Goff watch, week 11

Jared Goff has the Los Angeles Rams offense rolling… and he was mic’d up in Week 10! #SoundFX

Here’s how the Los Angeles Rams rebuilt Jared Goff almost overnight

Mike Jones, USA TODAY Sports

https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/nfl/rams/2017/11/15/how-los-angeles-rams-rebuilt-jared-goff-overnight-sean-mcvay/864135001/

THOUSAND OAKS, Calif. — Jared Goff had the ball in his hands, his Los Angeles Rams trailing the reigning NFC West champion Seattle Seahawks by six with 67 seconds left on the clock.

The second-year quarterback scanned the field and found tight end Tyler Higbee on a seam route 35 yards upfield. Also in the neighborhood? Three of the NFL’s best defensive backs: Richard Sherman, Kam Chancellor and Earl Thomas, who had already picked off Goff once in this Week 5 matchup.

Goff pulled the trigger anyway.

“He drops back and delivers a dime,” Rams coach Sean McVay told USA TODAY Sports last week when recalling the sequence.

Goff connected with Higbee, dropping the pass just over the outstretched hands of Chancellor and Sherman and right in front of Thomas.

“He doesn’t flinch, man,” McVay gushed.

“This guy is not afraid to fail. He attacks it. That fearlessness while being smart is a great trait that a lot of the great ones have.”

The Rams’ comeback fell short as Seattle hung on for a 16-10 win that day. But for McVay, the Goff-to-Higbee play served as a measuring stick that displayed tremendous growth for a player in the midst of a dramatic transformation.

At this time last year, Goff, had yet to play in an NFL game despite being drafted first overall out of Cal. Then-coach Jeff Fisher finally gave him a shot in Week 11.

Naturally, the rookie struggled. Fisher got fired. Goff concluded the year with an 0-7 record after throwing seven interceptions and just five touchdowns. Critics were quick to deem him a bust.

But in January, the Rams hired McVay, then 30, making him the youngest head coach in modern NFL history. Team brass charged him with developing Goff into the face of a franchise trying to win over its new city.

Now nine games into their union, McVay has Goff playing at the level the Rams expected of a No. 1 overall pick. He directs the NFL’s highest-scoring offense (32.9 points per game) and his 2,385 yards, 16 TDs and 101.5 QB rating all rank among the top 10 league-wide among passers.

Most important, the Rams leading the NFC West with a 7-2 record while riding a four-game winning streak.

So, how exactly did McVay pull off such a quick turnaround?

First, he and general manager Les Snead improved Goff’s supporting cast, knowing no young quarterback — no matter how talented — could single-handedly transform a team. The Rams signed veteran left tackle Andrew Whitworth, center John Sullivan and receiver Robert Woods. L.A. then drafted tight end Gerald Everett in the second round and wide receiver Cooper Kupp in the third. Snead traded for Bills receiver Sammy Watkins during training camp.

Meanwhile, McVay, offensive coordinator Matt LaFleur and quarterbacks coach Greg Olson set out to properly develop Goff, convinced he could thrive despite his 2016 performance.

“I always remember that coach (Mike) Shanahan always said about players, ‘If he shows the ability to do it, then it’s our job to bring it out of him consistently’,” McVay explained, referencing his former boss with the Washington Redskins. “And so, even though that rookie year wasn’t what we want overall, he showed enough for you to say, ‘OK, it’s there. He’s mentally tough. He can hang tough in the pocket and keep his eyes downfield and take a hit.’ ”

During the offseason, Goff worked with respected private quarterback coach Tom House, who also trains Tom Brady, Drew Brees and Matt Ryan. House sharpened Goff’s mechanics to hone his accuracy and consistency.

McVay, LaFleur and Olson routinely preached the importance of body language, ownership and leadership. McVay and his assistants also studied the way Goff absorbed information, deeming him a visual learner who best applied classroom lessons through repetition. The staff repeatedly drilled the 6-4, 223-pounder until decision-making, execution and reactions became second nature.

By the time the Rams hit the field for spring practices, Goff already exhibited change.

“Sean’s definitely built up some kind of confidence within him,” receiver Tavon Austin told USA TODAY Sports, saying Goff’s progress was evident during OTAs. “Now, you see how he takes control of the huddle and has started knowing the offense inside and out.”

The new offense has helped position Goff for success as has the resurgence of running back Todd Gurley, who provides balance and makes play-action effective, which both buys Goff time and leads to big downfield gains.

