analysts praising McVay offense (a lotta good stuff here)

Logic, simplicity make Los Angeles Rams’ Sean McVay NFL’s brightest offensive mind

All coaches vow to do it, but none maximize their personnel better than Rams HC McVay

MARCUS MOSHER

https://www.profootballweekly.com/2018/09/26/logic-simplicity-make-los-angeles-rams-sean-mcvay-nfls-brightest-offensive-mind/amzolzk/

The list of coaches who are considered to be brilliant offensive minds in the NFL is rather small. New Orleans’ Sean Payton and Kansas City’s Andy Reid often are the first two coaches who come to mind, as they are consistently able to produce top offenses. Another name entering the conversation is Philadelphia Eagles head coach Doug Pederson, who won a Super Bowl last year and is now widely considered one of the best coaches in the game. Many think Chicago’s Matt Nagy and the New York Giants’ Pat Shurmur could be the next ones to make that leap from successful offensive coordinators to star head coaches.

But at the top of the pantheon of offensive minds in the NFL is Sean McVay of the Los Angeles Rams. In 19 games as the Rams’ head coach, the team is averaging well over 30 points per game and nearly 375 yards of offense each week. They are the most explosive offense in the league.

You would think that all of this offensive explosion is the result of either a fantastic scheme or a generational type of quarterback like Peyton Manning or Aaron Rodgers. However, that’s not really the case. Instead, McVay’s scheme and overall philosophy about offense is fairly simple — put the ball into the hands of your best playmakers in favorable situations.

On the surface, that doesn’t seem like a very difficult thing to do. Every season, you will hear coach after coach talk about getting their players into space or getting them more touches, etc. But McVay is one of the few coaches who does it. He understands situational football and how defenses usually like to attack offenses, depending on the down and distance. He knows what situations will likely produce favorable results and which ones won’t.

Let’s take a look at a couple of plays from last week’s game that show how McVay torched the Los Angeles Chargers’ defense by just using logic and basic game theory.

We will begin with running the ball. The single most important and impressive thing from McVay is that he doesn’t put his offense into poor situations all that often. He sets them up for success by avoiding arrogant play calls.

What do I mean by arrogant play calls? Most coaches around the league are stubborn. They believe they became head coaches or offensive coordinators because of their wonderful scheme or play-calling. Some coaches still believe that being the more physical team is what wins in the NFL. You’ll often hear coaches utter cliches before the game about how they want to establish the run, control the line of scrimmage, blah, blah, blah. That’s all fine and dandy, but putting yourself into poor situations often leads to losing football.

McVay does a really good job of not buying into this line of thinking when it comes to play-calling. As simple as it may be, he takes what the defense gives him and doesn’t pound his head against the wall when facing an unfavorable situation. The easiest example of this is how the Rams choose to attack the run game.

According to the NFL’s Next Gen Stats, Todd Gurley has rushed against eight or more defenders in the box on just 16 percent of his carries so far this season. That means he carried the ball just 10 times against a loaded box. According to the site, 37 other running backs in the league have seen a higher percentage of their carries against eight or more defenders in the box.

Does that mean that those 37 running backs are better than Gurley because they are “demanding” more attention from defenses? Of course not. McVay knows that running against loaded boxes is usually pointless and inefficient. You are going to average a significantly lower yards per carry when there are more defenders in the box. The only time it’s acceptable is in short-yardage situations, at the goal line or when running out the clock at the end of the game. Any other time, you are just throwing away opportunities to put points on the board.

The Rams only run when the numbers are in their favor. Take a look at this run by Gurley in the first quarter of last week’s game. The Rams come out in ’11’ personnel, forcing the Chargers to counter with their nickel package. That move, in itself, will create a numbers advantage for the offense as now there are only two linebackers on the field.

But McVay doesn’t stop there. To create an even bigger disadvantage for the defense, the Rams run a fake jet sweep, which causes the backside defensive end to pause for a fraction of a second.

11-yard run by #Rams RB Todd Gurley vs 5-man box. pic.twitter.com/C6dbNQIQr7

— Marcus Mosher (@Marcus_Mosher) September 25, 2018

At the snap of the ball, there were only five defenders “in the box” to stop the run. When you add in the jet sweep, there are now four defenders trying to beat five blockers and the running back. That is a pretty nice advantage for the offense. Again, is this anything outside of the norm in terms of play design in the NFL? Nope. But it’s just another example of McVay using common sense when calling plays.

