Tag: Sean McVay

Behind Enemy Lines: 6 Questions with Rams Wire

The Bears will face the Rams in a rematch of last season’s defensive showdown. So we’re going Behind Enemy Lines to learn about the Rams.

The Chicago Bears (4-5) will face the Los Angeles Rams (5-4) in a prime-time rematch of last season’s defensive showdown.

The Bears broke their four-game losing streak with a divisional victory over the Detroit Lions in Week 10, and they’ll be looking to keep that momentum going against a Rams team that’s struggling on offense.

Before the game, we caught up with managing editor Cameron DaSilva of Rams Wire to get the scoop on the Bears’ Week 11 opponent.

Here are six questions with Rams Wire:

1. The Rams signed QB Jared Goff to a massive extension before the season, but he doesn’t appear to be living up to that contract. He’s had a string of bad performances against good teams. What’s going on with Goff?

A lot of the blame falls on the offensive line. It’s been one of the worst units in the NFL, and Goff is not a quarterback who can overcome poor play up front. He’s not exactly mobile, his pocket awareness is average at best, and he tries to do more with the ball than he should when he’d be better off just taking a sack. Even when he does get time, though, he’s throwing it inaccurately and missing open receivers. He just doesn’t have the confidence he had last season, and much of that is because of the constant pressure he’s been under.

2. Todd Gurley faced a lot of questions this offseason about the status of his left knee, where many wondered if he’d be as effective as he once was. Last week, Gurley had his most efficient game on the ground season the season opener. How have the Rams handled Gurley’s usage this season?

Put simply, not well. They’ve done a poor job managing his workload, as evidenced by him not even getting the ball once in the fourth quarter last week. They keep saying he’s not hurt and he isn’t on a pitch count, but he hasn’t carried the ball more than 18 times in a single game this season. He hasn’t been the player he was the last two years, especially as a receiver, and it’s held the Rams offense back. He needs to be involved more on offense.

3. In the first two years of Sean McVay’s tenure, the offensive line was successful. They were a big part of the Rams’ Super Bowl run. But this season, that hasn’t been the case. They’ve done a poor job of protecting Goff, allowing four sacks last week against the Steelers. What’s wrong with the offensive line?

Injuries and a lack of experience are the primary factors. On Sunday, they’ll have just one player on the offensive line who also started Week 1 (Andrew Whitworth). There will be three players making their first starts of the season at their respective positions, which could lead to a disaster at the Coliseum. This is one of the worst offensive lines in the league, and it’s a big reason for the Rams’ regression.

4. When talking about this defense, the conversation begins and ends with All-Pro DT Aaron Donald. While Donald’s numbers have died off a bit compared to last season — he has six sacks and two forced fumbles in nine games — stats don’t tell the whole story. How have Donald and the Rams’ pass rush looked this season?

Really good. It’s been a bright spot of the defense, as they’ve gotten production out of Clay Matthews and Dante Fowler Jr. at outside linebacker. Donald is as good as he always is, but the fact that other defenders are stepping up certainly helps the defense in a big way. That trio of pass rushers is a handful for any offense.

5. The Rams traded for CB Jalen Ramsey to strengthen their secondary. Has Ramsey been worth the pair of first-round picks the Rams gave up for him? How has the secondary looked since he joined the team?

He’s been somewhat up-and-down so far, but the defense as a whole has been much better since he arrived. He allows them to play more man coverage and blitz more often, which leads to an aggressive style of defense. He’ll match up with Allen Robinson on Sunday night in what should be a good individual battle, and lining him across from No. 1 receivers is why the Rams paid up to acquire him. He was worth the cost, in my opinion.

6. What’s your prediction for the game?

I think the Bears are going to pull off the upset. Their defense has the ability to shut down the Rams, as we saw last season. And while Chicago’s offense is not very good, it’s good enough to win this game. Bears 20, Rams 17

Rams will ‘continuously drill’ Jared Goff on avoiding fumbles

Sean McVay knows the importance of Jared Goff keeping both hands on the ball when pressure arises.

Jared Goff is having a rough year despite ranking among the league leaders in passing yards. He’s regressed in every other notable statistical category, from completion percentage to touchdowns, to turnovers to yards per attempt. His passer rating has dropped significantly, too, going from over 100 in 2017 and 2018 to 82.7 this season.

