reporters, twitter etc. on the SF game

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most passes thrown to a rams receiver through the first 2 games of the season: pic.twitter.com/WmSsjQIc7z

— roberto clemente (@rclemente2121) September 17, 2023

Young WRs are for real, developing toughness, self-inflicted mistakes

Jourdan Rodrigue

https://theathletic.com/4873111/2023/09/18/rams-loss-puka-nacua-tutu-atwell/?source=emp_shared_article

INGLEWOOD, Calif. — In a Los Angeles Rams season that will be unpredictable, at times chaotic and always interesting, we’re going to learn a lot about the young and older players each week.

We’ll put the most interesting or relevant of these developments here, in nicely organized sections. Just for you!

This column is early this week, and takes the place of my “normal” postgame column. After Sunday night’s 30-23 loss to the San Francisco 49ers, I spent a while chasing down information about the latest with running back Cam Akers.

1. Puka Nacua and Tutu Atwell are for real

Puka Nacua has 25 catches for 266 yards in just two games for the Rams. His 15 catches for 147 yards (on 20 targets) Sunday marked the most catches made in a single game by a rookie receiver in NFL history, and he is also the first in NFL history to have 10-plus catches and at least 100 yards receiving in each of his first two career games. Don’t forget, he’s a fifth-round pick.

Quarterback Matthew Stafford also let it slip that Nacua is “early in the progression” for him on zone concepts; 21 of Nacua’s targets (15 catches) in two games have been against zone coverages for 162 yards and 8.71 air yards per target, according to TruMedia.

Nacua has occupied almost 40 percent of the target share through two weeks, but third-year receiver Tutu Atwell has averaged 98 yards per game and 15.1 yards per catch. Atwell has 196 yards off of 13 catches through two games. When Nacua is targeted, the Rams’ pass game has a 15.9 passing EPA, and an 11.5 passing EPA when Atwell is targeted. This ranks No. 4 and No. 11 in the NFL, respectively.

Meanwhile, fourth-year receiver Van Jefferson has been almost absent from the stat sheet in the first two weeks of the Rams’ season. Jefferson is occupying about 10 percent of the target share — he has run 84 routes but been targeted just nine times, according to TruMedia — and has two drops in as many games. Jefferson’s dropped pass Sunday was on his first target against San Francisco (and late in the game). On a fourth-and-1 with 2:28 left in the fourth quarter, it appeared that Jefferson should have made some contact with Isaiah Oliver (even if it was a chip), who instead shot into Kyren Williams’ run lane and stopped him for a loss. In fairness, the responsibility of each player in the blocking surface can’t be known unless the call is known — but Jefferson seemed to be the closest point of contact. The Rams were down 30-20 at that time.

2. Developing toughness

The Rams’ run game now features more gap scheme which — while that phase of their offense hasn’t totally taken off yet — gives them some nastiness in that phase that the offensive linemen and tight ends seem to really have taken to. In fact, despite the loss, the Rams seemed to play the 49ers more physically on Sunday than in recent regular-season matchups.

It’s not just the run game, although it starts up front with the five offensive linemen — Alaric Jackson (who Williams shouted out postgame), Steve Avila, Coleman Shelton, Joe Noteboom/Tremayne Anchrum (Noteboom left the game with a shoulder injury) and Rob Havenstein. A legitimate toughness also has started to spread into the running backs, receivers and even to the other side of the ball. Here are some examples:

• Both Nacua and Atwell are taking on the tough middle-of-the-field concepts such as the mid-range crossers head coach Sean McVay loves to call. Eighty-seven of Nacua’s 266 yards have come after the catch, according to TruMedia.

“He did a great job. You know, he’s tough. He’s a physical competitor. I thought that showed up,” McVay said. “He continued to battle all the way through the end. I mean, he’s the epitome of what we want to be as Rams.”

Nacua was banged-up with a ribs/oblique injury heading into Sunday’s game and appeared to need a quick check by athletic trainers late in the fourth quarter after some heavy contact, but said postgame he would be OK.

Meanwhile, Atwell has continued to play much bigger than his 5-foot-9 and 165-pound frame would imply. Atwell has generally been known as an outside-hash or vertical threat receiver, but has to sort through the middle of the field to get there (and Sunday three of his catches were between the numbers).

