talib and John Johnson were both placed on injured reserve, and Joseph Noteboom and Brian Allen suffered season-ending injuries. It’s forced the Rams to thrust backups into starting roles, which has been a challenge for Sean McVay.

Obviously no coach wants to have to deal with injuries, but McVay has learned from this challenge.

“It’s been different, but it’s been something that inevitably you have to be able to deal with. I think it’s been a great learning experience for myself. You continue to gain the appreciation for the accumulation of experience as you just learn and navigate through the inevitable – good and bad times that come with being in this role. I think what it does give you is a perspective and an appreciation for how healthy we’ve been able to stay the first couple of years. Then when you look around, some of these things are not really preventable and that’s what you have to be able to deal with. I think it’s been a great opportunity to see guys continue to get opportunities, maximize those chances that they’ve gotten and us to work through some things that we haven’t had a chance to before. I know I’m learning a lot and you kind of appreciate it. It certainly gives you a better perspective on what’s been really, some unique things that we’ve been able to have taken place over our first couple of years – in terms of the health that we’ve had.”

In addition to those other players landing on injured reserve, the Rams have also been without Gerald Everett for the last two weeks, and he’ll miss Sunday’s game, as well. Rob Havenstein has been sidelined with a knee injury, as well, and is doubtful for Week 15.

Bobby Evans has played extremely well in Havenstein’s place, and the last two weeks, Tyler Higbee has caught seven passes for at least 100 yards each game. It’s contributions like those that make McVay appreciate the Rams’ depth.

3 ways Rams’ version of wide zone presents problems for Cowboys

The Los Angeles Rams’ offense, designed by head coach Sean McVay, is not a complicated one but it is an incredibly difficult scheme to stop. The roots of McVay’s offensive concepts go back to Bill Walsh and Mike Shanahan, but the structure of the …

In the Wing-T and other offenses of its day, the offense would have 4 or 5 plays, each built off of the others, designed to take advantage of whatever the defense was doing to try to stop them. If the defense was overplaying to the outside, to stop the Buck Sweep, the offense would run Power, and if the defense was fast flowing to the play side to stop Power or Buck Sweep, the offense would run counter. This series based offensive approach puts defenses in position to be wrong, no matter how they play.

McVay, like Shanahan before him, has built his old-school offense around the Wide Zone running play, with play-action concepts built off of it. But he has added elements of spread teams, and college offenses in order to create an attack that is simple to execute yet difficult to stop.

The bread-and-butter play for the Rams, as mentioned, is wide zone. On wide zone the offensive line sets up a series of combination blocks, utilizing double teams to secure the defensive line at the first level, before one member of each double team breaks off to block a linebacker or defensive back at the second level of the defense.

The running back then makes a defined read, starting with the furthest outside defender on the line of scrimmage, to tell him whether to “bounce” the ball to the outside, “bend” it back inside, or “bang” it right down the middle.

Even without any window dressing this is a difficult play to stop, and has been the base run of many dominant offenses the last 30 years. But McVay gives the defense a lot more to worry about. He utilizes compressed formations, where the wide receivers have reduced splits away from the offensive line, as well as jet motion on a majority of the offense’s snaps from under center.

The compressed formations create college-style wide and short sides on the field, creating space to the outside that isn’t normally there on the NFL field. Additionally, these splits shorten the amount of distance his wide receivers have to cover in order to help block linebackers or safeties, which accomplishes a goal that every running game holds, make corners tackle.

On the below play, McVay combines these advantages of compressed formations, with the misdirection and indecision created by using Jet Motion to window dress what is really just a very simple wide zone run.

When Gurley cuts back, he’s left one-on-one with the backside corner and even though he isn’t able to break the tackle, because its a corner rather than a linebacker or defensive lineman he is able to get a solid 6-yard gain on first down.

The backside player doesn’t account for the jet action from the wide receiver, and doesn’t hesitate to make sure he maintains contain, so McVay knows that based on the way the defenders are playing, he should be able to have success on the jet sweep.

On this play, the right side of the Rams offense is executing the Wide Zone to that side, while the back side subtly executes the jet sweep, and wide receiver Josh Reynolds is able to run free for a twelve yard gain mostly untouched.

In addition to using the jet sweep off of wide zone, McVay loves to create opportunities in the passing game built off of wide zone.