One of Goff’s biggest flaws is his inability to protect the ball in the pocket. He led the league with 12 fumbles last season and is on pace to shatter that number in 2019. Goff has already fumbled it nine times in nine games, losing five of those fumbles.

Against the Steelers, he had three fumbles (one lost) to go along with two interceptions. That’s not the ball security any coach wants to see from his quarterback, let along one making as much money with as much experience as Goff.

Sean McVay said on Thursday that the Rams’ coaches will continue to emphasize the importance of ball security to Goff – and the rest of the offense, for that matter.

“Anytime you talk about that, everybody has a responsibility – coaches, player. Playing in the timing and rhythm sometimes taking a sack, keeping two hands on the ball is the best thing to be able to do there. I think it’s a collaboration of everybody, but that is certainly something that is a point of emphasis, you try to drill it,” he said. “It’s always hard to truly mimic and emulate that when you don’t get tackled and you don’t have the ability for guys really swiping at that hand, but he understands the importance of it. It’s something that we’re going to continuously drill and make a big point of emphasis and just keep drilling and keep working at it. We trust that, the things that we are talking about and I know how conscientious he is as well. That’s where you will start to see, hopefully some tangible results. It is a credit to those guys, but that’s definitely something that’s a point of emphasis for us as an offense, not exclusive to Jared.”

Goff’s nine interceptions are certainly a cause for concern, but so are his nine fumbles. His careless nature in the pocket when it comes to protecting the ball has become a troubling trend for the young quarterback, and the Rams are fortunate only five of his nine fumbles have been lost.

You can bet the Bears’ defensive front has recognized Goff’s carelessness in the pocket and will attack the ball when getting close to the quarterback. He fumbled it once in the Rams’ loss to Chicago last season, also throwing four interceptions.

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Rams’ predictability out of shotgun is becoming a huge flaw

The Rams throw the ball 96% of the time when they’re in shotgun, and teams are picking up on that glaringly obvious trend.

For two years, Sean McVay was one of the toughest coaches to figure out. His offense was dynamic and difficult to stop, helping elevate the play of everyone from Todd Gurley to Robert Woods to Jared Goff.

The basis of his offense is utilizing 11 personnel, pre-snap motion and play-action passes to deceive the defense. After all, common says having the same 11 players on the field for nearly every play makes it difficult to predict whether it’s a pass or run coming.

For two years, his scheme worked to perfection. This season has not been so kind to McVay with many suggesting he’s been exposed by opposing defenses. To an extent, that assessment isn’t necessarily wrong. But at the same time, the offensive line is decimated and Goff has regressed as a result.

But if there’s one thing McVay can control, it’s tendencies and tells. One in particular sticks out like a sore thumb when you watch the Rams play – and it’s probably something you’ve noticed yourself.

The Rams never run the ball out of shotgun formations.

According to Inside Edge, running backs have only gotten 12 carries out of the gun this year, picking up 45 yards on such plays. Both numbers are the lowest in the NFL by a wide margin. When the Rams go into shotgun formations, they throw the ball 96% of the time, according to Sharp Football Stats. Of course, that’s the widest differential in the league, with the next-closest team being the Buccaneers (91% pass).

When under center, the Rams are more balanced. They throw the ball 35% of the time (8th-highest) and run it 65% (25th). That’s why they’re able to run play-action fakes when the running back is lined up behind Goff, because there’s actually a threat to run the ball.

Sharp Football Stats

Out of the gun, the Rams don’t even bother trying with ball fakes. You almost never see Goff fake the handoff to Gurley when the two are lined up side by side. That’s because Gurley has only carried it eight times out of the shotgun for a measly 17 yards. Where’s the threat defenses have to account for?

Against the Steelers on Sunday afternoon, this tendency was on full display in the fourth quarter. On their last two drives, the Rams were in shotgun on every single play. Even with all three timeouts and nearly three minutes on the clock during their first drive, there was never a threat to run the ball by Los Angeles. No fake handoffs, no under-center plays, no play action. This tendency is so glaringly obvious that the Steelers almost certainly picked up on it coming into the game and knew that when the Rams were in shotgun, there was almost no chance they were going to run the ball.

As a result, they pinned their ears back and rushed Goff every time he was in the gun. This might seem obvious late in the game, and it is. Down five points, most teams are going to be airing the ball out. The Rams didn’t have to with three timeouts, but that’s the strategy they opted for.

