gurus looking at the Rams offense

Ted’s Film Room: The next iteration of Sean McVay’s offense

How new tweaks, new plays, and building on old concepts helped propel the Rams offense to the number one team in offensive DVOA through three weeks.

Link: https://t.co/TwPg2SlwHP pic.twitter.com/xatMoJSzsy

— Ted Nguyen (@FB_FilmAnalysis) September 30, 2020

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Ted’s Film Room: The next iteration of Sean McVay’s offense

Ted Nguyen

https://theathletic.com/2101366/2020/09/30/teds-film-room-the-next-iteration-of-sean-mcvays-offense/

Through the first three weeks of the season, the Rams are leading the league in offensive DVOA, Football Outsiders’ efficiency metric, by a wide margin. After a Super Bowl hangover in 2019 in which the team struggled to move the ball consistently, the Rams offense again looks like the explosive unit that took the league by storm during Sean McVay’s first two years as head coach.

Using a heavy dose of condensed formations, jet motions, and 11 personnel (one running back and one tight end), the Rams thrived on creating uncertainty for defenses by making everything look the same within the first couple of seconds of the play. Their outside zone, play-action and screen game all worked systematically to pick apart however defenses played them.

But trouble started brewing late in the 2018 season when the Lions slowed them down, then the Bears, then the Eagles. Their offense came to a screeching halt in the Super Bowl when the New England Patriots held them to only three points. Bill Belichick took note of what the Lions, Bears, and Eagles did defensively and used a 6-1 front with soft zone coverage behind it for most of the game. The brilliance of this relatively simple defense was that it accounted for everything that made the Rams hard to defend.

In 2019, several teams took that same blueprint and had success with it against the Rams. McVay had some answers, but it was hard for the team to execute because it had to rebuild their offensive line. This season, the Rams’ offensive line has been one of the top units this season, and McVay’s tweaks have made this offense more diverse without moving away from its core identity.

Using jet motion in the same direction as a run

Typically, McVay calls jet motion in the opposite direction of his runs to get second level defenders to bump over a gap away from the run direction. This season, the Rams are using jet motion toward the direction of the play. In the play in the image below, McVay called jet motion right with mid zone right, creating more flow toward the direction of the zone, which opens up cutback lanes.

Week 1, 5:03 mark of the fourth quarter, first-and-10

Above, the Rams had receiver Robert Woods run a jet motion toward the right, the same direction that they ran mid zone. Mid zone is similar to outside zone, but the back doesn’t attack the edge as hard and reads the first defensive lineman inside of the edge defender. The running back is looking for the vertical cut or cutback lane on mid zone rather than trying to get outside.

Goff had time to reverse pivot and give the illusion that he was going to hand the ball off to Woods rather than open up to the right for a straight hand off, because again, the back isn’t attacking the edge as hard as he would on outside zone. The jet motion caused the second-level defenders to all bump over a gap, creating more flow toward the right.

The blockers got on the inside shoulder of the second level defenders and took them in the direction the momentum was already going instead of trying to “hook” them by blocking them on their outside shoulder. By washing the defensive front toward the right, they created a cutback lane for the running back to run through to the left.

Picking up on tendencies could be a huge advantage for an offense. By calling jet motion toward the direction of a run, defenses can no longer assume a run will go in the opposite direction of the jet motion.

Spreading out when defenses stack the line

One of the problems that putting six players on the line of scrimmage causes for zone teams is that it takes away their ability to double team. All five offensive linemen and the tight end have to single block the six defenders. Because the Rams use so many condensed formations, defenses could stack the line and play soft coverage behind it because there really isn’t the threat of the quick passing game when the receivers are that close together. There’s just no spacing for it.

Week 3, 11:43 mark of the first quarter, second-and-11

Early in the game against the Bills, the Rams came out in a condensed formation, and the defense stacked the line of scrimmage with six defenders. Goff saw their alignment and checked out of the play. You could see him put his hands on his helmet to communicate a play change.

The offense shifted to a gun formation with Cooper Kupp lined up in the slot and ran a three-level flood concept (also called “sail”). Kupp ran the out route, while Woods ran the shallow from the offensive right (top of the image). The Rams cleverly used a rub to ensure Woods would get a free release and get to his landmark in time.

Kupp ran an excellent route and Goff threw him a perfect pass. Goff can struggle on outbreaking routes at times, but he’s been excellent this season. He’s quickly finding open receivers and throwing with anticipation and confidence. The numbers reflect that — he’s leading the league in yards per attempt with a staggering 9.6 average.

Run game diversity

Stacking the line of scrimmage with fronts like the 6-1 makes it tougher to run zone concepts, but gap schemes are quicker-hitting and don’t require blockers to sustain blocks as long. San Francisco head coach Kyle Shanahan has had success with mixing in some gap schemes like power and counter with his zone scheme. Using a fullback to run these schemes is advantageous because of the blocking angles they have from lining up in the backfield. The Rams are mostly a single-back team, but this season, McVay has used tight end Gerald Everett as defacto fullback to run F-counter.

The “F” in F-counter tells the fullback that he has to lead into the hole and block the mike linebacker. The frontside of the line down blocks, while the backside guard pulls and kicks out the playside end.

On gap-scheme runs, blockers fire off the ball and get vertical right away, so holes open up more quickly. In this image, you can see the line blasting open a hole to the left, the backside guard kicking out the end and Everett leading up to the mike. Also, the ghost motion is a nice touch because it froze the defensive back.

Running back Malcolm Brown was able to get north-and-south quickly, which is important when facing teams that stack the line of scrimmage. If he could get past the first level, there are fewer defenders on the second and third levels, which means there’s a great chance for an explosive run.

So far this season, McVay hasn’t increased his use of gap schemes, but his menu of gap-scheme runs is more diverse than it has been. Not that gap schemes are superior to zone runs, but they do add a nice change up for the offense and are a good answer against defenses that stack the line of scrimmage with defenders.

Another run scheme that the Rams have had a lot of success with this season is their zone wind back play.

Week 3, 8:05 mark of the third quarter, first-and-10

On this play against the Bills, running back Darrell Henderson took a couple of steps to the left to fake a zone run that direction before winding back to the right. Kupp started on the left of the formation, but after the snap, his job was to run across the line and lead block for the Henderson to the perimeter.

The offensive line zone blocked left, and Goff opened up left initially to add to the fake. The Rams even had Woods run a jet motion to the left to create even more flow.

The defense took the bait. Nearly every defensive lineman ended up to the left including the right end, who went inside of the tight end and lost contain on the play. The only defender remaining on that side was cornerback Tre’Davious White, and Kupp was there to block him.

Later in the game, McVay called a brilliant play-action concept off of this zone wind back.

Week 3, 10:55 mark of the fourth quarter, first-and-10

Woods faked the lead block that Kupp was responsible for in the previous play above this one, then leaked out into the flats. Kupp was lined up on the right, where the “frontside” of the run play would be if it was actually a run play.

White had Kupp in man-to-man coverage, but he remembered how the Rams gashed them with the zone wind back play earlier in the game.

When he saw Kupp block, White got his eyes in the backfield and ran up to the line of scrimmage to prepare to take on the lead block. After Kupp faked the blocked, he took off and ran a deep crosser.

Receiver Josh Reynolds was lined up to the left and took two defenders with him to the left on his route, leaving no one to that side to help on Kupp. White bit on the fake too hard and had no shot at recovering and covering Kupp.