plays & players: breakdowns, starting week 8

Never seen @RamsNFL pic.twitter.com/ykTNFo7uom

— Dan Orlovsky (@danorlovsky7) October 25, 2024

.@rams @AsapPuka Ramms are getting their arsenal back into the lineup…Sure look ready to make a second half surge to me. #BaldysBreakdowns pic.twitter.com/cxd39SXgSV

— Brian Baldinger (@BaldyNFL) October 25, 2024

Jared Verse cheats down to 4-tech, steps in clubs/swims the LT big time, then fired down the line

RDT is also head up, Kobie Shaded on center, Brown at 5 tech

Kobie, LDT, also swims his guy, Hoecht sets the left edge

Run defense is TEAM defense pic.twitter.com/i37O3Znir6

— Jim Youngblood 53 (@53_jim70721) October 25, 2024

.@rams defend @Vikings @JJettas2 on a critical 3rd & 5+5. The Rams just so prepared on a short week. Coaching matters #BaldysBreakdowns pic.twitter.com/fcbBcYEsz7

— Brian Baldinger (@BaldyNFL) October 25, 2024

rams second drive: stafford gets drilled after the throw on a perfectly timed / executed vikings stunt, then comes back two plays later and throws a td strike under heavy pressure – dawg. pic.twitter.com/h8G9sLF4Aa

— roberto clemente (@rclemente2121) October 25, 2024

Anatomy of a Play: Matthew Stafford Used His Brain and His Arm for a Major Touchdown Pass
Matthew Stafford of the Rams combines arm talent and football smarts as few quarterbacks ever can, and it burned the Vikings on one big play.

Doug Farrar

https://athlonsports.com/nfl/los-angeles-rams/matthew-stafford-demarcus-robinson-vikings-brian-flores

Now that the Minnesota Vikings have dropped two straight games after a 5-0 start to the season, and Brian Flores’ usually amazing defense has looked far more mortal over that time, there are some who are worried that the rest of the NFL has “figured out” Flores’ petri dishes of evil pass-rush and coverage switches pre- and post-snap, and this team will be a paper tiger from here on out.

In truth, what the losses to the Detroit Lions and the Los Angeles Rams really showed is that if you want to beat Flores’ defense, you need a quarterback who can read a defense like first-period French in 0.1 seconds, the arm talent to exploit those football smarts, and a chemistry with a play-caller that lets the quarterback play both in and out of structure.

The Vikings just got charred by two of the very few quarterbacks who have all those attributes — Jared Goff in a 31-29 nail-biter on October 20, and Matthew Stafford in Thursday night’s 30-20 Rams win that was uglied up by one of the worst calls you’ll see all season from one of many officiating crews that shouldn’t be allowed to wear stripes to manage third-grade recess.

That debacle aside, the most consequential play of the game may have been Stafford’s 25-yard touchdown pass to receiver DeMarcus Robinson with 2:40 left in the third quarter. The Vikings were up 17-14 at this point, and while there were cracks in Minnesota’s defense against a version of Stafford making effortlessly ridiculous throws all over the field at SoFi Stadium, this may have been the killer.

And it came about from something Stafford said to Robinson in the huddle before the play.

Before this play, the Vikings had played man coverage on just one of Stafford’s 34 passing attempts — this 14-yard in-and-up to Puka Nacua with 13:29 left in the first half.

So it was highly interesting that Stafford had a sense he’d see it again here.

“It was kind of a designed little choice route inside for Cooper [Kupp], but to be honest with you, there’s something that happened in the huddle before the snap,” Stafford said postgame. “I’m like ‘Hey, D-Rob. we may be alive on this,’ and just felt like we might catch man coverage. They’d been doing a bunch of show man, drop [into] zone the whole game, trying to keep it in front of them, and I felt like they might get aggressive there, and they did. And then he did a hell of a job going and making a play. That’s what D-Rob does. He makes plays for us, and when his number was called, he made it tonight.”

Both plays were against Cover-1, and on the Robinson touchdown, it was Josh Metellus as the deep safety as opposed to Cameron Bynum, who was the deep-third guy on the Nacua catch. Metellus is a good overall player, but he’s lined up at free safety on just 37 of his 432 snaps this season, and there are reasons for that. When Stafford saw cornerback Shaquill Griffin pressed up on Robinson with questionable help up top, that probably reinforced his theory.

Rams head coach Sean McVay pointed to the Rams’ ability to deal with the Vikings’ pressure concepts, and a reduced rate of blitzes, as a factor in how Minnesota might have wanted to go for something different on this play.

“Early on, they did it a little bit but they didn’t pressure nearly as much as they had shown on tape,” McVay said of the expected blitz stuff. “I thought Stafford was hot from the jump. They slowed that down and really they didn’t pressure a whole lot in general. They brought the pressure at the end… but for the most part they didn’t do nearly as much as what they had shown. Coach Flores does a great job mixing it up, but I thought we were able to really get run, pass, keep the ball in play. I thought even being able to push the ball down the field because our offensive line was holding up, even if we didn’t hit it, it ended up loosening things up. The big play was DeMarcus Robinson’s touchdown on the go ball down the far sideline. They played a man coverage, caught him right there. I thought Stafford played really well, and I loved his response.”

All the Vikings could do was to tip their collective caps, and move on to next week. Sometimes, no matter how good you are, the guy you’re facing just has a bit more on the ball in the most important moment.

McVay’s defense should know how to defend a basic outside zone run concept with play-side motion (and they do). Few things:

• Young front looks better each week, YPC decreased as game went on
• Hoecht gets doubled and still makes a play
• One of Bobby Brown III’s best games pic.twitter.com/LkbSPfBGXF

— Rams Bros. (@RamsBrothers) October 29, 2024

Byron Young is still a speedster, even after putting on some muscle pic.twitter.com/1GNXValIMd

— Jim Youngblood 53 (@53_jim70721) November 2, 2024

Cooper Kupp sideline catches are works of artpic.twitter.com/ovQbU1Zb92

— Underdog NFL (@Underdog__NFL) November 3, 2024

.@RamsNFL both Fiske & Verse are a coming! Just like what they were doing @FSUFootball Cant wait to watch the development in 2nd half of season. #BaldysBreakdowns pic.twitter.com/hCBoWDnOuQ

— Brian Baldinger (@BaldyNFL) November 6, 2024

the 3rd and 1, prior to the 4th down stop, didn't get talked about enough.

Rams in a DIME defense, Seattle in 11, but run a short yardage play –

Lake comes up to create 5-man surface … he's basically the OLBer. Byron Young is a standup 3-tech (DT) pic.twitter.com/8fx0sg49UE

— Jim Youngblood 53 (@53_jim70721) November 7, 2024

.@RamsNFL @Jay_Mccollough2 with his 4th INT last week in another OT game. How will these youngins fare against @dolphins on #MNF. #BaldysBreakdowns pic.twitter.com/eXnQinLpJA

— Brian Baldinger (@BaldyNFL) November 9, 2024