This is the play just before the two-minute warning – a situation where running the ball is absolutely an option. Look how quickly the Steelers’ edge rushers get up the field, knowing there’s no chance the Rams are going to hand it off.

Clearly, gaining 3.8 yards per carry on rush attempts out of the gun doesn’t inspire much confidence. However, the fact that they’re not even trying to run it out of that formation is allowing defenses to know what’s coming. This wasn’t as big of a deal last season when teams were still trying to figure out McVay’s offense, but the Rams rarely ran it out of shotgun then, either.

They threw it 96% of the time out of the gun and ran it just 4% of the time. In 2017, the gap was closer: 87% run, 13% pass. With a full year of tape from last season to watch, and that tendency standing out so clearly, defenses have likely figured out what’s coming when Goff is in the gun – and McVay has yet to adjust.

It doesn’t help that the Rams have been in the shotgun more often this year than they were last year. In 2018, they used shotgun 38% of the time compared to 46% of the time this season. The more they use shotgun formations, the more predictable the offense gets.

Goff came from an Air Raid offense in college and lived in the shotgun at Cal. McVay has catered the offense to his skill set the last three years, giving him far more pass attempts out of the gun than under center since 2017. It also fits with what Gurley does best, running it from traditional singleback formations.

As bad as Gurley has been out of the gun in his career, the Rams do have a guy with a skill set that can have some success in those situations: Darrell Henderson. With Gurley seeing his workload limited, the Rams should take advantage of Henderson and hand him the ball out of the gun. At least that will keep the defense on its toes, rather than allowing edge rushers to pin their ears back and get after the QB.

Or what about a run-pass option (RPO)? The Eagles used that heavily on their march to the Super Bowl a few years ago. It’s an easy way to limit the effectiveness of a team’s pass rush, causing the defensive linemen to freeze for a second to read the play. Running RPOs with Goff and Henderson could be a nice wrinkle to the offense.

No matter what the solution is, McVay has to at least bring some unpredictability into the equation when the Rams line up in the gun. With no threat to run the ball, defenses are hardly ever fooled and pass rushers are teeing off on Goff. With a makeshift offensive line, that’s a disastrous combination.

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Burn This Play! That moment when Sean McVay lost his mind

In 2018, Sean McVay was considered the NFL’s greatest offensive play-caller. Doug Farrar explains how far things have fallen this season.

Each week, Touchdown Wire editor Doug Farrar will review one play that, due to an embarrassing use of scheme or personnel or situational awareness or a lethal combination of all three, should be removed from the playbook, set ablaze and never seen again. This week, let’s take a look at how one desperate coach — Sean McVay of the Rams — went rogue as his team seemed unable to remember how to score offensive touchdowns.

It’s safe to say that, one season after he took his Los Angeles Rams to the Super Bowl and was officially declared the greatest offensive play-designer in the NFL, head coach Sean McVay is searching desperately for answers. His offense has dropped from second in Football Outsiders’ opponent-adjusted efficiency metrics in 2018 to 21st in 2019. Behind a patchwork offensive line and let down by a suddenly unspectacular rushing attack, quarterback Jared Goff has — depending on your opinion of him — either regressed severely or simply found his true level as a mediocre quarterback who needs everything going right around him to succeed.

Goff’s touchdown percentage has dropped from 5.7% to 3.1%. His adjusted net yards per pass attempt (ANY/A) has gone from 7.69 to 6.22. And like his entire offense, Goff’s DVOA rating has plummeted — from fifth in 2018 to 24th in 2019. Per Pro Football Focus, Goff led the NFL with 16 touchdown passes off play-action in 2018; this year, through nine games in 2018, he has just one.

Perhaps the most embarrassing distillation of McVay’s offense this season came last Sunday when the Rams lost to the Steelers, 17-12. The Rams scored their points on a Dante Fowler fumble return for a touchdown, a sack of Pittsburgh quarterback Mason Rudolph for a safety, and a Greg Zuerlein field goal. Goff, who completed 22 of 41 passes for 243 yards and two interceptions, didn’t get near the end zone. On the day, the Rams’ offensive drives ended thusly: punt, punt, punt, punt, punt, fumble, punt, missed field goal, interception, interception, field goal, punt, punt, downs, interception.