McVay has also added in packaged plays for his quarterback, Jared Goff. If Goff recognizes that the numbers aren’t in their favor for running the ball, he can make a quick audible to a pass and he will have numbers now in the passing game. Here is a perfect example of this from Sunday.

I love this play design by Sean McVay. pic.twitter.com/peaaHQCKz0

— Marcus Mosher (@Marcus_Mosher) September 25, 2018

Getting the numbers advantage in the run game is somewhat simple, but finding ways to pass the ball efficiently is a little bit more difficult. However, there are ways to exploit NFL defenses that are so simple that most teams just gloss over them.

McVay has taken advantage of passing the ball on early downs. According to Warren Sharp, over the past two seasons, passing the ball on first down has been successful 53 percent of the time, while rushing has just a 45 percent success rate. Over the past two seasons, the average yards gained on first down via pass is 7.2 vs. 4.0 on the ground.

By using this data, it makes sense to throw the ball more often on first down — and that’s exactly what the Rams have done. But that’s not the reason why the Rams have so much success on offense. There are plenty of teams in the NFL that throw the ball a ton on early downs. But McVay and the Rams just do it a little differently.

Generally, teams are afraid of giving up big plays on first and second down. However, on third down, defenses will typically crowd the first-down marker and do their best to protect the line to gain. Everyone’s goal in the NFL is to limit big plays and make stops on third down. A sound defensive philosophy, right?

In order to ensure that a defense doesn’t give up a big (passing) play, defenses will usually have their safeties further back on earlier downs. That is especially true if a team comes out in a passing situation. Because safeties are lined up deeper on early downs, that opens up routes underneath. Defenses don’t mind giving up small chunks of yards on first and second as they view it as a “win” if the opponent doesn’t convert a first down.

Through three weeks, Todd Gurley has 11 receptions for 124 yards on first and second down. Guess how many catches he has on third down? You guessed it — zero. On early downs, you the Rams take advantage of defenses by often sending receivers deep to open up bigger lanes for Goff’s underneath receivers. Take a look at this play on 1st down for the Rams in Week 3. The two outside receivers run deep routes and Gurley runs to the flat for an easy reception and gain.

Easy pitch and catch from Jared Goff to Todd Gurley for 16 yards. pic.twitter.com/QbPmJmKHDz

— Marcus Mosher (@Marcus_Mosher) September 25, 2018

This isn’t a great play design or something so innovative that hasn’t been replicated by other NFL teams. This just McVay and Goff understanding how defenses will usually allow short throws and completions on early downs. It’s also as simple as getting the ball to your best playmaker in space. Offense doesn’t have to be that complicated. I could go on and on showing you how McVay creates easy throws for his quarterback or big rushing lanes for his backs, but you should get the point by now. He’s making offense as simple as it can be.

McVay is going to be successful in the NFL for a long time for a variety of reasons. He doesn’t have a set scheme for defenses to figure out over the next several seasons. Instead, he’s going to continue to play the percentages and adapt to whatever defenses decide to allow. McVay isn’t stubborn or prideful. He is just going to put his team into the best situations possible to succeed. And that’s why he is the greatest offensive mind in the NFL today.

Jared Goff and Sean McVay quickly becoming one of the NFL’s great pairs

QB, head coach appear perfectly in sync as Rams move to 4-0 with Thursday shootout over Vikings

ERIC EDHOLM

https://www.profootballweekly.com/2018/09/28/jared-goff-and-sean-mcvay-quickly-becoming-one-of-the-nfls-great-pairs/adrr07o/#.W67PjrDDEEU.twitter

LOS ANGELES — Of all the plays the Los Angeles Rams dialed up on Thursday night in their 38-31 win over the Minnesota Vikings, the one that might leave the biggest lasting memory was the 70-yard pass from QB Jared Goff to Cooper Kupp in the second quarter.

It happened in the middle of an Old West gunfight, the Rams and Vikings furiously trading blows offensively in the unexpected shootout at the Los Angeles Coliseum. These are two of the teams with some of the best defensive talent in the league, but on this night it was the showcase of offensive wizardry.

The game opened with three straight scores and a 10-7 Vikings lead early in the second quarter, but Goff and head coach Sean McVay were cooking. They moved the ball systematically on their first drive and knew there were yards to be had out there on that field. Forget that this was a short week against a good defense; McVay had drawn up a game plan that could take these Vikings apart.