“I thought last year he was handicapped in the offense,” Hall of Fame quarterback Dan Fouts, who has called three of Goff’s games for CBS this season, told USA TODAY Sports. “They were scoring 14 points a game, and really the philosophy of the offense is totally different from what you see in the NFL. Having seen him in college and knowing what kind of kid he is, I felt bad for him, basically. Nobody wants to be considered a bust, nobody wants to be booed at home, nobody wants that.”

Having endured trying seasons both in high school and college (Cal went 1-11 his first season as the starter), Goff believed things would improve despite his catastrophic rookie season.

“I think in the second preseason game — the Oakland game — that was the first time that we were like … ‘We’ve got a chance to be really good,’ ” Goff told USA TODAY Sports, while constantly emphasizing the focus on the team rather than himself.

“And then the game when we kind of felt like, ‘Alright, we’re here,’ was the Dallas game. We had beaten the Niners, and we were 2-1, and to go into Dallas and make it two on the road in a row? Long way to go, but that really helped our confidence.”

Goff and the Rams will be tested down the stretch as five of their final seven opponents, beginning with the Vikings this Sunday, have winning records. But based on what he has seen so far, McVay doesn’t expect Goff — described by coaches and teammates as “your typical chill Cali kid” — to wilt under pressure.

“He stays even keeled all the time. Now we’re really seeing it show up in games,” McVay said. “Again, he doesn’t flinch. That’s what you want. That demeanor and disposition rubs off on his teammates. When you’re calling plays in the huddle and you’ve got that calm, quiet confidence no matter what’s going on, that’s a special quality. He builds on his success, and when bad things happen, he learns from it. So, he’s just going to continue to grow.”

From inferior to elite: How Jared Goff and Case Keenum got here

Alden Gonzalez

http://www.espn.com/blog/los-angeles-rams/post/_/id/36417/from-inferior-to-elite-how-jared-goff-and-case-keenum-got-here

THOUSAND OAKS, Calif. — The 2016 season ended and Case Keenum sat down with Les Snead, the Los Angeles Rams’ general manager. It was your typical exit interview, the kind one would imagine after a woefully disappointing 4-12 season. By the end of it, Keenum felt it was “going to be in everybody’s best interest to move on.”

Keenum didn’t know what was next, but, really, neither did the Rams. They had Jared Goff, the young quarterback they took with the No. 1 overall pick in the most recent draft. But they didn’t know what they had in him. Goff started for the last seven weeks and finished with an 18.3 Total QBR, which ranked last among those with at least five starts at quarterback. Keenum finished with a 37.5 Total QBR, last among quarterbacks with enough reps to qualify.

A year later, according to ESPN Stats & Information, Keenum and Goff represent the NFL’s two biggest Total QBR improvements. They’re leading two 7-2 teams, playing at their best heading into Sunday’s highly anticipated matchup between the Rams and the Minnesota Vikings from U.S. Bank Stadium in Minneapolis.

“I’m pumped for him,” Keenum said about Goff to L.A.-based reporters on a conference call.

“I couldn’t be happier for the guy,” Goff said of Keenum. “He deserves it all.”

Goff has completed 39 of 59 passes for 666 yards, seven touchdowns and zero interceptions in the past two games. He leads the NFL with 8.5 yards per attempt and ranks seventh with a 101.5 passer rating for a Rams team that is averaging a league-best 32.9 points per game. Keenum, still holding off Teddy Bridgewater for the Vikings’ starting job, is coming off a four-touchdown performance and ranks third in the NFL with a 72.6 Total QBR for an offense that ranks seventh in defense-adjusted value over average, or DVOA.

Keenum was asked whether he could have ever predicted this, he and Goff playing so well for offenses that are running so efficiently.

“I think you predicted that, right?” Keenum said, drawing a laugh. “It’s a funny game and it’s a crazy business, but that’s what makes this so cool.”

The success of Goff and Keenum seems, ostensibly, like an indictment on Jeff Fisher, the former Rams coach who oversaw ineffective, antiquated offenses for half a decade.

But there’s more to it than that.

A new Goff

For Goff, Fisher’s absence is only half of one answer.

First-year Rams coach Sean McVay, who at 31 is already one of the game’s sharpest offensive minds, has put a staff and a scheme around Goff that has set him up for success. But the Rams also have better players around him. Goff is taking snaps behind a significantly improved offensive line, thanks to the additions of left tackle Andrew Whitworth and center John Sullivan. And he’s throwing to a far more talented collection of receivers, a group that includes a trio of newcomers in Sammy Watkins, Robert Woods and Cooper Kupp.

But Goff has improved, too.