Los Angeles Rams quarterback Jared Goff absorbs a hit from Pittsburgh Steelers defensive end Cameron Heyward in Sunday’s game. (AP Photo/Keith Srakocic)

Wait — that’s three interceptions, you may be asking? I thought Goff only threw two? Well, we’re about to get to that. The weirdest part of this total offensive failure came with 8:33 left in the third quarter. The Steelers were up 14-7, and Goff had thrown his first interception of the day to end the Rams’ previous drive. Now, McVay had third-and-2 to deal with after Todd Gurley’s 9-yard run on first down, and Goff’s second-down pass to tight end Tyler Higbee that lost a yard. At this point, the Rams had gone 13 consecutive possessions without an offensive touchdown.

So, McVay thought outside the box. WAY outside the box. Goff was hit hard by cornerback Mike Hilton on a blitz, causing him to throw quickly on the second-down play, and he left the field with what appeared to be a minor injury. In Goff’s stead entered backup Blake Bortles, who had taken only three snaps all season.

Then this happened.

Bortles botched the snap — he looked surprised by it, in fact — and ran to his right after what appeared to be a completely busted play for a 1-yard gain. One could assume this was the result of a bad quarterback coming in cold and trying to execute an offense he doesn’t yet understand. But Bortles was signed to a one-year contract in March after five up-and-down seasons with the Jaguars; you’d think he’d get the zone-read packages enough to avoid junk like this.

(Photo by Justin K. Aller/Getty Images)

After the game, McVay revealed that this was all part of the plan.

“Unfortunately, for us, that was one of the first times in the game, and it didn’t happen until the third quarter, that we really had a third-and-short situation come up,” McVay said. “There was a couple of things that we had potentially discussed as far as using Blake Bortles, his skill set — he’s a quarterback, but he also has some running threat. That was a play and kind of a package, if you will, that we had worked.”

In other words, they had practiced a play in which Jared Goff came off the field and Blake Bortles came into the game as a misbegotten option quarterback.

While you’re still marinating in that particular genius, it behooves us to explain what happened next. On fourth-and-1, McVay called something that had worked in the past — a fake-punt pass from Johnny Hekker. Before this play, Hekker had completed 11 of 20 passes for 179 yards and a touchdown in his seven-year career. He had never thrown an interception.

Until Sunday. This wasn’t even a fake punt per se — McVay basically threw Hekker out there as his third quarterback on fourth down. The Rams started off in a punt formation, but then motioned to a 3-by-2 empty set. Perhaps in a show of solidarity with Goff, Hekker looked a lot like Goff has all season when under pressure.

Not that this was all Hekker’s fault — since the Rams had special teams personnel on the field, there were no actual offensive linemen in his offensive line, and no top-tier receivers among his targets. Hekker may have been McVay’s most effective quarterback at that point in the game, so why not give him half a chance with offensive personnel?

“There was a certain look that we had, and it wasn’t quite exactly what we were looking for on the fake punt,” McVay explained after the game. “Johnny Hekker does a great job of recognizing those. Some of those things that you end up being able to activate in a game, if it doesn’t always work out the way we want, when you’ve got the right kind of guys like you do in Johnny Hekker and [special teams coach] John Fassel, we learn from it the right way. We use it as a chance to move forward in a positive manner when those situations present themselves in the future.”

Let’s hope so, for McVay’s sake. The Rams are now 5-4, losing ground to the 49ers and Seahawks in the NFL’s most top-heavy division, and if McVay is not able to wrangle some of last season’s brilliance, it will very quickly be a lost season for the Rams.

Touchdown Wire editor Doug Farrar has also covered football for Yahoo! Sports, Sports Illustrated, Bleacher Report, the Washington Post, and Football Outsiders. His first book, “The Genius of Desperation,” a schematic history of professional football, was published by Triumph Books in 2018 and won the Professional Football Researchers Association’s Nelson Ross Award for “Outstanding recent achievement in pro football research and historiography.”

Rams’ postseason push made much tougher by brutal schedule

The Rams have the fifth-toughest remaining schedule in the NFL.

If the Los Angeles Rams are going to make the playoffs, they’ll have to earn it. With only seven games remaining and 1.5 games separating them from the sixth wild-card spot, the Rams have a lot of work to do.

