media previews the SF game

Rams Focused on Improving Run Defense

Myles Simmons

http://www.therams.com/news-and-events/article-1/Rams-Focused-on-Improving-Run-Defense/f3c0831f-d5b6-4cf3-9b11-32d801c45b5e

It’s been a constant question since the final whistle on Sunday: Why did the Rams surrender so many rushing yards to Washington?

The visitors had 229 yards rushing, averaging 5.9 yards per carry. Three different Washington running backs tallied at least 67 yards on the ground. And because the ground game was so effective, Washington led time of possession 36:19 to 23:41.

In other words, the question isn’t a secret. And that’s probably why defensive coordinator Wade Phillips began his Tuesday press conference by saying, unprompted, “What’s wrong with the run defense, right?”

“We didn’t play the run very well and we’re upset about that, but we’re going to do something about it,” Phillips said. “I did think we fought back in the second half and played a lot better run defense than we did — obviously, the first quarter kind of shocked us.

“And they have a good running game,” Phillips continued. “I don’t want to take away anything from them, but that certainly hurt us.”

According to Phillips, there were a number of contributing factors to the Rams’ struggles against the run. One of them was Washington effectively running plays that have worked against teams Phillips has coached in the past — plays that Washington may not have shown on film.

“We’ve seen them — I’ve seen them — but it’s a copycat league. They tried to copy all the plays that had any success against Denver, or Texans, or Philadelphia, or New Orleans. or Houston or…where else have I been?” Phillips said with a chuckle. “They were successful on those.”

But another part of it was that in some ways, the Rams are still getting adjusted to their new defensive scheme. For instance, outside linebacker Robert Quinn has played as a down lineman in the past, which requires a different type of technique for playing against the run. Conversely, outside linebacker Connor Barwin played in Phillips’ system in Houston and doesn’t quite have to make those adjustments.

“I think just the feel of where everybody is, especially for linebackers — how to set the edge for the outside backers,” Phillips said. “Connor’s done it before, but Robert Quinn has never played outside linebacker so I’m talking about him in the running game, he’s always rushed the passer and we had him rushing the passer quite a bit.

“And the two inside guys [Alec Ogletree and Mark Barron] have played linebacker, but they haven’t played a 3-4,” Phillips added. “And even the safeties, I think, you know where to fill, those kind of things. Just took some live-action time. Unfortunately, we didn’t do as well as we wanted to, but I think we’ll do better.”

On Ogletree and Barron in particular, Phillips said he felt they got better as the game went on. But once the second half hit, Washington already had racked up 167 yards rushing in the first two quarters.

“Both of them made like over 15 tackles, so they made a lot of plays, especially as the game went along,” Phillips said. “I think you look at it now, the second half they had like five runs that were minus yards. So, like I said, we started playing better in the second half, but too little too late — got us too far behind.”

So what’s the solution? Head coach Sean McVay said one factor is keeping gap integrity.

“Again, you look back at some of the different things, credit to Washington for making some of those plays,” McVay said. “But I think the thing that was encouraging, which Wade will tell you guys as well, is that as the game progressed, guys settled in. Now what we’ve got to do a good job of is not letting what happened in the early stages of the game happen, period.

“What we’ve got to do is just make sure the things that are correctable, that we can clean up, we address those,” McVay added. “And those are things that we’ve done already and the guys have responded the right way.”

Given how well San Francisco ran it last week against Seattle, correcting the run defense is a top priority for the short week. Niners back Carlos Hyde rushed for 124 yards on 15 carries last week, as San Francisco totaled 159 yards rushing in its 12-9 loss.

“The running back is one of the top running backs in the league,” Phillips said. “What did he go for 100 and something against Seattle? And, they have a pretty good defense there, so it’s going to be a challenge for us.

”They’ve got to be licking their chops,” Phillips added. “They had 159 yards last week against Seattle and now they’re playing us who gave up 200 and something.”

And while there are challenges that come with the truncated preparation time, Phillips also sees some benefits.