On the below play, the Rams are using split flow on wide zone play action, with boot action from quarterback Jared Goff, the three level passing concept on this play is the most common boot combination at all levels of football.

Goff takes the easy completion for the 15-yard gain here on the over-route.

These are just a few examples of how the Rams can make defenders heads spin, and for three years they have created explosive plays with high regularity.

If the Cowboys are going to beat Los Angeles on Sunday, they are going to have to sort out all of this organized chaos, and lock down the Rams offense.

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Play-action chief among Rams key tendencies Cowboys must survive

The Rams have specialized in play-action passing under head coach Sean McVay. The Cowboys will need to adapt in their Week 15 matchup.

The Dallas Cowboys enter their Week 15 matchup against the Los Angeles Rams on a three-game losing streak. The Rams however are on a streak of their own, winning two straight and coming off a 28-12 blowout victory against the Seattle Seahawks in Week 14. The Cowboys currently lead the NFC East with a record of 6-7, while the Rams are fighting for a wildcard birth in the NFC West at 8-5. As it stands, both teams are riding a drastically different set of circumstances regarding playoff scenarios.

When looking at the Rams in 2019, it is easy to dismissIss their accomplishments at this point in the season. One year removed from a Super Bowl appearance, many analysts pegged them as a perennial championship contender. It is fair to say they have underachieved but nonetheless, they are still a formidable opponent and as the Cowboys will find out on Sunday, they certainly have a preference when it comes to play calling.

Play-action passing

The Rams are an interesting team to study. Simply put, their entire offense runs on the core principle of setting up an effective play-action passing attack. Head coach Sean McVay has built his team around this concept and after diving into some key stats and play tendencies this becomes even more apparent. First things first though, a look at the Rams’ favorite personnel package on offense.

In the modern NFL, most teams have favored 11-personnel, which features three wide receivers on the field. The Rams are no exception, opting to use the package on 418 of their plays in 2019. According to charting from Sports Info Solutions, this accounts for 83 percent of the Rams’ totals plays this season; one of the highest rates in the league. With this in mind, it is clear to see how the Rams present themselves to opponents. But while personnel usage isn’t a mystery, the real question is, how do they approach their play-action game? One of the answers could be in their play-calling tendencies.

From an under-center look the Rams have passed the ball 176 times. But out of 476 under-center playcalls, their preference has been to run the ball (300 plays). In 2019, the Rams have rushed from under center 63 percent of the time. In this aspect the Rams have rushed at one of the highest rates, but across the league, rushing from under center is heavily favored.

Overall, the Rams have been one of the best teams at utilizing play-action in the past. In McVay’s first year as coach the Rams ranked No. 2 in play-action usage (29 percent) and averaged 8.9 yards per pass attempt via Football Outsiders. Those numbers took a jump in the following season, with the team ranking No. 1 in usage (36 percent) and No. 2 in yards per attempt at 9.4.

In 2019, the Rams’ play-action output has fallen off a bit. Heading into Week 15, they have averaged 7.8 yards on play-action passes at a rate of 27 percent. Even so, play-action still remains a crucial aspect of their game.

To recap, here is a quick review of the Rams’ offensive tendencies,

Favor 11-personnel (83 percent of total plays)
Rush 63 percent of the time from under center
No. 2 in pass attempts from under center (176)
No. 9 in play-action pass rate (average 7.8 yards)

What stands out the most from this is the rush rate from under center. Conventional wisdom would suggest the Rams rush at a high rate to make play-action passing more effective. From an analytical point of view, the data suggests this is simply not true. Some studies show play-action passes work no matter how well a team runs the football.

This chart expresses a similar notion in regards to passing from under center and rushing volume. Teams that ran more from under center did not see a boost in passing efficiency. Efficiency here is defined as Expected Points Added per pass with data from nflscrapR. EPA measures the value of a play based on down, distance to first downs and field position. If this metric serves well, then the Rams are not seeing a return on their passing investments by choosing to rush at a higher rate.

The Rams try to show the same types of offensive looks to keep opposing defenses guessing. By dressing plays to look exactly the same from an execution standpoint, in essence, it could be enough to fool unsuspecting defenses. The Cowboys’ defense has proven to be unreliable as of late, but at the very least they should be prepared for what the Rams’ offense is capable of from under center.

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