It doesn’t help that their schedule is one of the toughest the rest of the way. They still have to face the Ravens (7-2), Seahawks (8-2), Cowboys (5-4) and 49ers (8-1), as well as the Cardinals (3-6-1) twice. The Bears (4-5) this weekend will be no cakewalk, either, with the defense that Chicago boasts.

According to NFL Research, the Rams have the fifth-toughest remaining schedule in the NFL with their opponents boasting a 38-26-2 record the rest of the way.

You might have noticed something about the five teams with the hardest remaining schedules. Four of them are in the NFC West, which is undoubtedly the best division in football this season.

The Rams got their favorable matchups out of the way earlier in the season when they faced the Falcons and Bengals, as well as the Buccaneers (and even the Browns). They went 3-1 in those games, but the Buccaneers were a team they should’ve beaten.

Now, it’ll be tough sledding the rest of the way – and America will get a good look at the Rams, too, with four of their last seven games coming in prime time.

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The Rams are in serious trouble and ditching Jared Goff may be the only way out

After some ill-advised moves by the Rams front office, Goff is simply too expensive.

It was all good a year ago.

The Rams were rolling. Their young head coach was being hailed as a genius and rightfully so. Their 24-year-old franchise quarterback was squarely in the MVP discussion and months away from signing an extension that would keep him in Los Angeles for years to come. The do-it-all running back, Todd Gurley, was on pace to break the league’s touchdown record and had just signed a massive deal in the offseason. The offensive line was being discussed as one of the best of all-time. The defense hadn’t quite gelled but it was loaded with star power at every level.

After a thrilling 54-51 win over the Chiefs on Monday Night Football, the Rams were sitting on top of the NFL world. Fast-forward to November 2019, and things have taken a turn. A dark turn.

Sean McVay’s offense has been figured out. Jared Goff hasn’t played well for a calendar year and his newly-signed contract already looks like one of the worst in the NFL. Todd Gurley’s knee will never be the same again and he’s losing snaps at an alarming rate. The offensive line is among the worst in the league and just lost two more starters to injury. The three big defensive acquisitions of 2018 — Marcus Peters, Aqib Talib and Nadmukong Suh — are gone. The Rams limped out of Week 10 with a 5-4 record, but the odds of this team making a run at a wildcard spot are long.

Things change quickly in the NFL. A roster situation that was the envy of the league 12 months ago now looks bleak. Los Angeles is projected for just $25 million in cap space this offseason, doesn’t have a first-round pick for the next two years and has three key contributors — LB Cory Littleton, LT Andrew Whitworth, and OLB Dante Fowler Jr. — headed for free agency (or, in the case of Whitworth, retirement).

It gets worse. Gurley’s 2020 salary is already guaranteed and his cap number jumps to $17.25 million. Goff is looking more and more like a system QB and all of a sudden finds himself in a system that doesn’t make his job easier. And his unwieldy extension hasn’t even kicked in yet! Even if the Rams wanted to move on from him, they can’t really do so until 2023 unless they can find some mark to offload his contract onto.

This is not a very good football team as currently constructed, but things might get worse before they get better. With very little in the way of roster-building assets, GM Les Snead will have to get creative this offseason if the Rams are going to get back to where they were last November. Snead getting creative isn’t necessarily a good thing…

It’s easy to look back at those trades and ridicule the Rams for their short-sightedness, but they were lauded at the time for aggressively building up their roster during Goff’s rookie contract. Why that was viewed as a smart strategy is unclear, as there’s no evidence that the strategy actually works — especially when that rookie quarterback isn’t special.

The Rams got a Super Bowl appearance out of it, but it was the less-costly moves — hiring McVay and Wade Phillips; signing Robert Woods and Andrew Whitworth; drafting Cooper Kupp, etc. — that really fueled the team’s run. Cooks was good for the 2018 Rams but has struggled to stay healthy. Watkins was a disappointment in 2017. The same goes for Peters, Talib and Suh in 2018. Snead compared the 2018 acquisitions to the Warriors adding Kevin Durant to a 73-9 team, but for that metaphor to really work, Goff would have to be Steph Curry and that’s just not the case. A more apt comparison would have been the Warriors adding DeMarcus Cousins.

It turns out these Rams won’t provide a blueprint for teams looking to build around a quarterback on a rookie deal. They are more of a cautionary tale and not the only one you’ll find around the NFL. The Browns took a similar approach this offseason. GM John Dorsey has already burned through all of the assets collected by the previous front office and has a 3-6 record to show for it. The Jets were given credit for spending big this offseason with Sam Darnold on his rookie deal, and, well, we’ve seen how that’s turned out.