“We’ve got to play better to win on defense,” he said, “so the only good thing out if it is, I think we’ll put more emphasis on the running game. And we play quickly, so we’re back into San Francisco. Last week’s gone, so that’s the only good thing about it.”

Once again, Rams coach Sean McVay faces an opponent that knows his stuff

By RICH HAMMOND

link: http://www.ocregister.com/2017/09/20/once-again-rams-coach-sean-mcvay-faces-an-opponent-that-knows-his-stuff/

SANTA CLARA — NFL play-callers never struggle to generate paranoia. They practice in private, fill their playbooks with coded terminology and cover their mouths on the sidelines when they speak.

Imagine then, the self-imposed stress coaches must deal with when the opponent’s staff includes a former colleague, or even a family member. The second-guessing could become overwhelming. Is it wise to shake things up, to counter the familiarity, or just retain confidence that execution will win out?

“It’s definitely a chess game you play with yourself,” Rams offensive coordinator Matt LaFleur said this week.

The Rams play at San Francisco on Thursday night and, for a second consecutive week, Rams coach Sean McVay faces a team that know his stuff, and vice versa. The ties are deep throughout the staffs.

McVay and 49ers coach Kyle Shanahan worked closely together in Washington and are good friends. LaFleur worked under Shanahan in Atlanta. LaFleur’s brother, Mike, is the 49ers’ receivers coach, and LaFleur’s former roommate, Robert Saleh, is the 49ers’ defensive coordinator.

These guys are close enough to know each other’s PIN codes, so how can they keep anything from each other on the football field? Or should they even try? There doesn’t appear to be a perfect answer.

Clearly, a coach isn’t going to swap out his entire scheme for one game, but in situations such as this one, all cannot be normal.

“You want to make sure that you’re aware of what you’ve done on tape, what they’re preparing for, things like that,” McVay said. “But you also don’t want to lose sight of what your identity is and your core philosophies, from an offense, defense and special-teams approach, because this is what your players are comfortable with.”

To an extent, this happens every week. The Rams (like every team) have staffers assigned to “self-scout,” to review the team’s film and look for tendencies or “tells” that might be picked up by opponents. The key is for teams to spot these things and amend them before they can be exploited.

Or, as Washington coach Jay Gruden put it last week, “Teams have tendencies, but they also know that they have those tendencies, so they play off of those tendencies.”

It’s different, though, when there’s deeper knowledge. For instance, last week the Rams played Washington, coached by Gruden, who helped McVay develop as a player-caller when they worked together for three seasons.

Coaches evolve, and certainly McVay’s offense isn’t a exact replica of what he ran in Washington, but consider this quote from Shanahan, who was asked this week about the Rams’ offense.

“It looks very similar to what we do schematically,” Shanahan said. “It looks very similar to how it was in Washington when we were there and how it was with Jay. So, got a lot of familiarity with what he’s doing.”

Some of that is gamesmanship, with Shanahan knowing that McVay likely would see that quote, but that’s the point, to get the opponent second-guessing himself. McVay could say the same about Shanahan’s offense. Changing things up can be good, though, as Washington showed last week against the Rams.

The Rams, given their knowledge of Gruden, thought he would come out throwing with experienced quarterback Kirk Cousins. Instead, Washington ran the ball, and ran some plays that the Rams hadn’t seen before. That probably required a lot of work on Washington’s end, but it worked.

Further complicating matters is the limited preparation time when playing a Thursday game. The Rams didn’t practice Monday, which left Tuesday as a massive day to install the game plan and practice.

McVay said in these situations the playbook typically is condensed to make it easier for players, so the idea that a team would adjust its entire plan because of familiarity between coaches seems unlikely, and perhaps unwise.

“Especially on a short week, you’ve got to do what you do,” the Rams’ LaFleur said. “You’ve got to do what the players are comfortable with doing, and each defense presents its own problems, so you want to attack them in a certain way. When you’re on a short week, you’ve got to do what these players know.”