from Stats and Records: Rams Commit to Ground Attack in Loss to Packers
Stats Doctor in National Football League October 13, 2015
http://www.101sports.com/2015/10/13/stats-and-records-rams-commit-to-ground-attack-in-loss-to-packers/
…
The Rams committed to the run, and it shows in a variety of statistical categories.
St. Louis ran 28 plays on first down and 23 of them were running plays. Paired with the numbers from last week in Arizona, the team has now stayed on the ground for 39 of their last 50 first down plays (78%).
There are 15 teams in the NFL that have rushed more than passed on first down so far this season, but none of those teams match the 64 percent rushing rate of the Rams on first down.
Those first down runs have averaged 5.62 yards per play while first down pass plays have averaged 9.56 yards per play. Five games into a season, you don’t often see a team that has an overall average of just over seven yards per first down play. For the game, two-thirds of the Rams offense occurred on first down (223 of the 334 total yards).
After the abysmal first half rushing numbers of nine yards in nine carries in Arizona, the Rams have run for 346 yards on 53 carries for a 6.5 yard average. If you just look at the second half of the last two games, the stats are even more impressive as the Rams have turned 33 runs into 220 yards for an 8.2 yard average. In the fourth quarter alone in Green Bay, the Rams had 166 yards total offense that was only two yards shy of the total of the first three quarters combined. In Arizona, the Rams had identical rushing and passing yardage with 164 yards of each. In the second half against the Packers, St. Louis had identical totals of 112 yards rushing and passing.
Todd Gurley’s 159 yards on the ground gave him a two-game total of 305 yards. He becomes the first Rams player with over 300 rushing yards in back-to-back games since 2002 when Marshall Faulk had three games in a row with 158, 183, and 178 yards against the Raiders, Seahawks, and Cardinals.
Only one of the first five drives for the Rams crossed midfield, but seven of the last eight drives went into Packers territory. St. Louis ran 31 plays past midfield for the highest total of the season while also allowing the fewest plays past the 50 with 21. The Rams managed only ten points in those last eight drives and the six drives of the second half were a study in futility.
It’s not every day that you see a team go scoreless in one half even though that team was forced to punt just one time. That’s what happened when the Rams had three missed field goals and two red zone interceptions on those other five possessions.
…
The Rams had all three touchdowns against Arizona on third down plays. Unfortunately, the converse was true against the Packers as all four interceptions came on third down. For the day, Nick Foles completed only five of his 16 third down passes to Rams players for 51 yards while Aaron Rodgers went 5-8 for 73 yards along with two sacks. The Rams defense allowed only one third down conversion in the last seven attempts by Green Bay.
When it came to finishing drives, this is where the Rams offense was lacking.
In the fourth quarter alone, Gurley had his longest run of the season when he set sail on a 55-yard scamper on the first Rams play of the quarter.
That was also the longest run allowed by the Packers this season by a whopping 32 yards.
The first play of the team’s final drive went for a season long 69 yards from Foles to Stedman Bailey. But, the finish of those red zone drives basically finished off the Rams’ hopes for a come from behind win.
Last season, the Rams had three red zone turnovers in 64 quarters of football. Last week, the Rams had two red zone interceptions in less than nine minutes of one quarter.
The offense ran ten plays in the red zone for just 14 yards out of a possible 46 yards netting one touchdown along with the two picks. The Rams defense allowed no plays from scrimmage in the red zone because Mason Crosby concluded the day’s scoring with a field goal on fourth down from the Rams 17-yard line. However, the Packers dialed long distance for their scoring plays with touchdowns covering 31, 45, and 65 yards. As it turned out, both teams recorded the season’s longest pass plays for and against their teams.
The Packers remain undefeated and have managed to win the turnover battle by exactly +1 in each of those five wins. The four Rams turnovers led to Foles having a passer rating of 23.8, the lowest since Marc Bulger recorded a 22.2 passer rating against Miami in 2008. When the starting quarterback has a passer rating lower than the number of points scored by the opposition, the chances of winning are extremely slim.
The four interceptions were the most since Keith Null threw five picks against the Titans in 2009. This was the 29th time in franchise history that a Rams opponent intercepted at least four passes and the Rams are now 2-27 in those games.
The bye week comes a bit on the early side in Week 6, but maybe the timing is just right to heal and make corrections before back-to-back home games with the Browns and the Niners.
.