Snead will ultimately get the blame for the overly-aggressive approach, but this approach was backed by the entire organization. Rams executive VP of football operations Kevin Demoff said as much to The Ringer’s Kevin Clark before Super Bowl 53:

“I think in the sports world right now, there’s been, whether it’s the tanking phenomenon or the draft-pick phenomenon, everyone wants this really long window, and you can’t be afraid to raise your hand and say, ‘You know what, this happened a little faster than we thought.’”

Tony Pastoor, the Rams VP of football and business administration, compared it to what the Seahawks did to build up the roster around a young Russell Wilson during the Legion of Boom era.

“The key to building around a quarterback on a rookie contract is having the players to actually build it. Obviously, you look at Seattle, building around Russell [Wilson], they had players—Richard Sherman, Earl Thomas, Avril, Bennett, Wagner. They hit on those guys and knew what they had,” Pastoors said. “We were fortunate to hit on Jared and have Aaron, a superstar. Todd was a budding superstar. We were able to supplement those guys with guys like Robert Woods, Brandin Cooks, Andrew Whitworth. It all starts in the draft so that you aren’t trying to piece-meal it all together.”

But there’s an obvious difference between how those two rosters were constructed: Like Wilson, Sherman, Thomas and Wagner were also on cheap rookie deals. Bennett and Avril were undervalued vets who signed modest deals in free agency. The Seahawks did make an aggressive move trading a first for Percy Harvin before the Super Bowl season, but, as we’d later see when Seattle dominated the league with Harvin out injured, that was more of a luxury move.

The Seahawks have made more aggressive moves since then, but they’ve never reached the heights that young, cheap roster did and Wilson being one of the league’s best quarterbacks has helped cover up major holes on the roster. Goff is not providing the same value.

So that’s how the Rams got here. Now how do they get out of this hole?

Now that Snead has exhausted all of the team’s assets, it’s going to be hard for him to make any more aggressive moves. Instead, he’ll have to take a more subtle approach to build the roster back up.

He can start by dealing some of the team’s more redundant players. TE Tyler Higbee has lost snaps after signing an extension and trading him away could save the team $6 million. Trading safety John Johnson won’t save the team money, but he’s a good, young player with a team-friendly contract. He could bring back a Day 2 pick and second-round rookie Taylor Rapp has played well in his absence. The team could also restructure reliable vets like Robert Woods and Aaron Donald to save about $15 million total. And extending Ramsey should allow the team to bring his 2020 cap hit down a few million dollars.

Those moves would be a good start, but if the Rams really want to open up avenues to improve the roster, putting Goff on the trade block would be the best way to go about it. His contract will be hard to move, and the Rams would have to eat $20 million in dead money but they’d also save $16 million against the cap in the process. If they can get a first-round pick or multiple Day 2 picks, that would be hard to turn down. That would recoup some of the draft capital they gave back in their naive trade for Jalen Ramsey and give them about $65 million in cap space this offseason.

Getting a first-rounder for Goff (and his contract) may sound like a pipe dream at this point, but don’t forget: John Elway still runs a QB-needy franchise and Goff is tall. But seriously, Goff is a former first-overall pick and only a year removed from a productive season. This is a league that was willing to trade a first-round pick for Sam Bradford … in 2016. Some team will take the bait.

(Any team that did trade for Goff would be getting him at $130.5 million over five years, but it would essentially be the same deal that Kirk Cousins got in Minnesota. The first three years, which would cost $84 million, would be fully guaranteed. The last two years would be relatively cheap, especially with the cap to take several big jumps between now and 2023.)

With a number of veteran quarterbacks slated to hit free agency this offseason (could McVay get the most out of Marcus Mariota or Jameis Winston?) parting ways with your starter isn’t nearly as risky as it typically is. The front office would have the means to build the offensive line back up AND find a decent starting quarterback. That should be more than enough for McVay to get his offense back up and running.

McVay’s genius has been questioned this season, but the Rams’ offensive problems aren’t really scheme related. The woeful offensive line has prevented him from doing what he had done in the past, and Goff’s limitations have prevented him from adequately adjusting. Fix the line and you’ll fix the offense. Goff would, of course, look like his old self if that happens, but it’ll be difficult (if not impossible) to fix the line with no cap space or draft capital, and if he NEEDS everything to be right in order to play well, the team is better off moving on.

