what ails the passing game?

The Rams Need More From Their Passing Game

Bernie Miklasz

http://www.101sports.com/2015/11/01/the-rams-need-more-from-their-passing-game/

When it comes to passing the football, the Rams aren’t exactly delivering an impersonation of Air Coryell, or the Greatest Show on Turf. The 2015 Rams’ passing attack (if that’s the word) would have had Don Coryell and Mike Martz frustrated, embarrassed and on the verge of an emotional unmooring.

But this 2015 is what it is.

You mean, other than the sensational running back Todd Gurley?
Well, this:

— An offense that’s an extension of Jeff Fisher Football. Run the ball and defend. Run it some more, defend again. Run the clock down, and defend until the opponent surrenders.

— An offense that has the NFL’s least experienced offensive line.

— An offense that has a mostly mediocre cast of wide receivers and tight ends.

— An offense being guided by a first-time offensive coordinator, Frank Cignetti.

— An offense that has a new quarterback, Nick Foles.
The imagination is limited. The creativity is limited. The scope is limited. The points-scored total is definitely limited.
Will it change? There’s some hope, yes. But if the Rams are to emerge as a serious, rest-of-season threat to the first-place Arizona Cardinals in the NFC West, they’ll have to do more damage through the air.
That said, the Rams did hang 27 points on the 49ers Sunday. And with Gurley in the house, the Rams have their first true threat, their first big-play performer, since Marshal Faulk’s knees creaked to retirement after the 2005 season.

The offense remains under construction.

Is that an excuse? Hardly.

There are no excuses.

I’m just reaffirming the reality of the circumstances.

I don’t run the Rams. I just write about them.

Fisher and GM Les Snead drafted, signed or traded for the players that line up on offense. Fisher and the offensive staff coaches them. When Brian Schottenheimer left as the Rams’ offensive coordinator to take the same job on the collegiate level at Georgia, Fisher had a chance to go outside of the organization to bring in a new OC, but he promoted inside the team’s walls by elevating Cignetti.

This passing game was stocked by Fisher and Snead, and devised by Fisher’s coordinator and staff, and executed by players installed by the current regime at Rams Park.

Yes, you can win games by going repeatedly with Gurley and waiting for him to carry this burden on captivating runs. And he’s done a remarkable, odds-defying job of that so far. But unless Gurley is planning on running all the way to Canton and the Pro Football Hall of Fame right away, he can’t continue to do this by himself … even though he’s mostly been doing it by himself for the last four games. At some point, he’ll be stuffed and held to a low rushing total in a game.

The Rams have to give Gurley help. They have to cultivate a passing game that can burn defenses for loading up the box to squish Gurley under a pile of defensive linemen, linebackers and safeties.

A few token suggestions:

They Rams need to make more frequent use of play-action passes; Foles has been successful on those throws in Philadelphia and with St. Louis.
The Rams need to use of the middle of the field more frequently. They concentrate their passing game on the outside, and it’s become predictable.
And though the no-huddle offense was ineffective early against San Francisco, it’s too early to junk it.

Use the running backs in the passing game; the Rams have gotten some good gains with short stuff to their backs.

Why don’t the Rams go with quicker, shorter routes — like the slants?
The passing game can be perked up by trying some different things.
Because of the defense and Gurley, the Rams clobbered Cleveland and San Francisco for two consecutive wins and a 53-12 scoring differential despite converting only 2 of 21 third-down plays. Ugh.

That said, there were a few positives on Sunday including:

— The all-purpose shaking and baking by Tavon Austin, who had 119 yards and
two touchdowns from scrimmage against the Niners. The haul: four catches for 98 yards, including a 66-yard catch-and-vanish touchdown that made the win a formality. And three rushes for 21 yards including a two-yard yard TD that put the Rams up by 14 points (20-6) at the half. True statement: Cignetti is getting more production out of Austin that Schottenheimer ever did.

— Foles had a 101.9 passer rating and an average of 8.3 yards per passing attempt. Granted, both numbers were inflated by Austin’s ability to elude defenders in his 66-yard streak for a touchdown.

— Foles hasn’t been intercepted during this two-game winning streak. In the Fisher Football formula, it’s essential for a quarterback to avoid giving gifts to the defense. The Rams have to make as few mistakes as possible on offense.

— And as part of the Fisher Football template, the quarterback has to do his part in finishing off opponents after Gurley and the defense batters away to build a lead. In the last two wins, Foles has played well in the second half, completing 11 of 15 passes, averaging 11.53 yards per attempt, hooking up with Austin for a touchdown, and avoiding interceptions.

— The Rams’ young offensive line gave up two sacks in the win over Cleveland, and didn’t allow a sack in the victory over the 49ers.

— Well, now … Jared Cook lives. The enigmatic tight end has mostly been on the receiving end of booing and derision this season. Dropped passes and loose handling of the football have increased Cook’s disapproval rating with the public. It’s no wonder. But this offense can’t grow and become more threatening unless Cook reemerges as a middle-field presence to make the defense pay attention to him. He’ll have to rebound, or this passing offense will stay flat and continue to stagnate. As I said on my radio show last week, the Rams can’t give up on Cook. They have to get him going, and revive his confidence. Accordingly, Foles connected with Cook on a huge play in the second quarter against the Niners. Cook got free down the left hash, pulled in Foles’ throw, banged his way past two 49ers, and was dragged down inside the 5-yard line after a 49-yard gain that set up Austin’s touchdown dive at the right pylon. It was a big moment in the win.

