Changes & improvements on offense, big & small

OTAs a time of steady improvement for Robert Woods

https://www.therams.com/news/otas-a-time-of-steady-improvement-for-robert-woods

Last season was a career year for wide receiver Robert Woods.

Not that anyone in L.A. was really knocking his talent before — but in 2018, No. 17 shattered his career highs in receptions (86) and yards receiving (1,219), also setting a career high with six receiving touchdowns. Plus, he showed his versatility within head coach Sean McVay’s offense, taking 19 carries for 157 yards and a touchdown — including a 56-yard rush that helped propel the Rams to victory in Seattle during Week 5.

So what’s Woods working on during the offseason program for an encore?

“Just finding something from film — whether it’s breaking tackles, attacking the ball, [being] more physical,” Woods told therams.com. “Finding ways to make guys miss out here without pads — just finding a way to juke a guy. Just for me, I just try to challenge the yards after catch. It’s kind of like flag [football] out here right now, so if I can avoid being touched, then I can avoid being tackles.”

When it comes to the quarterbacks who have thrown passes to Woods over the course of his career, there’s been a decent amount of instability. From E.J. Manuel, to Kyle Orton, to Tyrod Taylor in Buffalo — this will be the first time for Woods as a pro that he’ll have the same staring quarterback for a third consecutive season.

Woods and signal-caller Jared Goff have already established solid chemistry, but how can they improve it?

“Just keep it going, really. Just improve on the little things that we were missing,” Woods said. “But other than that, stay consistent, keep doing what got us to this point, keep working. Just precision and communicating in the meeting rooms, out here on the field — whether it’s extra throws, or pre-practice — so we just always stay on the same page.”

As for the offense as a whole, Woods said he can see how McVay has continued to add elements to an already-complex offense to prevent the Rams from being stagnant in 2019.

“He’s still finding ways to find more cuts, find more routes, more concepts to improve and make this offense more unstoppable,” Woods said of McVay.

1.

https://www.cbssports.com/nfl/news/2019-super-bowl-rams-give-inside-details-on-how-patriots-were-able-to-shut-down-their-high-powered-offense/

Saying you got out-coached is one thing, but explaining how that happened is a completely different thing and that’s exactly what McVay did. If you’re wondering why the NFL’s second-highest-scoring offense only scored three points — tying a Super Bowl record for fewest points — it’s because they had no idea what the Patriots were going to do next. McVay said his offense was confused by all the stunts that the Patriots were bringing.

According to Goff, the Patriots defense was disguising its looks on nearly every play.

“Everything,” Goff said. “They were doing such a good job defensively mixing it up on us and we had a hard time moving the ball. They played so well, and we know what type of offense we are, and for them to do what they did to us tonight is impressive.”

. Left tackle Andrew Whitworth said the Rams couldn’t get their run game going because the Patriots switched up their defensive front and started putting six guys on the line.

“They did a really good job of playing us with six on the line all day and limited space to be able to get the runs through there,” Whitworth said. “Just missed opportunities for us.”

Running back C.J. Anderson saw the same thing Whitworth saw: The Patriots controlled the gaps on the offensive line for all four quarters, which made it nearly impossible for the Rams to run the ball.

“Gap control,” Anderson said of why L.A. had so much trouble on the ground. “They played New England football, that’s what they do. They’ve been doing that for years, so nothing changed. We just didn’t execute today.”

The problem for the Rams in Super Bowl LIII is that McVay just seemed overwhelmed by the spotlight and he never seemed sure about what to do when he saw his his team’s offensive struggles begin to unfold on the field. In something you’ll almost never hear from an NFL coach, McVay admitted he didn’t have a good feel for the flow of the game and that he struggled making in-game adjustments.

2.

http://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/25920798/how-patriots-defense-stymied-sean-mcvay-super-bowl-liii

Yeah, you give Belichick two weeks to prepare, he’s generally going to figure it out. He and Brian Flores, the linebackers coach who has been calling New England’s defensive plays this season and is expected to be named head coach of the Miami Dolphins this week, designed a game plan to stymie the Rams’ ground game and flummox quarterback Jared Goff. To hear the Rams tell it, it worked.

“Team defense,” Belichick said. “There is not one guy that can stop the Rams. They have too many good players and they’re too well-coached. We played the run competitively, we rushed the passer competitively, we covered competitively, and we didn’t give up big plays, which they hit on everybody.”

“They played six on the line all day, which kind of limited the space to get the runs in there,” Rams left tackle Andrew Whitworth said. “They played an open-field 6-2 almost, but with one guy in the middle — almost a little bit of goal line. And they played a lot more zone than they played all season, so that kind of shook it up a little bit.”

“When they start running zone, you’ve got to hold it a little bit,” Whitworth said. “And then they end up rushing six guys — all NFL rushers, all guys who can rush in the NFL — somebody’s going to have a mismatch somewhere.”

The results were a bit similar to what happened to Goff and the Rams in their Week 14 loss in Chicago. That night, the Chicago Bears played a bunch of zone concepts and intercepted Goff four times in a 15-6 victory. Until Sunday night, that point total was the Rams’ lowest of the season — by 17.

the zone looks on the back end made Goff more hesitant with his reads, which gave the guys up front even more time to generate the pressure on him. According to ESPN Stats & Information tracking, Goff faced pressure on 38 percent of his dropbacks and was 3-for-12 with an interception when pressured, tied for the worst completion percentage for any quarterback who threw at least 10 passes under pressure in a Super Bowl.