Will all of this allow the Rams to get to where they were at this time a year ago? Probably not, but it sure beats willingly falling off the cliff they’re headed for.

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Sean McVay admits he should’ve used Todd Gurley more vs. Steelers

Sean McVay tried to explain why Todd Gurley didn’t get in the game in the fourth quarter, saying Malcolm Brown was making plays.

The Los Angeles Rams could do very little offensively against the Pittsburgh Steelers on Sunday, picking up only 16 first downs, 306 total yards and scoring zero touchdowns. What they did do well was run the ball with Todd Gurley.

He had 12 carries for 73 yards in what was his most productive game since Week 1 when he had 97 yards on just 14 rushes. Yet, Gurley didn’t touch the ball in the fourth quarter and wasn’t even on the field for the first two drives.

It’s hard to imagine why the Rams abandoned their most effective player on Sunday, and Sean McVay didn’t have a good explanation. On Monday, he did admit that he should’ve done a better job getting him involved more throughout the game, which hardly grants him a pass for that decision.

“Getting a guy like Todd Gurley more involved and more a part of it is definitely something that yesterday benefitted,” he said. “That’s where you say in hindsight, I should have done a better of doing that consistently throughout the game.”

The real reason Gurley was on the bench for most of the fourth quarter has to do with two things: Malcolm Brown and the Rams defense’s inability to get off the field. The former is something McVay can control. The latter is not.

When asked Monday why Gurley wasn’t part of the fourth-quarter game plan, McVay pointed toward Brown’s ability to “make some plays.”

“I think it really just had to do with that we had kind of gone into it and just feeling it out, we feel like he is doing really well, he’s playing at a high level. Malcolm made some tough hard-earned runs too. He’s been a guy that’s demonstrated he can make some plays,” he said. “It’s nothing really other than that. I think like anything else, when you want to be reflective as a coach, you say, ‘Could there have been some things that you wish you had done to maybe keep him in that rhythm?’ I wouldn’t argue with that. I would say, ‘You probably should have done that.’ Those are things that I’ll never claim to make all the right decisions. I think yesterday was something where you probably could have given him an opportunity to continue with that rhythm that he did have going there.”

The second part of the equation was that the Rams didn’t have the ball very much in the fourth quarter. They had it for less than two minutes in each of their first two drives to open the fourth quarter. They gave it up with 10:46 left to play and didn’t get it back until 2:46 – a span of 10 minutes without the ball.

McVay said that obviously played a role in Gurley’s lack of involvement, but there’s little reason to pull him from the game in favor of Brown, who only had 6 yards on two carries entering the fourth quarter.

“(Gurley) did a good job,” McVay said. “You really look at it, the two drives that he did miss, that second drive that Malcolm was in was at 12 and a half minutes left in the game. Then, the next drive starts at two and a half minutes. I think there was a little bit longer time in between drives that typically you usually see. It wasn’t necessarily like that was the true crunch time. Todd had been running really well, but that was the beginning of the fourth quarter in those drives that Malcolm was in there. Then, when you do get the ball back offensively, you’re in two-minute mode, playing down where you’re playing for a touchdown with 2:39 – I want to say – left in the game.”

He continued, admitting he would’ve gotten Gurley the ball if he knew the Rams would go 10 minutes without being back on offense.

“I think there’s always things that you look at as a coach and say, ‘Would you do it differently?’ I think – not to take anything away from Malcolm – but if you knew that that was going to be the last possession you get until two and a half (minutes) left, you probably would say, ‘I would’ve preferred to have Todd get into more of a rhythm and maybe get some touches there.’ There’s nobody to blame there but me,” he said.

Gurley said after the game that he’s “used to” not getting the ball in the fourth quarter. He also said “not really” when asked if he wants it more in crunch time.

McVay said didn’t seem too concerned about Gurley’s answers, saying “anytime that you’re a playmaker like him, you’re going to want that ball and you’re going to want more.”

This situation doesn’t seem to be sorting itself out, but McVay has to find a way to get Gurley more involved – even if it means abandoning the plan to conserve him for the end of the season. The Rams are reaching desperation time and they can’t afford to lose many more games.

POLL: Who wins Week 11 contest between Bears and Rams?

