Rams’ progress and momentum, bye week, will be what they make of it: The Pile

Jourdan Rodrigue

https://theathletic.com/3699954/2022/10/17/rams-beat-panthers-week-6/?source=emp_shared_article

INGLEWOOD, Calif. — It may have started with sheer-will plays on way, way-too-long third downs by Cooper Kupp and Darrell Henderson in the first quarter of the Rams’ 24-10 win over the Carolina Panthers on Sunday.

Kupp’s was a snarling catch-and-run on third-and-13 that converted the first down. Henderson’s was a physical effort run that picked up 16 yards on third-and-15 on the same drive, both of which set up the Rams’ first touchdown of the game and their second in 10 quarters. Quarterback Matthew Stafford floated a fade up to receiver Allen Robinson, and he plucked it out of the air.

If those plays were the helium swelling the balloon, something had to give. Something had to force out the self-induced, injury-addled haze that has surrounded the Rams offense, which even threatened to overtake them once again after their initial touchdown as Stafford turned the ball over and they lost their narrow lead by halftime. Something had to burst, a jolt of energy, a shock to clear the fog.

And then, Robinson touched the sky.

On third-and-5 in the third quarter, Stafford threw a high pass 15 yards down the sideline and up, up, up into the air. There were Robinson’s bright yellow gloves wrapping around the ball (important, as it turns out, because on a later challenge of the catch the gloves placed extra visual emphasis on the security of the ball). There were his feet in the air, his torso twisting away from the defensive back hanging off his waist, the tips of his cleats tap-tapping the turf. As Robinson landed, the crowd at SoFi Stadium exploded. The Rams hit a field goal a couple of plays later to re-tie the game. They scored a touchdown on the next drive, and another the drive after that.

There’s still a little fog, yes. Still some issues to fix, still injuries. But there’s progress, too. The crowd knew it the second Robinson came down with the ball.

“It’s exciting,” said Robinson after the game, “it felt good. Just trying to continue to build off of today, being able to continue to make those plays moving forward and down the stretch for us.”

The Rams head into the bye week 3-3. They’ll get a few players back from injuries, which is needed especially after a catastrophic streak of them along the offensive line through the first six weeks. Importantly, they also made progress on offense Sunday, while the defense kept up its solid play (and held Carolina to three points and no offensive touchdowns).

But in the long backstretch of their season, this progress will only turn into what the Rams make of it. So will their bye week.

“We control our own destiny,” inside linebacker Bobby Wagner said.

Welcome to The Pile (in a little bit of a different format this week, with the bye week ahead and much for this team to do). Let’s start poking around.

What worked: Robinson’s versatility, versatility in the Rams’ receiving corps.

The Rams this year, as noted, haven’t had a ton of consistency in their downfield passing game and it has been compounded by opposing scheme, a wheezing run game and a catastrophically injured offensive line.

Sunday, head coach Sean McVay had a game plan that gave a little relief to that offensive line while also accentuating the Rams’ current receivers’ abilities: They played a lot of horizontal football. The Rams ran sweeps, motions, double-backfields featuring a receiver aligned next to a running back, gave four receivers handoffs on multiple occasions and when that started clicking, got their play-action going and created a couple of explosive passing plays out of more vertical layers.

“You try to make a defense defend every blade of grass and sometimes that’s throwing it over their heads, sometimes that’s running the screen,” Stafford said. “Other times it’s running around the edge, run it down the middle, whatever it is. We try to give the defense a lot to look at. I thought Sean did an outstanding job of calling the game for us and setting those guys up in great opportunities, and then guys executed it.”

Robinson’s five catches on six targets with a touchdown are a season-high. Perhaps more importantly for the future, the Rams utilized Robinson in a wide variety of ways, including on mismatch contested catches, as a motion player to clear out a 20-yard catch for Kupp, as a quick-game player on early downs and as an underneath player for yards-after-catch (YAC) plays.

“It feels good (to churn for extra yards),” said Robinson after the game. “As a receiver, it always feels good when you have the ball in your hands, being able to make plays for your team.”

