daring the Rams to run (VB & Salfino on the Denver game)

https://theathletic.com/589786/2018/10/14/week-6-scouting-notebook-tarik-cohen-david-njoku-level-up/

Michael Salfino

The​ announcers were too​ dim-witted to notice​ but​ the Broncos​ wisely​ letting Todd​ Gurley​ run​ the​ ball up and​ down the​​ field resulted in the Rams being below average in scoring points. The object of defense is to limit points, not shut down the running game. I’ve said for a couple of weeks now that this was how defenses should play the Rams. This will catch on. Todd Gurley will run wild. But that Rams passing game and receivers will be less productive and thus total Rams points will decrease.
My analogy with this approach is that the Rams are Mr. Freeze and defenses are Batman. Does Batman want Mr. Freeze to just shoot him (analogous to quick touchdowns via the air) or laboriously try to kill him by making him into a snow cone (the slow death via the running game). Like Batman, a defense can avoid the slow death. Here’s a photo to help you understand these advanced football concepts.
Finally, the Rams had 17 third downs. They converted eight. But the key is getting Los Angeles into third down. Against the Vikings when they lit it up, they had seven third downs (and converted just one).
The Vikings are the poor-man’s Rams in that you want to dare them to run not only because their passing game is so deadly but because they seemingly can’t run. That changed today when Latavius Murray romped for 155 yards. If you can wait like three weeks, buy Dalvin Cook.

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Sean McVay’s harsh self-critique reveals just how accountable Rams really are

https://theathletic.com/589867/2018/10/15/sean-mcvays-harsh-self-critique-reveals-just-how-accountable-rams-really-are/

DENVER​ — Maybe the​ craziest part of​ all​ is that,​ as​ much as​ Twitter​ was​ @-ing​ Rams head coach​ Sean McVay​​ wondering why he wasn’t just feeding Todd Gurley every time the Rams sniffed the red zone on Sunday, no one was criticizing McVay louder or with more frequency than McVay himself.
It happens like that sometimes, even for an offensive wunderkind like McVay, whose Rams improved to 6-0 with a much closer than expected 23-20 win over the Denver Broncos. Frankly, they pulled off the victory somewhat in spite of their 32-year-old head coach.
“I thought I put us in some horrible spots throughout the game [by] really getting impatient, forcing things that weren’t there,” McVay said. “The players bailed me out finding a way to get a win.”
That seems odd considering the Rams just completed a two-game road sweep in two of the most difficult places for visiting teams to win in the NFL — Seattle and Denver — and did so in wet, cold and very un-L.A.-like weather conditions while digging deep into their depth chart to overcome the losses of some key starters for long stretches of both games.
But these Rams are an accountable bunch, and it starts at the very top. So while everyone was celebrating another big road win, McVay was kicking himself for making it harder than it should have been.
“We were able to stay ahead of the chains,” he said. “Really with an exception of some things with me putting us in bad spots.”
That might be pushing it a little bit. Especially since no one is more responsible for the franchise’s dramatic turnaround than McVay, whose creativity, passion and offensive genius have turned the Rams into one of the most dangerous teams in the NFL.
But then, the criticism was mostly self-directed.
In fact, McVay chastised himself after his Rams survived the snow, frigid cold and stubborn Broncos. The way he sees it, he got a little too cute and a tad too aggressive on a couple of early red-zone trips that resulted in field goals instead of touchdowns and turned a potential blowout into an eventual nail biter.
And as the Rams’ play caller, the blame falls squarely on his shoulders.
“The cold didn’t really dictate the play selection,” McVay muttered afterward. “If anything, the cold might have just affected my brain with some of the decisions I made.”