On 2nd-and-5 from the L.A. 30-yard line, the Rams were very confident they could get the look they wanted. Kupp, a 208-pound wide receiver, lined up in essentially a tight end position on the left side of the formation. On him was Vikings LB Anthony Barr, a 255-pounder. That’s all the Rams needed to see. They had already exploited that matchup early for a touchdown, and they’d go back to that well later for good measure.

The play was a version of an old Mike Shanahan staple — the tight end throwback he used to bludgeon people with, using Shannon Sharpe — except this time it was Kupp working across the formation on a drag route, converting it to a wheel route down the right sideline. And just as the Rams had dreamed it up, it was Barr trailing in coverage.

“You hope to get those [looks],” Goff said. “You never really know what you’re going to end up getting. But if your film study stays true and you dial it up the right way, like Sean did, it’s really fun.”

Goff threw a gorgeous 28-yard rainbow and hit Kupp in stride, with the wide receiver covering the rest of the ground for the score. It would be the longest pass play of the young season for the Rams and Goff, who threw for a career-high 465 yards — smashing his previous-best total — on a tidy 26-of-33 passing, with five TDs.

“I thought Jared threw that with great touch and trajectory right there,” McVay said

Afterward, Goff ran back to the sideline with another script he and McVay had cooked up earlier in the week: a post-TD celebration chest bump. This might seem right in the wheelhouse of the 32-year-old head coach, but it actually seems a bit atypical for the rather steady-as-she-goes Goff.

But even he had to laugh after the game about that connection, which actually knocked his coach to the ground.

“I told him later, I didn’t mean to knock you over there,” Goff said sheepishly. “I was just fired up there a little bit.”

McVay seemed OK with the end result. After all, they actually worked on this in practice.

“He drilled me. He got me pretty good. We were both excited,” McVay said, before bringing it back to football. We had talked about that play, and when things work out the way that you hope, it’s a fun, exciting moment for players and coaches.”

It was so much fun that Brandin Cooks had to get in on that. After Cooks’ 47-yard touchdown later in the second quarter that put the Rams up 28-17 and pad a lead they wouldn’t relinquish, Cooks ran over and made sure to get in his chest bump with McVay.

“We’re just playing well right now, playing with so much confidence,” Cooks said. “That’s when it becomes really fun.”

Cooks, Kupp and Robert Woods all went over 100 yards receiving and caught at least one touchdown. Kupp had a pair of scores on nine catches for 162 yards — all three of them career highs. Todd Gurley ran for 83 yards, helping grind out the game late, and he did a lot of damage early with four catches for 73 yards and a touchdown.

This is where scheme meets talent. You can argue that McVay is calling some brilliant plays right now because he is. But you also must note that Goff is absolutely on point. Those things do not have to be mutually exclusive.

But there’s also a lethal side to this team. McVay’s superior play design and willingness to let his players dictate the game are what make him the best young coaching prospect to come along in years. But how does he seemingly see things happen before they do? Rams players talked about how they were presented with looks that McVay foretold would be coming their way in the short week.

“No idea,” Gurley said. “The guy doesn’t sleep. He’s always putting work in. That’s why we just play the way we do and because he just comes in with the greatest game plan ever and you get to smiling.

“You just look at the film and you can visualize it. That’s what it’s all about — practicing it, visualizing it and putting it on film.”

The Rams also put Barr on film more than once. The beauty of McVay’s system is the design, the execution and the damned stress he puts on your defense, specific and situational weaknesses of it, as a play caller. In a gorgeous opening drive after the Vikings took a 7-0 lead, McVay emptied the kitchen sink with formations and motions, nickel and dime-ing their way down the field.

But McVay saved the best play for last: Gurley split out to the left, with three receivers on the other side of the formation. The Vikings’ cover-4 call left linebacker Anthony Barr in a brutal spot: isolated one on one against the highest-paid back in football. Gurley dusted him on the seam route with a beautifully thrown pass, and there was nothing Barr could do, asked to cover half the L.A. Coliseum grass on that unfair assignment.

Poor Barr. The man who was the butt of every Josh Allen joke last week after the Buffalo Bills QB punked him not once, but twice — first on a leap, then on a stiff-arm! — was the man whom McVay clearly was going to put squarely in the cross-hairs in as many ways as possible in the game.

