media & others on the GB game

Andrew Siciliano@AndrewSiciliano
Rams were within 7 points in the 4th quarter with 1/2 of Aaron Donald and a 4-fingered Jared Goff. No trophies for losing, but a damn good effort.

Cameron DaSilva@camdasilva
McVay said there was a play where “we were maybe looking for an opportunity to throw it to Jared.”

So a Cam Akers throw was in consideration.

𝕋𝕠𝕞 – 𝕃𝔸 ℝ𝕒𝕞𝕤@TL_LARams
There was one wildcat play where Akers took the snap and seemed to look that way before running for about a yard. Looked a little like he was hesitant to run but I think he wanted something else.

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from https://theramswire.usatoday.com/lists/rams-packers-divisional-round-playoffs-takeaways/

Coming into Saturday’s game, there was a lot of doubt surrounding Goff – especially given his history playing in the cold and with his thumb clearly not at 100%. They were warranted questions, but Goff silenced all of his doubters with a valiant performance against the Packers.

He completed 21 of 27 passes for 174 yards and one touchdown, committing no turnovers and posting a passer rating of 105.9. He really didn’t make many mistakes at all in the game and was far from the reason the Rams lost on Saturday. Sure, he didn’t have a big yardage total, but Goff was accurate and productive, particularly given the circumstances.

Sean McVay said himself after the game that Goff played really well, even despite the consistent pressure Green Bay got on him.

How Aaron Rodgers, Packers made Aaron Donald, Jalen Ramsey irrelevant in NFC playoffs rout https://t.co/fZXLZ0Ahuw

— RamsNewsNow (@RamsNewsNow) January 17, 2021

Raw emotions will be followed by hard questions after Rams’ loss: The Pile

Jourdan Rodrigue

https://theathletic.com/2327619/2021/01/17/aaron-donald-mcvay-goff-rams-packers/

For all the times that Rams defensive tackle Aaron Donald has reminded us of his beyond-human strength, savvy and ability, the crash into the reality of what he went through over the last week and during Saturday’s game hurt.

Donald, perhaps the only Rams player who has substitution power, had to take himself out of the game on multiple occasions because he was just a week removed from tearing rib cartilage — a frighteningly painful injury — and he played a season-low 55 percent of defensive snaps in the 32-18 divisional round loss at Green Bay.

“He was going to do everything in his power to be out there with his teammates,” head coach Sean McVay said. “This guy is the epitome of a warrior, and I love him. The plan going in was seeing how he feels, and he’s kind of always got that ability to tell us how he’s feeling.”

Against a stout Packers offensive line, the Rams’ defensive line struggled to get pressure. They finished with zero sacks and just one quarterback hit, from Obo Okoronkwo. Donald occupies double teams, which helps teammates get free, but there was not much of a rhythm because he had to come in and out. It sometimes appeared that a single matchup against the Packers’ interior offensive line was able to contain Donald like few ever have.

Against a quarterback as talented as Aaron Rodgers, the Rams knew they would have to find success when rushing with just four, because everyone else was needed to cover the middle and deeper portions of the field. They did the same, with success, in the wild-card round last week against Russell Wilson and the Seahawks. But Donald’s status, plus Rodgers’ ability and a Packers game plan that mixed up short and intermediate passes, worked the play-action and motions and featured Rodgers extending plays, had the Rams solved.

The Packers put up 484 yards against the Rams’ defense, the most they allowed all year, and 188 came on the ground behind a committee of backs (led by Aaron Jones’ 99 yards and a touchdown).

As the last seconds of the fourth quarter ticked away, and with it the Rams’ season, the Fox cameras caught Donald wiping away tears as an assistant coach threw one arm around him in support and consolation. Teammates rallied around Donald, who clearly felt he held some responsibility for the loss.

Imagine Donald, feeling the burden of being less than perfect on one day of a Hall of Fame-worthy career, and experiencing the symptoms of humanity.

“I just (talked) to him, let him know, ‘Man, that’s not on you,’” said veteran defensive tackle Michael Brockers, who finished with eight tackles. “There’s no reason why you have to feel that way, (like) you feel like you failed us. You gave us everything you had, and you’re the reason why we are here.”

Emotion poured from other Rams, especially those who walked off the field and into an unknown future.

Safety and defensive signal-caller John Johnson, a pending free agent, doesn’t know whether the Rams will bring him back, as the league faces salary-cap deflation and the team is pressed up against its financial limit.

Johnson knelt after the game ended, and as he took a moment for himself, the tears came. He stood, then approached his teammates. He told them he loved them.

“I had a little moment,” he said. “It was a heck of a season. Don’t know what’s going to happen. … Definitely emotional, just not knowing what’s going to happen. Not knowing if, the guys you’ve been with for four years, if you’re still going to be with them.”