The play calling did seem a bit curious considering the Broncos opted to over-defense Jared Goff and the passing game while blanketing the second and third levels and bringing plenty of heat with the pass rush duo of Bradley Chubb and Von Miller.
The Broncos did so knowing full well it might mean Gurley going off.
“Today, that was kind of part of our game plan, try to make them run the ball, really,” Broncos cornerback Chris Harris said. “Their offense has been putting up 40 points per game, so we just tried to figure out a way to slow them down.”
Defending the Rams these days has become a dangerous game of pick your poison. The Broncos decided if anyone on the Rams was going to beat them, it was going to be Gurley.
“One of the centerpieces of what makes us so special on offense is that week in and week out we see teams and defensive coordinators that (decide) either Todd’s not going to beat me or I’m going to let Todd get off and stop them from throwing the football,” Rams left tackle Andrew Whitworth told The Athletic.
Or as Goff explained it: “We had a good feeling we were going to get some removal up front on some of these guys if they wanted to play a little bit deeper like they did in the secondary, which is fine. They were having a hard time stopping the running. Today we were able to run home. It is a testament to up front what we were able to do so. Todd, just being the guy he is, he’s the same guy every week and today we got to see it in full-force.”
Gurley ran for a career-high 208 yards and two touchdowns on 28 carries, averaging 7.4 yards per carry. It was a spectacular performance that thrusts him back into the MVP conversation.
And it was evident very early that Sunday had all the characteristics of one of Gurley’s signature-type games as he kept gashing the Broncos for big chunks of yards.
“It was obvious when we’re carrying the ball [and] getting five, 10 yards per carry,” Gurley said.”Obviously you want to go with what’s working and that’s what we did today.”
Gurley’s numbers could have been more pronounced — and the path to a Rams win much, much clearer — had McVay remained disciplined at some critical junctures and simply pounded the Broncos with his reigning Offensive Player of the Year.
“You ride the hot hand, right?” Rams center Jon Sullivan said. “No matter what, we’re going to execute the plays that are called. We trust Sean. That’s never going to change. I’m not going to say at times we weren’t lobbying to keep running that thing.”
But McVay got away from the run game at times. He admits it probably cost the Rams.
“The players will look at themselves as well, but there was a handful of plays that I really thought I didn’t do a very good job for us today,” McVay said.
The first curious decisions came on the Rams’ first drive of the game when they threw six straight times only to stall at the Denver 8-yard-line and settle for a 26-yard Cairo Santos field goal. The second head scratcher took place on their next possession when Gurley ran five times for 43 yards but, with the Rams facing a third-and-2 from the Broncos 22, McVay opted against another Gurley run in favor of a short pass to Robert Woods that fell incomplete. Out came Cairo again for a 39-yard field goal to make it 6-0.
Only it felt like the Rams should have led 14-0.
The third curious play call might have been the most egregious. Leading 13-3, the Rams got the ball at the 50-yard line with 39 seconds left in the first half after the Broncos were thrown for an 11-yard loss on fourth down. Denver smartly over-defended the long pass on the back end and brought pressure off both edges and along the interior of the line. The situation was ripe for a screen pass or a draw play to Gurley to beat the heat or a short-to-intermediate pass to work the sideline to get the Rams into field goal position.
Instead, the Rams tried to push the ball downfield with slower developing pass concepts, resulting in Goff getting sacked on two of his three pass drops to negate any chance for a field goal attempt.
McVay fumed at himself.
“I think that’s where I’m most bothered is because of the decisions where I put our guys in those spots where you can stay ahead of the chains,” he said. “Some of those third downs or even the two-minute at the end of the half, I thought I did a poor job of running plays that give us the best chance to execute. That’s something I’ve got to do a much better job of.
“Fortunately, with the way the team and the players played, coaches doing a good job, you can learn being able to win in a tough atmosphere on the road. Those are some things that you can’t wait to go back, look at the tape and think about why some of the decisions were made.”
The Rams are 6-0 as the league’s lone undefeated team. So it’s sort of a new world problem, right?
That said, McVay shouldn’t beat up himself too much. After the Broncos cut the lead to 20-13 in the fourth quarter, he called nine runs as part of a 13-play drive that took 5:39 off the clock and resulted in a field goal for a 23-13 lead with 3:15 remaining.
McVay’s players urged him to go easy on himself.
“I thought he was great today. He may say differently, but I thought he did a great job,” Goff said. “There are just things to learn from the win. We hold ourselves to such a high standard that if we do not turn the ball over and score 30 points, it does not feel the same.
“I think as the rest of the night goes on, I think that mood may shift. A win is a win and we are 6-0 overall. We are lucky to be in this position but have worked to be here. It’s a great road win.”