Later, the Rams forced the Vikings’ hands when they went from a two-back look out of “13 personnel” (three tight ends) to an empty backfield. And wouldn’t you know it? Barr was singled up on Woods. You know how it ended — a long touchdown.

That’s a pretty rough four-day stretch for one of the few talented free agents-to-be whom the Vikings have so far chosen not to re-sign ahead of time. This is what the Rams do: They dissect you like a sixth-grade lab frog. They figure out where to make the first cut, and they don’t stop until you’re in a dozen neatly carved-up pieces.

But then they talk about why they’re doing it the way they do. That’s the part for left tackle Andrew Whitworth that makes this whole operation so damned fascinating. This is a player who has seen quite a bit in his 14 NFL seasons and counting — and remember, the 36-year-old Whitworth has four years on his head coach. But what he sees in McVay and the rest of the coaching staff is a next-level approach to coaching football. What the Rams preach with their scheming is making sure they understand how and why defenses play the way they do, down to the minutia that other clubs might gloss over in their preparation.

“It’s not just about guys trying to figure out how to block their guy,” Whitworth said. “It’s understanding why this guy plays the way he does in this system. It takes you to a level where you’re almost playing as a coach. That’s unique.”

And it applies to how Goff is playing and how he’s seeing things now.

“Just continuing to build that confidence,” Goff said. “He’s grown to where it’s not about trying not to mess up plays or be accurate or whatever. It’s to where it’s him being special.”

Added McVay on his quarterback, “He’s got such a great command right now. At the end of the day, he’s just throwing the ball extremely well.”

How Sean McVay’s Rams Became a Reflection of Football’s Boy Genius

https://www.theringer.com/nfl/2018/10/4/17936990/sean-mcvay-offensive-mind-los-angeles-rams

Jared Goff’s reaction was telling. He threw five touchdown passes in the Rams’ 38-31 win over the Vikings in Week 4, but none elicited the response that his second one did.

With about 10 minutes left in the second quarter, the third-year quarterback hit wide receiver Cooper Kupp deep down the right sideline for a 70-yard strike.

As his former roommate rumbled into the end zone, Goff ran toward the Los Angeles sideline and met head coach Sean McVay with a full-contact chest bump. “I told him after, ‘I didn’t mean to knock you over there,’” Goff said.

Goff’s elation was the culmination of a weeklong process, as the play design was a subtle mutation of a McVay staple from the Rams playbook.

The offense was aligned in 11 personnel, with Kupp in the left slot, Brandin Cooks on the outside, and Robert Woods split out right.

At the snap, Goff faked a handoff to running back Todd Gurley while Woods completed an over route and Cooks ran a deep corner toward the sideline. Those three elements are typical of the Rams’ bootleg concept, which McVay had used during the team’s first three games.

When this design is used on a bootleg—as it was in a 35-23 win over the Chargers in Week 3—Kupp starts by faking a block and then runs a route to the middle of the field. Against the Vikings, his initial movements looked identical to that play:

He feigned a block against linebacker Anthony Barr before transitioning into a pass route across the formation. That’s where the similarities ended.

Instead of stopping and looking for a quick pass, Kupp continued his route up the right sideline with Barr giving chase. Tight end Tyler Higbee, rather than sprinting into the flat as he flashed to the other side of the offensive line, stopped to block, ensuring that Goff had enough time to get the ball to Kupp.

This play design is known as a “leak” concept, and it’s a fixture in heavy play-action schemes such as Kyle Shanahan’s in San Francisco and offensive coordinator Matt LaFleur’s in Tennessee. But McVay’s version has a twist:

He leaks his slot receiver out instead of a tight end. That wrinkle, combined with the deception of Kupp’s bootleg-esque first few steps, left Barr and the Vikings unprepared.

“I was fired up about that one because that’s one we tweaked during [practice that] week,” Goff says. “I was fired up for him getting that thing off.”Him refers to McVay, who used a Thursday-night national showcase against Minnesota’s vaunted defense to solidify his status as the premier play-caller in the NFL.

Last year, in his first season with the Rams, McVay took the NFL’s worst scoring offense and transformed it into the top unit in football. This year, he’s elevated his group from a feel-good story into a planet-destroying superweapon.

Through four games, Goff—the 2016 no. 1 overall pick who looked like a lost cause as a rookie—has thrown for 1,406 yards and 11 touchdowns with a 72.4 percent completion rate.