The Bears and Rams will meet in a rematch of last year’s defensive battle on Sunday Night Football. Will the Bears emerge victorious again?

The Chicago Bears (4-5) will hit the road to take on the Los Angeles Rams (5-4) on the primetime stage.

The Bears are coming off a 20-13 win over the Detroit Lions, which snapped a four-game losing streak. Quarterback Mitchell Trubisky had his best game of the season against Detroit, and he and the Bears offense will be looking to build on that success.

The Rams are coming off a 17-12 loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers, where Los Angeles’ offense struggled mightily and their defense wasn’t able to come up with a critical stop on fourth-and-1. But the Rams defense certainly impressed, and they’ll be looking to do the same against Chicago.

Chicago and Los Angeles met last year on Sunday Night Football in what was a defensive battle. The Bears emerged victorious with a 15-6 victory over the Rams, after making quarterback Jared Goff’s night a long one.

Will the Bears repeat their defensive dominance against the Rams on Sunday? Will Chicago extend their winning streak to two games? Or will the Bears fall victim to the issues that affected them during their four-game losing streak?

Who wins on Sunday?

VOTE!

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Ex-Redskins coaches, players have found massive success since leaving

A number of the top minds in the NFL were at once a part of the Redskins organization, but they’ve found success elsewhere.

“I wish there was actually a way to know you’re in the good old days before you actually left them.”

Andy Bernard — played by Ed Helms — said that on the Season 9 finale of “The Office” years ago, but it fits pretty well with how the Washington Redskins might feel just about now. While they are currently sitting with the second-worst record in the NFL, a look around the rest of the league shows numerous staffers, coaches, and players finding great success in new locations. Whether it’s a coach who used to be a coordinator in Washington or a GM who found a new team to manage, it seems that the Redskins franchise was exactly the jumping-off point that these guys needed to get their careers going.

In case you need help remembering who all of those future stars were they go as the following: Kyle Shanahan, Redskins OC; John Schneider, Redskins VP of Player Personnel; Matt LaFleur, Redskins QB coach; Kirk Cousins, Redskins QB; Sean McVay, Redskins OC.

All of them were at one point in the building, working to bring success to Washington. Now, they’ve been able to find success elsewhere, and the Redskins are still sitting at the bottom of the league, looking for the right answers. Here’s to hoping that the good old days are right around the corner.

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Who has bigger quarterback issues, Bears or Rams?

Bears QB Mitchell Trubisky’s struggles are no secret to Chicago. But what about his friend Rams QB Jared Goff, who’s also struggling?

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The Chicago Bears’ quarterback struggles are no secret this season in the NFL. Mitchell Trubisky has been scrutinized on a weekly basis — everything from his play to his weekly press conferences. That’s what happens when you’re struggling on a bad team that was supposed to be a Super Bowl contender.

Some Bears fans are already clamoring for the offseason, where they hope Trubisky’s replacement awaits. But Chicago still has another seven games left to evaluate the former No. 2 overall pick to see if he’s worth sticking with.

Trubisky’s off to a good start to the second half of the season after a three-touchdown effort and a 131.0 passer rating in a 20-13 win over the Detroit Lions last Sunday.

Another team that knows something about a struggling young quarterback is the Bears’ Week 11 opponent, the Los Angeles Rams.

Jared Goff, who struggled in his first season under defensive-minded Jeff Fisher, thrived in the next two seasons with offensive guru Sean McVay. He quarterbacked a Rams team that went to the Super Bowl last season — and he was paid handsomely for it, nabbing a four-year deal worth $134 million with $110 million guaranteed.

But lately, Goff has been struggling worse than his friend Trubisky. Goff, the former No. 1 overall pick of the 2016 NFL Draft, has had five straight games with a completion rate below 60 percent, according to NBC Sports Chicago. Trubisky has managed a passer rating above 60 percent in four of his last five games.

While Trubisky has an 85.2 passer rating this season, Goff’s is lower at 82.7. Trubisky has thrown eight touchdowns and three interceptions this season to Goff’s 11 touchdowns versus nine interceptions.

Goff has a slightly higher QBR of 39.4 (which ranks 28th) while Trubisky has a QBR of 35.9 (which ranks 31st).

You could say that the Bears are better off than the Rams, who have already paid Goff a massive extension. At least the Bears haven’t paid Trubisky yet.

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