He went to work at the very beginning of the offseason, immersing himself in film at the Rams’ facility by early January. He studied McVay’s Washington Redskins offenses as soon as the Rams hired him later that month, then worked at the acclaimed 3DQB program in California when NFL rules kept him from being around the team. When new receivers joined, he scheduled workouts to throw with them immediately.

Goff’s Rapid Rise

Jared Goff has thrown 10 passing touchdowns and no interceptions in four road games. Of the 44 quarterbacks with at least 15 pass attempts on the road this season, he’s the only one who has yet to throw an interception. A breakdown of his improvement from 2016 to 2017:

2016 2017
Comp pct. 54.6 61.2
Yards per att. 5.3 8.5
TD/Int ratio 0.7 4.0
Total QBR 18 54
ESPN Stats & Information

Some of that work ethic came from watching Keenum.

“He wasn’t super highly touted coming out of college, and he made his career by working hard,” Goff said. “That hard work is something I tried to grasp as much as I could.”

The criticism toward Goff was intense after a rookie season in which he completed 54.6 percent of his passes, averaged 5.3 yards per attempt, threw five touchdowns to seven interceptions and lost all seven of his starts. But teammates quickly saw someone taking more command of this offense, and of his career, heading into 2017. Woods, who came over as a free agent, saw a natural thrower.

“It started in the summer,” Woods said. “He has a pretty ball. It’s just shorts and a T-shirt, but I’ve seen him click in the season and in training camp. He’s been in control and been dominant pretty much since I got here.”

Goff heads into Sunday as the first quarterback in franchise history with back-to-back performances of 300-plus passing yards, three-plus touchdowns and zero interceptions. He has taken only 13 sacks, half the number he absorbed in two fewer games last season. Thanks to McVay’s scheme, which marries the run and the pass in innovative ways, he has thrown 12 more touchdowns than interceptions and is on pace for 4,240 yards.

Goff’s mental toughness draws constant praise — Keenum volunteered that himself, while talking about how Goff handled a trying 2016 season — but McVay also sees evolution in Goff’s decision-making.

Todd Gurley, the NFC’s leader in yards from scrimmage, isn’t surprised by Goff’s emergence in his second season.

“The guy went No. 1,” Gurley said. “Dude don’t go No. 1 for no reason.”

Making his Case

Those were the circumstances under which Keenum entered the 2016 season. He was the incumbent starter, a man who performed well for a lifeless offense in the final four games of 2015 with the Rams. But the Rams moved up 14 spots to take Goff in April of 2016, and the focus never shifted away from him.

Keenum started the first nine games of the 2016 season, all of them amid incessant speculation about when Goff would take his turn. By Week 9, a home crowd was chanting “We want Goff!” whenever Keenum’s passes fell incomplete. The following week, after a 9-6 road victory over the New York Jets, Goff was named the starter. Fisher made up his mind before that game even began.

“I wasn’t happy,” Keenum said then. “I want to play.”

But Keenum remained a captain and vowed to keep his focus on the team, even with free agency months away. He promised to be there for Goff, which is why so many in the Rams’ locker room are now happy to see Keenum succeed on his own.

“Everybody here has an abundant amount of respect for him,” Rams left guard Rodger Saffold said.

“I think Case is a heck of a football player,” defensive tackle Aaron Donald added. “Things happen how they happen, and they happen for the best, I guess, because he’s playing good football.”

Keenum, like Goff, is largely a product of better surroundings. He throws to arguably the NFL’s best receiver duo in Stefon Diggs and Adam Thielen, and he also has a reliable tight end in Kyle Rudolph. He’s supported by a running game that, with Jerick McKinnon and Latavius Murray, remains strong in the wake of Dalvin Cook’s season-ending injury. The offensive line, meanwhile, has improved significantly with the offseason additions of tackles Riley Reiff and Mike Remmers.

But it starts with Pat Shurmur, the Vikings’ offensive coordinator who has in some ways catered his offense to Keenum, a more mobile quarterback than Game 1 starter Sam Bradford, who is on injured reserve with a knee injury.

“I love the scheme,” Keenum said.

But Bridgewater is healthy now, nearly 15 months after suffering a devastating knee injury during practice. Keenum’s days as the Vikings’ starter seem numbered. That has been the story in each of his five NFL seasons since going undrafted in 2012. His leash is always short, his margin for error perpetually small.

In the meantime, though, Keenum — and Goff, for that matter — is proof that good quarterbacks can thrive in the right environments.

“That’s an outsider’s perspective; it’s not for me to say,” Keenum said, deflecting the logic. “What I try to do is try to be the best quarterback that I can be and put my team in the best chance possible to win football games — no matter what team I’m on, no matter what offense I’m in, no matter what play is called.”