The 32-year-old McVay is no longer just an intriguing footnote in the football world. He’s the most advanced offensive mind in the game. And as those close to him will tell you, what sets him apart goes beyond just his bag of tricks.

“For anybody that meets Sean McVay, age is irrelevant,” Rams left tackle Andrew Whitworth says. “From the moment you talk ball with him, you realize his level of intelligence and his level of understanding the game is just different.”

Matt LaFleur remembers the first time he heard McVay’s voice. It was the spring of 2010, when LaFleur was an assistant on Mike Shanahan’s staff in Washington.

The now-Titans offensive coordinator was transitioning out of his role as a quality control coach, and Shanahan was interviewing candidates for his old job. Sitting in then-coordinator Kyle Shanahan’s office, LaFleur overheard a manic voice mapping out plays in painstaking detail.

“I could hear, literally though the wall, Sean installing plays,” LaFleur says. “I was like, ‘This is pretty impressive.’”

McVay got the job, and during their first conversation, LaFleur could already see into the young coach’s future. “I knew the first time I met him he was going to be a head coach,” LaFleur says.

“He just has a positive energy, extremely intelligent, loves ball more than anybody I’ve been around. And he’s just brilliant. I think he might have a photographic memory. He’s just rare.”

Others echo a similar sentiment when describing their initial interactions with McVay. You just know. “It was before the clock struck 10 minutes in the interview,” Rams general manager Les Snead says of talking to McVay during the franchise’s coaching search in 2017.

“From intuition, just hearing him present and naturally, his enthusiasm. His ability to communicate. You’re like, ‘You know what? I’ll buy stock in this.’”

For Snead, the Rams’ plan during that offseason was three-pronged: “Hire the best head coach, fix the offense, and don’t forget about the defense.”

After going 4-12 and recording a league-worst offensive DVOA in its final campaign under former coach Jeff Fisher in 2016, Los Angeles was set on turning things around on that side of the ball.

But Snead says bringing in a dual head coach and play-caller wasn’t a requirement.

When the L.A. brass of Snead, executive vice president Kevin Demoff, and VP of football and business administration Tony Pastoors sat down with McVay for their initial interview, it found a coach who could accomplish the team’s top two priorities while also righting the trajectory of its young QB.

It also glimpsed the qualities that would help the Rams jump to 11-5 last season and a start a spotless 4-0 this fall.

“In those first 10 minutes, he probably articulated [the offense so well] to myself, Tony, and Kevin—who I’ll quickly say could never coordinate an offense, or defense, or special teams, even though we’re in football—that I guarantee we could’ve run a few of his plays,” Snead says.

“He was that good at clearly explaining it. Oh, I could get you open. No, Sean, you really couldn’t.”

According to his players, McVay’s greatest strength isn’t some mad-scientist tendency to lock himself in a dark lab and emerge hours later with dozens of ingenious play designs.

While he’s a wunderkind play designer, his best attribute is his ability to clearly communicate the tenets of his offensive philosophy.

“It was really just the way he portrayed things,” Goff says. “The way he communicated. The way he made something that’s so complicated seem so simple. Right then, it was like, ‘Wow.’”

Following the Week 4 win over the Vikings, Whitworth told reporters in the locker room that McVay and his staffers don’t coach football. They teach it. Every directive is coupled with a specific reasoning.

“Everyone can, for lack of a better word, empathize with it,” Whitworth says. “It’s ‘OK, not only do I understand what to do, I understand why I would want to do it that way.’”

The lines of communication are constantly open. Whether it’s a conversation at lunch, a quick chat in the hallway, or a short sidebar after a meeting, Whitworth says McVay probably interacts with every member of the offense at some point during each day.

Those sessions often center on a concept or tactic that a player doesn’t feel comfortable executing. When an issue arises, players are able to voice their concerns to McVay, and one of two outcomes will follow. Either the coach will explain, in depth, why a concept is necessary, or he’ll brainstorm a way to change it to fit the player’s preference.

“Most people are stubborn in their ways,” Whitworth says. “Just like everyday people who do a job. This is how I’ve always done it. I’m going to do it this way. He’s the opposite of that.

Not only is he the most intelligent person in the room, he’s also the most humble. With him it’s, All right, I already know all the answers, but why don’t you tell me why you wouldn’t do this?