The Rams entered Saturday’s game with the No. 1 defense in points, yards allowed, explosive plays and other notable categories. Against Rodgers and head coach Matt LaFleur, they imploded. Miscues such as mental errors, difficulty in countering the play-action, poor angles in tackling, missed opportunities on third down, consecutive dropped interceptions and a failed fumble recovery came in waves for the first time in many weeks for first-year coordinator Brandon’s Staley’s group.

The Rams’ offense shouldered the burden in the team’s first role reversal this year. Quarterback Jared Goff made smart decisions, took care of the football and finished the game 21 of 27 for 174 yards, although the old issues of thriving in a broken pocket and out of structure did still pop up. Rookie running back Cam Akers rushed for 90 yards and a touchdown on 18 carries, and lined up in the wildcat formation three times, one resulting in a touchdown run. The hook-and-ladder two-point conversion that followed was downright fun, and made it a one-score game at 25-18 with 1:41 left in the third quarter.

But it wasn’t enough. Midway through the fourth quarter, Rams defensive backs Troy Hill and Jordan Fuller got mixed up on a deep ball to receiver Allen Lazard, who pulled in a 58-yard touchdown to put the Packers up 32-18. It was a dagger play, the type that has been so rare against the Rams’ secondary all season. Here, it fit, I suppose. In one phase or another, inconsistency has been the story of the Rams’ season.

McVay likes to say that the best measure of success is consistency. The Rams may have defied expectations this season, but could never quite secure a hold on the “consistency” part despite brimming with potential.

Welcome to The Pile. The Rams’ season has ended, but an offseason that undoubtedly will brim with theater and difficult decisions await. Let’s start poking around.

Where Aaron Rodgers got the Rams

Let’s be completely honest here. The Rams weren’t facing a slouch at quarterback. Rodgers is having a ridiculous, MVP-caliber season and is operating the best offense in the league, one that has put up historic numbers in the red zone.

Rodgers finished 23 of 36 for 296 yards, two passing touchdowns, one rushing touchdown and zero interceptions.

The Packers worked a variety of looks, motions, and styles of short-passing plays against the Rams’ defense, and mixed that with a solid rushing attack and downfield throws. Rodgers signaled for pre- or at-snap motions on 21 percent of plays (the highest by Green Bay’s offense all season, according to Next Gen Stats), and all four of the Packers’ touchdowns came off of motion/shift plays.

As they have all season, the Packers excelled at getting top receiver Davante Adams into space and into more advantageous matchups, instead of a full game of one-on-one chances against the Rams’ top corner, Jalen Ramsey — as expected. On what appeared to be a particularly frustrating play for Ramsey, the Packers used a speed-motion to get Adams across the goal line on a third-and-goal play from the Rams’ 1. Ramsey either planned to motion with Adams and a safety got in his way, or a safety was supposed to switch assignments with Ramsey, as the closer player with less ground to cover. Instead, Adams was open for the touchdown catch early in the second quarter.

Rodgers especially targeted Hill, who during the game allowed two first downs and dropped an interception in the end zone. He also got caught up in the back-breaking explosive play off Rodgers’ play-action in the fourth quarter. The Rams have had issues against play-action all year, and Rodgers continued a streak of 21 touchdowns and zero interceptions off play-action passes.

“They’re a really good offense,” McVay said. “I think the thing that’s such a winning edge for them is the ability to get into off-set gun, or even under the center. Aaron has got such great command. The game sometimes feels like it’s in slow motion to him. … He gets the ball out and on the perimeter. … They are getting good yards and (those plays) end up being extensions of the run game. And so the guy has such great command.”

A particularly irksome play in McVay’s mind was vintage Rodgers. On the Packers’ first drive, he caught the Rams’ defense substituting and they were flagged for having 12 men on the field, but the penalty was declined because Equanimeous St. Brown caught a 27-yard pass from Rodgers.

Rodgers also ran in a touchdown, after pump-faking outside linebacker Leonard Floyd and getting him to bite on the movement. Rodgers scampered around the airborne Floyd and into the end zone to put Green Bay up 16-3 in the second quarter.

“If you knew nothing about football,” McVay said, “and you asked, ‘What is it like to feel like the game is in slow motion? And you’re just so in command and under control?’ That’s what it looks like when you watch this guy play. … He’s in total command right now. He’s playing at an unbelievably high level.”

Jared Goff’s night can’t end without some drama

Goff played well in his return to the starting role. He had two impressive throws on his second drive, in which he hit Josh Reynolds for 28 yards and then went to Robert Woods for 19 yards on the next play. The drive stalled because of a costly false-start penalty by guard Austin Corbett on fourth-and-1 at the Packers’ 14. Another impressive throw was into a narrow space to rookie receiver Van Jefferson for a 4-yard touchdown in the second quarter.

Goff was pressured on 48.4 percent of his dropbacks, his highest pressure rate in the McVay era, according to NextGen Stats, and he was sacked four times.

“I thought he saw the field really well,” McVay said of Goff. “I loved the tight-window throw to Van Jefferson for the touchdown. … I thought he was good and efficient with his decisions.