“I thought he played great today,” added Stafford, who threw a fade to Robinson for a touchdown in the first quarter. “Gave him some opportunities on some stuff; third down down the sideline was a great catch. Did a great job on a play-action where we were trying to get it down the field, kind of working the underneath window with me with a catch-and-run. Had another nice catch on an in-breaker on a third-down conversion (where) they tried to show us man (coverage), played mask-Tampa, and he sat on the ball and did a nice job. … He did a lot of good stuff today in the pass game (and) I was happy for him.”

Meanwhile, second-year receiver Ben Skowronek, who has lined up at receiver, in the stack as a hybrid tight end and in the I-formation as a fullback, got his first career touchdown off a sweep (also his first career handoff).

After the game, though, Skowronek’s first comment was to point out Robinson’s downfield blocking on the play, in which the veteran receiver cleared out two players.

“Guys playing for each other,” said McVay of that play. “It was awesome to just be able to see the selflessness of this group. I think that’s what is right about this group.”

Yet to answer: Can the Rams sustain momentum in their passing game? The group did a nice job of stretching the Panthers defense horizontally, which in turn helps an offensive line deal with pressure and stresses a defense over a wide space. Still, the Rams know there are more yards to be had vertically, and they’re hoping the return of Van Jefferson after the bye week can help add more dimension to their offense. Jefferson was expected to return Sunday before the Rams put him on injured reserve because they needed a roster spot.

I also think Robinson proved what I’ve been shouting about since training camp: his versatility. The Rams can build off of his utilization down the sideline, sure, but also on the underneath concepts and in the YAC game, where Robinson played Sunday like he had something to prove.

Also yet to answer: Cam Akers’ status.

Henderson had 12 carries for 43 yards and a touchdown (his best run of the night was the 16-yard carry on third-and-15). McVay has to feel at least some solace in the proof that his receivers can make positive things happen out of this type of game plan in combination with a couple of different backs, but changes are coming to the run game overall. Akers, who was expected this summer to enter the year as a contender for the No. 1 running back role, has been excused from practice as the Rams work to find a trade partner for him, sources with knowledge of the process say. Akers is physically healthy, but the situation between him and McVay has been simmering through training camp, when Akers missed time with what the team said was a soft tissue injury, and then McVay publicly said he needed more “urgency” from Akers as the season began. My understanding is that there are some differences in belief about what should be happening in the run game as a whole, which the Rams have characterized as an “internal” matter. In his press conference Friday, McVay would not commit to Akers having a future with the Rams.

What worked: Alaric Jackson at left tackle.

Jackson, who is a second-year undrafted free agent, should be commended for how he played Sunday in an adverse situation. When starting left tackle Joe Noteboom left the game on a cart after suffering a leg injury (he is already playing through a knee injury), Jackson kicked out to that spot from starting right guard, where he was previously playing well despite that role being new to him. Jackson is a natural left tackle and it showed almost immediately, as he picked up a pressure on a passing play shortly after he entered.

“It’s just my job,” said Jackson after the game. “I don’t see it as any burden, it’s an opportunity.”

Yet to answer: Noteboom is feared to have torn his Achilles, according to McVay, but the team didn’t have an official update Sunday night as Noteboom undergoes further testing.

If he can’t play, Jackson will likely take over full-time. The Rams may get center Brian Allen back after the bye week, and Coleman Shelton’s ankle injury isn’t thought to be season-ending (though he’s on injured reserve and the nature of such an injury is finicky). If they can get Allen back, the Rams will be looking at a lineup that features (from left to right), Jackson, Oday Aboushi/Bobby Evans, Allen, Aboushi/Evans and Rob Havenstein … unless they make any roster moves.

What worked: Ernest Jones and Wagner

The Rams’ two starting inside linebackers combined for 14 tackles and both played a key role in working to contain Panthers star Christian McCaffrey on screens and in the run game. A back-and-forth sequence in the fourth quarter illustrated Jones’ resilience. He stopped McCaffrey with a physical tackle on first down, but a play later backup quarterback Jacob Eason hit McCaffrey on a little pressure-beating throw and McCaffrey threw a stiff-arm on Jones before breaking open a 49-yard run after the catch. Four plays later, at the goal line, Jones called his shot: He told teammates he knew Eason would throw his way, and he was right. Jones tipped the pass into safety Nick Scott’s arms; it’s a play he wanted for himself but he joked about it postgame.