If I can understand that and rationalize with it, then we just won’t do it that way. We’ll do it the way we both feel comfortable with.”

That willingness to continually learn and adapt is reminiscent of Bill Belichick and Nick Saban. And it results in belief traveling both ways in the Rams’ building.

McVay and the staff place faith in their players to improve the system, and the players’ faith in the system grows. Everyone associated with this offense is moving in lockstep at all times.

“It’s not, ‘Hey, I don’t care if you understand it or don’t, we’re going to run this play,’” Whitworth says. “It’s a marriage of him believing that players have to have confidence in the coaches as well as coaches having confidence in the players. Some places, you see different than that. It’s, ‘This is the way we do things. And we’re going to run this play whether you like it or not.’ That’s not his style.”

Near the end of an August training camp practice, the Rams’ star-studded secondary gathered on the sideline, dumbfounded. Cornerback Aqib Talib conferred with slot corner Nickell Robey-Coleman about what, if anything, they could do to stop the bunch formation and route combination that had just roasted them for a touchdown near the goal line.

As they brainstormed, Los Angeles cornerbacks coach Aubrey Pleasant chimed in. “Yo,” Pleasant shouted, “that’s why Sean is the dude.”

McVay devises plays that are specifically engineered to test the defense’s guiding principles. Practices become games of chess between McVay and stellar defensive coordinator Wade Phillips.

They also shed light on another aspect of McVay’s brilliance: In order to exploit the weak points of a defense, McVay has to know exactly how that defense operates.

McVay’s understanding of defensive football lies at the core of his wizardry. Take the Rams’ first touchdown against the Vikings on Thursday. Gurley released out of the backfield and started an in-breaking route toward the middle of the field.

Most offenses using this alignment would try to isolate a player with Gurley’s route-running ability on an outside linebacker, thus allowing the stud back to shake the slower player in space. As a result, the Vikings saw L.A.’s setup and called for Barr to shield off the middle.

That’s where McVay’s mind comes into play. Rather than sending Gurley on an angle route to the middle, he called for his back to adjust his route vertically and break toward the back of the end zone. Goff delivered a perfect strike, and Barr never stood a chance.

The Rams run 11 personnel more than any other team in the NFL. This season, they’ve used it on a staggering 97 percent of their offensive plays. For many play-callers, formational monotony like this could produce a bevy of unimaginative, boring designs. McVay’s offense is the complete inverse because of his commitment to dressing up his three-receiver sets.

“That’s why it’s so hard to defend us,” Goff says, “because we do so many different things off the same look.”

McVay alters the alignment of his receivers to no end, toying with defenses’ hard-and-fast rules. That sometimes means putting Kupp, Woods, and Cooks in bunches and stacks to combat tight man coverage.

It can involve a steady use of jet motion and play-action to give linebackers an extra element to consider. Lining up Kupp or Woods next to an offensive tackle allows McVay to send a false signal to a secondary about what route is coming.

Most teams use tight splits to set up out-breaking routes. The Rams, naturally, love using those alignments to set up in-breaking routes.

For all the bells and whistles adorning this offense, though, the Rams staff will tell you that the basic set of plays it has each week remains relatively static.

McVay’s biggest advantage isn’t that he has a 1,000-page playbook for defenses to worry about; it’s that the fundamental set of plays the Rams rely on is built to accommodate one or two adjustments acutely aimed at attacking a specific defense.

By the time a defense realizes how a concept differs from what it’s seen on tape, it’s too late.

“That, to me, is the essence of football,” Whitworth says. “When you look at the rare teams, the rare NFL offenses, outside of special talent, the good ones are the ones where everything’s married to each other.

Everything looks the same, but it’s completely different. That’s where teams get special and play to their potential.”

Over his first two seasons, McVay has passed his obsession with learning the ins and outs of defenses down to his players. He and Goff meet on Mondays to go over new plays for a coming week’s game, and again on Fridays to finalize the calls with which Goff feels most comfortable.

“I like doing it for me, but I think he enjoys it as well, learning the stuff I like and the stuff I don’t like,” Goff says. “It helps him call the game.”

The dialogue has all but caused their minds to meld. In the middle of last season, Goff realized that what he saw from a defense was starting to match McVay’s calls. He points to a play from a 33-7 win over the Texans in Week 10.