“Overall, I thought he did a nice job today.”

The night couldn’t end without some speculation, however.

A reporter asked McVay whether Goff remained “his quarterback,” and it sounded as though McVay replied, “Yeah, he’s the quarterback right now.”

Social media, of course, exploded. The clip probably will be parsed thousands of times between Saturday night and McVay’s exit interview with media on Sunday afternoon. But it’s been a weird year for McVay and Goff.

Goff missed his first-ever start due to injury last week against Seattle, after Dec. 28 thumb surgery. He and McVay disagreed on the health and ability of his thumb, but both parties said, it was “functional conflict” and they have had multiple honest, open conversations about the situation over the last two weeks.

But because Goff’s play has been so inconsistent this season (pre-thumb surgery, he accounted for 17 of the Rams’ 25 turnovers), and because McVay issued rare public criticism of Goff after a particularly tough four-turnover outing in November, speculation has flared and likely will continue through the usually quieter months of the offseason.

Meanwhile, Goff’s respectable outings in consecutive weeks weren’t his focus postgame.

“We didn’t win the game. My job is to win the game,” he said. “I thought I was able to do some good things out there today, but no. My job is to win the game. There are absolutely no moral victories, especially in the playoffs.”

Cam Akers is special

I’m going to hit you with a hot take right now: I don’t think the Rams will go back to a “running back by committee” next season. Sure, they’ll have some depth behind Akers and I believe they are hopeful they can retain veteran Malcolm Brown, who has been an underrated guiding presence.

But this is Akers’ world, and we’re just enjoying it.

The Rams rookie started to fulfill his potential in the latter part of the season, finishing (including the postseason) with 715 yards in just 14 games. And remember, that’s when splitting carries with Darrell Henderson and Brown through much of the first half of the year.

How much does the team now trust Akers? They lined him up in the wildcat package three times against Green Bay, and even gave him the option of throwing to Goff, who was aligned wide. (Akers is a former Mississippi high school star quarterback who was recruited by Auburn to play the position in college.)

“The more that you can have the ball in Cam Akers’ hands, we’re in a good position,” McVay said. “This guy (Akers) is going to be a big-time player. He got more and more confidence as the season went. I have tremendous confidence in him, and I think Thomas Brown (the Rams’ running backs coach) did such a great job of being able to help him continue to mature through the season. I think this guy has an unbelievably bright future.”

Veteran left tackle Andrew Whitworth said teammates are just drawn to Akers’ personality, the way he chatters on the field between carries and how hard he runs.

“He’s a special kid,” Whitworth said. “His heart, his passion — much less his talent. He’s one of those that, even as a rookie, his talk and his belief in us and himself in what we can do is really special. I look forward to watching him have a tremendous career, because the way he’s wired, if he can stay healthy, he’s going to be a different one for sure…

“I would imagine that Cam Akers is going to be a leader of this football team very quickly.”

Bottom of The Pile

• The Rams have a kicker! Matt Gay continued his streak of perfection on Saturday with a 37-yard field goal and one extra point. He has not missed a kick since Week 13 against Arizona, and he hit 15 of 17 field-goal attempts and all 20 of his extra-point attempts after joining the Rams in Week 11. Gay is under contract for near the minimum for next season. Meanwhile, after Sunday, will the Rams still have a special teams coach?

• Jefferson stepped up in absence of Cooper Kupp, who missed the game due to bursitis in his knee. The rookie receiver had six catches for 46 yards and a touchdown.

• This game might — key word, “might” — have been different if not for two crucial penalties in the first half. Corbett’s false start killed a promising drive and set up a field goal instead of six points. Then, early in the second quarter, Donald got overheated and grabbed the facemask of Packers guard Elgton Jenkins, which gave the Packers 15 yards and a fresh set of downs instead of setting up a third-and-7. Green Bay scored a touchdown on the drive.

• Cornerback Darious Williams mysteriously got fewer snaps than he did in the last few weeks, and that will merit an explanation from Staley. Williams gave up one first down, but more than made up for it later with an acrobatic pass breakup that otherwise would have been a Packers touchdown.

• Speaking of Staley, he’s set to interview with the Texans and the Eagles this week, after he talked to the Chargers and the Jets last week. The Rams would consider themselves lucky to keep him around, but only time will tell.

• On a personal note, it has meant a great deal to me to have watched you embrace The Pile, and me (I think) as my first season here unfolded. I have learned a great deal from you, and I can’t thank you enough for your comments, insight, kindness, ideas and sharing of inside jokes (ABTAK! We must always consider the thumb! Hot sauce britches!) with me this season. I took this job in late April, covered this team from Charlotte as the pandemic escalated, and then drove solo across the country in June, scared but so very hopeful. You all have become a lifeline and a place of connection for me during a year that I know has been so isolating for so many. I only hope to do right by you, and by the subjects I cover, and I am so looking forward to all of the adventures we’re going to have in the coming months. It’s an honor to be your beat writer.