— The Rams have a good SEC combo working in the backfield. In providing quality relief for Georgia’s Gurley, Auburn football alum Tre Mason carried 15 times for 46 yards. Mason didn’t have much free space, but he was able to squirm for the available yards. Mason did a good job, and the Rams will need more of this from him. As great as Gurley is, he’s still on the way back from knee surgery. And though Gurley is in the clear medically, the Rams have to avoid overextending him. That’s where Mason comes in.

Thanks for reading …

from off the net

—

fearsomefour

the play calling and kind of routes the team is running is revealing to me.

It is hard to tell watching a game with the normal tv view. Foles is late on a lot of throws or so it seems. The outs to the sideline the OC seems to favor protect the QB from having to make reads. It gives him a basket to throw into that is safe. If it is covered up it is an easy throw away. OCs protect QBs this same way with roll outs. One option or a throw away.

You don’t see the crosses, slants and intermediate stuff with the
Rams….the 15 to 20 yard cross. The Rams will run some stuff in the middle with the TEs but thats about it. That again is mostly scheme related trying to create some mismatches with LBs. The deep throws are usually one guy running deep with everything else underneath….again, no read here, there is usually one option, a predetermined deep shot. I like the deep shots and Foles throws a good deep ball.

I really believe the coaches don’t trust Foles to read the D, be on the same page as his WRs and have the ability to find secondary guys. First and second down it is easier to run some plays where the receiver is predetermined. Third and 8 everyone knows you are passing. I don’t mind first down passes especially versus a loaded box.

I believe the issue is Foles and his shortcomings as a QB. The OC is using him as a manager and little else. Take a few deep shots a game to try and create a big play or two….which can work as we saw vs Cleveland….beyond that don’t throw picks and let the D and running game do their thing. This approach can certainly work.

It would be nice to have a full, grown up NFL passing game to complement what Gurley is doing.

from off the net

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RustyRay

Just watch Foles on 3rd downs and how many throws go outside the numbers. He is missing things in the middle of the field a ton.

He has struggled due to pressure and his 1st instinct is to always throw outside…he has a heck of a time keeping his eyes down the middle of the field.

People love to hammer on the Rams WR’s and TE’s….but in reality they are getting open more then people think…its a mixture of Foles failures to see them and of the Rams being able to pass block well enough for the deeper routes to come into play.

With Gurley, Austin rolling, Rams should look to the middle more

Nick Wagoner

http://espn.go.com/blog/st-louis-rams/post/_/id/23211/with-gurley-austin-rolling-rams-should-look-to-middle-of-the-field-for-more

EARTH CITY, Mo. — St. Louis Rams coach Jeff Fisher has talked extensively this week about how running back Todd Gurley and receiver Tavon Austin have been able to have success in part because of each other.

That was abundantly clear in last week’s 27-6 win against the San Francisco 49ers. And while the Rams would love Gurley and Austin to continue to be the focal points of the offense, they also could use some help as they’ve contributed 50 percent of the offensive yards and 71 percent of the team’s non-defensive touchdowns to the mix.

So it stands to reason that if defenses have to worry about Gurley and Austin, something else should open up, right?

“I would think so, yeah,” Fisher said. “Competitively, I won’t go into details. But, yeah, Todd’s doing some good things, as is Tavon. We have to be creative offensively to create issues from the defensive standpoint.”

It’s certainly understandable that Fisher won’t get into his specific game plan for how his offense can capitalize on Gurley and Austin’s success, but here’s a modest proposal that could simultaneously help Gurley and Austin while bolstering the team’s ailing passing game: look to the middle of the field on a more consistent basis.

Overall, the Rams’ offense ranks last in the NFL in passing yards per game and their QBR of 39.0 is 29th. But they’ve been particularly ineffective throwing the ball between those hashmarks that break the field into three pieces.

In seven games, Rams quarterback Nick Foles has thrown for 87 yards between the hashmarks, which is just a single yard ahead of the Dolphins for the fewest in the league. That should come as little surprise since the Rams aren’t exactly attempting many passes between the hashes. Foles is seven-of-14 on such throws, with those attempts tied with Green Bay also for the second-fewest in the NFL.

While those numbers aren’t good, it’s interesting to note that of those seven completions in the middle of the field, four have gone for first downs and two have resulted in touchdowns.

The blame for those incompletions can’t all be put on Foles’ right arm. The Rams have struggled with drops all season and have three such miscues on pass attempts over the middle. One of the culprits has been tight end Jared Cook, who has two catches and two drops on throws between the hashes.

But that doesn’t mean the Rams should go away from Cook, who is the player on the roster best equipped to make plays over the middle of the field. At 6-foot-5, 254 pounds, Cook was signed to be a capable target over the middle. In his nearly two and a half seasons with the Rams, he’s averaged 17.2 yards per catch between the hashmarks, and before this season he’d caught two-thirds of the balls thrown his way in that area.

Cook also showed signs of getting back on track as a pass catcher against San Francisco, hauling in three passes on four targets, one of which went for 49 yards and another for a 2-point conversion.

Regardless of whether it’s Cook, tight end Lance Kendricks or someone else, if the Rams offense is going to continue to evolve, they’ll need to get players other than Gurley and Austin to help shoulder the load.

“If you’re concerned about Todd inside or on the edge, you may have to create a one-on-one with Tavon on the edge,” Fisher said. “So, those are the kinds of things that we’re working on.”