The Rams faced a second-and-8 from their own 6-yard line with about 10 minutes remaining in the third quarter. This would’ve been a precarious spot for just about any other offense, but Goff came up to the line knowing that a huge play was coming.

“I saw the structure, and I said, ‘Man, I hope he calls this play,’” Goff says. “Sure enough.” McVay relayed in a sail concept that sent Woods on a deep post. Goff hit him in stride for a 94-yard score.

What mystifies Goff most about those moments isn’t that McVay always seems to see the right calls. It’s that he dictates them without reading off a card. “It’s fascinating to me,” Goff says.

“I’m like, ‘I don’t know how you do that.’ A lot of them are long. When someone’s just saying them to you, they’re hard to just spit out.”

Like most of the league, Goff is mesmerized by his coach’s mind. The difference is that he gets to share in that football genius. That unified effort is what leads to moments like Goff and McVay’s sideline chest bump.

McVay has turned the Rams’ offensive meetings into collaborative attempts to not only learn the game, but solve it. And damn, it feels good.

Sean McVay has the #LARams flying quite high. But complacency isn't going to be an issue, writes @ByMikeJones: https://t.co/612m2I3UEb

— USA TODAY NFL (@usatodaynfl) October 5, 2018

We’ve Only Seen a Fraction of What Sean McVay and the Rams Offense Has to Offer

The Rams, missing some key offensive playmakers and playing in frigid temperatures, leaned on the run game against the Broncos, showing off the complexity of Sean McVay’s offense.

ROBERT KLEMKO

https://www.si.com/nfl/2018/10/14/rams-broncos-todd-gurley-sean-mcvay?utm_campaign=themmqb&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com

DENVER — You won’t often see a more lopsided 23–20 win in the NFL than what you saw here Sunday afternoon. In beating the Broncos, the Rams held the ball for more than 35 minutes and gained almost seven yards per carry, and Todd Gurley set a career mark with 208 yards on 28 carries the first 200-yard outing of an outstanding young career. And they did it in the cold, with a banged-up group of receivers, with a fairly simple running game targeting the heart of the Denver defense.

According to the NFL’s Next Gen stats, all but five of Gurley’s yards on the ground came off the tackles, the areas manned by Von Miller, Bradley Chubb and Shane Ray. If ever the Broncos had a chance against the undefeated Rams, it would have been via a handful of big plays by that group, and yet they were helpless against the league’s No. 1 offense in terms of yards per game.

The Rams, missing Cooper Kupp for big chunks of the game (knee), and missing some bite in the passing game due to the frigid temperatures, showed how dominant they can be on the ground when they want to be, and when the defense is expecting it. This was the victory within a victory for the Rams, and one that makes them NFC favorites going forward.

“I think it’s a message that even if you can stop the other stuff you’ve got to be able to stop the run,” says Rams veteran tackle Andrew Whitworth. “We do a lot of different things and this week it happened to be the run. So as a defense going into a week of preparation you have to ask yourself, what do you want to spend your time on? The pass game, play action, spreading guys out, or do you want to try and figure out how to stop Gurley. Last week Seattle decided they wanted to stop Gurley. This week Denver gave us the opposite. To be able to beat teams both ways is a huge part of the game. It’s bigger than you think.”

The scary thing about this offense is that it’s still learning the complexities of head coach Sean McVay’s scheme. The quarterback is six games into Year Three, in his second season with this head coach. Wide receiver Robert Woods likens last season to pre-algebra, and now we’re watching Algebra. One can only fathom what Algebra 2 will look like.

“I think we were just grasping our offense last year, trying to understand what McVay wants,” Woods said. “I’d say the biggest difference this year is everyone’s grasping it and thinking like him. That allows our meeting to be more detailed, it allows us to improve on the little things. Last year was introduction to Sean McVay’s complex offense, and now we’re adding the little details. A lot more fly sweeps. Our disguises are next level. Put on the film and you think you’ve seen the same play 12 times, but there are little differences to each.”

It’s the job of every defensive coordinator left on the schedule to decipher those nuances, and games like this don’t help. With the Rams comfortably in the lead until the Broncos brought it within a score late, and with Gurley pounding the edges of the defensive line from simple formations and personnel sets, there’s not much to learn about the complexities of this offense from Sunday. There’s hardly anything new on tape.

“We’re not showing everything and they still have to prepare for a lot of different things,” Woods says. “We’re trying to put their best players on edge and make them think.”