“It’s just fun to just show everybody that I can do what people said I couldn’t do,” Atwell said. “Most people say I’m too small. … I’m just focused on the ball, that’s my main key. I go in a game and just talk to myself, ‘just focus on the ball and make all the catches, whether they hit me or not, how the hit is or not.’ I’m always going to get back up, that’s the thing.”

• The Rams are using what I like to call “motion blocks” by their tight ends, especially Tyler Higbee, to clear out space. These are sometimes called “blasts” or “sifts” depending on the run concept. Basically, Higbee gets a running start within the offensive motion rules to crash into a defensive lineman and/or defensive end, and usually this type of block accounts for more than one player. Higbee can also be assisted by a pulling tackle or even the center.

• The Rams’ defense missed too many tackles Sunday (more on that in a moment), but showed smarts and physicality on a couple of plays that required both: Michael Hoecht, who is sometimes featured in a concept called “bonus hook” in which he’s aligned in the flat to clog and redirect up short-game concepts into either his own player, or a cranking-down help player, diagnosed a tricky bunch formation and didn’t allow himself to be blocked out of a pass play in which he stopped receiver Deebo Samuel. Derion Kendrick, who did have a few errors on the day (including costly penalties during a 75-play drive by the 49ers in their two-minute offense ahead of halftime), read an outside run and fought his blocker to stop Christian McCaffrey on second down, which set up a Brock Purdy overthrow on third down.

“A lot of people kind of count us out,” said inside linebacker Christian Rozeboom, “but one way for us to kind of have a say in that is that physicality. That’s where it starts and where it stops. … Throughout the season, that will be an identity for us and that will carry us through a lot.”

This team is still a work in progress in many ways. But the foundation of its new identity — one of physical, tough-minded play even against one of the most physically dominant and well-schemed outfits in the NFL — is solidifying.

3. Self-inflicted mistakes in ‘thin margin’ for error

Stafford threw two interceptions, one a tipped pass to Oliver off of Williams’ hands (the running back said he took his eye off the ball too quickly) but the other was a combination of things including the 49ers keying in on Stafford’s shorter pass tendencies and jumping the intended route (Jefferson’s, who Deommodore Lenoir was also able to move during the route to jump on the ball). The 49ers, who blitzed more in the second half, were closing Stafford’s pocket on the throw.

“They were playing a split safety man coverage so (Lenoir, who intercepted Stafford) was in a trail technique on the in-breaking route on the backside. Maybe had an opportunity (to throw) somewhere else, but you give Lenoir credit. He did a nice job,” McVay said. “The pocket started (to) collapse but that was a nice play by him and that was a route that he should be able to undercut because he’s got over-the-top help right there.”

Meanwhile, the story of the Rams defense against the 49ers in recent years has often been, “a couple of missed tackles at the worst possible time.” This was the case on Samuel’s 11-yard touchdown around the left side in the fourth quarter, as was McCaffrey’s 14-yard touchdown in the first quarter.

According to TruMedia, a Rams player made first contact with a ball-carrier but did not make the tackle 14 times Sunday, tied for fourth-worst among Week 2 teams. It was clear early on that 49ers coach Kyle Shanahan was testing how “mushy” the edges of the Rams’ defense would be against the run. Shanahan, a former “outside zone” coach, now runs a lot of gap scheme — but bounced McCaffrey and Samuel around the outside a number of times. Shanahan initially tested the left edge with a 3-yard outside run by McCaffrey on first down in the first quarter, got three yards but saw an opportunity. Two plays later he sent McCaffrey around the left edge again, this time for 51 yards that accounted for almost one-third of the 49ers’ total rushing yards (159).

The fourth-and-2 stop mentioned above was a drive-killer for the Rams, but consecutive drives that ended in an interception and a third-and-10 sack were tough holes to dig out of, too. The Rams scored just three points on three drives inclusive to those miscues between the third and fourth quarters, while the 49ers capitalized with 10 points in the same time span. McVay indicated that the Rams missed an assignment on the sack. San Francisco defensive coordinator Steve Wilks began dialing up more extra-man pressure in the second half, and as he did the 49ers clamped down tighter on Stafford’s underneath options.

One small positive: While the 49ers took the ball away twice, the Rams allowed only six total points off of the turnovers. However, the Rams have no takeaways yet this season despite playing more aggressive coverages.