“I mean, come on, (selfless play), that’s what type of guy I am,” he said, laughing. “Well, I mean, I probably won’t sleep … it slowed down for me. I’m like, ‘Bro, he’s looking at you. He’s gonna throw it.’ And he did, and I dropped it. Not a good feeling … but I ‘passed’ it to my teammate.”

In the first half, Jones made a tone-setting stop on third down (another screen play), which Wagner called “really cool”: He essentially lifted McCaffrey up pro-wrestling-style and slammed himself and McCaffrey onto the turf in front of the Rams sideline.

Wagner is a mentor to Jones (and happened to be Jones’ favorite player before Wagner joined the team). When asked about Jones’ marked improvement and confidence in his second season, Wagner couldn’t help but smile.

“He’s such a smart player, such an amazing player,” he said. “One thing that I appreciate about his game is he puts in the work. He comes in and he studies and he asks questions, things of that nature. He’s elevating his game every single day and that’s really what you want to see from a guy (who) is young, just having that curiosity.”

Yet to answer: Ahead of the Nov. 1 trade deadline, this team needs to know with some certainty whether it has a group that can rush four and get pressure that way, or not. Their stretch of quarterbacks post-deadline is too much of a gauntlet to be timid in this regard. The difficulty in ascertaining this is that most teams they’ve played are scheming them out of their rush at times (including Sunday when P.J. Walker relied heavily on the screen game and quick throws).

Bottom of The Pile

• Jalen Ramsey recorded his second career sack in as many games, but he also made one of the biggest defensive plays of the night.

On a third-and-4 in the fourth quarter, Ramsey tackled McCaffrey in space for a loss of a yard.

“Even when you get in those pass situations, we understood they were going to try to get (McCaffrey) the ball,” said Wagner. “I don’t think he (saw) Jalen coming whatsoever. I don’t think he had his feet on the ground before Jalen hit him. That’s just a special play.”

• Speaking of McCaffrey, the Rams knew that with a relatively untested quarterback in Walker, combined with McCaffrey’s versatility in the run and pass game, it was likely to be a “spam CMC” game. Wagner said the defense knew he’d make his share of plays, and he did — including the 49-yard catch-and-run — and that they needed to accept that while working to contain him as well as possible and keep him out of the end zone.

Still, McCaffrey accounted for the bulk of the Panthers’ production Sunday. In the first half, McCaffrey accounted for 95 of Carolina’s 117 net scrimmage yards. Overall, McCaffrey had 158 scrimmage yards and the Panthers finished with 203 net yards of offense.

The showing by McCaffrey will do little to quell the trade buzz surrounding him as the Panthers change over their coaching staff. It wouldn’t be surprising to hear that, at some point, the Rams are in the mix because of McCaffrey’s friendship with Stafford and his personal ties to the Los Angeles area in general. McCaffrey’s 2022 salary is nearly all paid out by Carolina, and his 2023-24 money is not guaranteed. However, his injury history and the nature of the Rams’ own history of paying players at his position (with disastrous results) may mean they walk carefully here if indeed interested in his status. The Rams have gotten creative in the past with sliding-scale trades that encourage a team to assume part or most of a player’s salary. McCaffrey’s own potential interest in where he goes (if anywhere) could also move the needle. Stafford has some experience with that himself.

• Cornerback Grant Haley also left the game with a knee injury and no update on his status was provided.

• Things were dicey through the first half, though the Rams defense allowed just a field goal despite Carolina having the ball for over 11 minutes in the first quarter. Los Angeles held a 7-3 lead until Stafford threw a pick six from his own 23-yard-line and the Panthers went into the locker room at halftime up 10-7. It was Stafford’s 11th turnover of the year.

• In the first quarter, 310-pound defensive lineman Michael Hoecht fielded a strange, short kickoff from Panthers kicker Eddy Pineiro while aligned as a protection player in that phase. Hoecht, who actually practices for this possibility before games each week and fields kicks with the rest of the return specialists, seized his moment and returned the kickoff 22 yards.

• Are we going to yell about calls? OK, sure. Stafford got a questionable roughing the passer call in the second half, and the refs missed a blatant hold/defensive pass interference in the end zone on Robinson on a play that may have otherwise been a touchdown.