These are the kinds of performances the Rams are getting used to—coming into someone else’s house, playing a .500-ish team with its back against the wall and coming away with a win and their offensive secrets unrevealed.

“It ends up being harder to scout an offense like that because you’re going to get things you haven’t seen,” Rams linebacker Mark Barron says. “Our offense can beat teams a lot of different ways. Our running numbers looked like somebody’s passing yards today. I’m sure everybody’s plan is to take away Gurley, and you can’t. The receivers are all on pace for 1,000 yards. Goff is playing with precision. They’re unstoppable right now. It’s nothing you can do.”

Unstoppable is a big word, but it may not be that far from the truth. There’s a big chunk of this offense we haven’t yet seen and that should be worrisome to anyone in L.A.’s path.

A bit older but still relevant IMO.

It’s been almost impossible to stop the Rams’ offense, or predict what it might run

RICH HAMMOND

link: https://www.dailynews.com/2018/10/25/its-been-almost-impossible-to-stop-the-rams-offense-or-predict-what-it-might-run/

THOUSAND OAKS — Sean McVay probably sends himself to bed without dessert because of perceived play-calling gaffes. It’s not a put-on. McVay has been known to grumble when things go askew at practice.

The Rams’ coach is well known as a self-critic, and that accountability is a positive quality, but perhaps McVay – who also is the play-caller – should lighten up a bit. The Rams not only have the most prolific offense in the NFL this season, but it also is the most balanced, with a split that is almost impossible.

A team with two MVP-caliber players is giving both a chance to shine. Quarterback Jared Goff and running back Todd Gurley, respectively, lead passing and running games that are co-equals. McVay has called for rushing attempts on 48.4 percent of the Rams’ plays this season, compared to 51.6 percent for pass plays.

How uncommon is that? Only Seattle has a closer split – 49.4 percent run, 50.6 percent pass – and that’s because, in the last couple weeks, Seattle’s offense has resembled one from the leather-helmet era.

“It’s the players’ ability to execute in both phases,” McVay said before Wednesday’s practice at Cal Lutheran. “Certain games have different flows and feels. You do like to have a balance to make (defenses) honor both, but at certain times, there are situations where they’re loaded up and daring you to do one or the other, and we’ve got to be able to play complementary football with our run and our pass.”

In the past five NFL seasons, only five teams have run the ball more than they have passed it, so even getting close is notable. The Rams are averaging a league-best 31.1 rushing attempts per game this season, and Gurley leads the league with 144 attempts and 686 yards (plus 11 rushing touchdowns).

“It helps a lot,” quarterback Jared Goff said. “Whenever we’re running the ball well, we can use that and marry that with our pass game so well. We’ve got guys like Todd and Malcolm (Brown) who run the ball so well can bring those guys up. It definitely helps a lot. Something I’m definitely grateful for.”

Coaches often talk about balance in play-calling, and the Rams have it, but McVay said it isn’t pre-planned.

All statistical discussion should come with the caveat that this season has yet to reach its midway point, but through seven games, the Rams are on pace for 498 rushing plays this season.

This level of running game dedication by the Rams hasn’t been seen since 1988, when they ran the ball 507 times, with a split of 50.5 percent passes and 49.5 percent runs. That worked out fairly well, as the Rams averaged 25.4 points and 363 yards per game, finished with a 10-6 record and made the playoffs.

This season is expected to be much more special. The Rams take a 7-0 record into Sunday’s home game against Green Bay. The question, when it comes to this year’s run-pass balance, is whether it is a reason for the Rams’ offensive success, or actually a product of it. There’s evidence to prove both.

“The main goal for us is to move the ball and score points,” McVay said. “If balance happens to come with that, then we like to stay balanced as well.”

The Rams have passed on only 43 percent of their first-down plays this season. That’s the fifth-lowest average in the NFL. The big spread, though, comes on third down, a traditional passing down, but the Rams have run the ball 33 percent of the time on third down, the second-highest average in the league.

In large part, that’s because the Rams have put themselves in so few third-and-long situations. They average 6.9 yards per play overall, tied for the league best, and in seven games, they’ve run only 81 third-down plays.

“I think the combination of the running game and the play-action game looking so similar really helps both be productive on first and second down,” offensive line coach Aaron Kromer said. “We’ve been fortunate to have productivity on first down, which has allowed us to do some things on second down – a lot of run-pass combination in that situation.”