tweets … 12/30 & 12/31

J.B. Long@JB_Long
Jared Goff in December 2019:
7.8 AY/A 5.1%TD 1.9%INT

Pro Bowl Years 2017-18:
8.5 AY/A 5.8%TD 1.8%INT

Season-wide perspective: #LARams were 4-0 when Goff was turnover-free. 5-7 all others.

Also worth noting only 1 fumble (and 0 lost) after PIT in Week 10.

LMU93

6-0– Rams record when Gurley had 16 or more carries (and 3-7 when he didn’t)

626– number of pass attempts by Goff, which tied Jameis Winston for most in the NFL. It is never a good thing when your QB throws the ball 600+ times….

2nd– Rams strength of schedule in 2019 according to both TeamRankings.com and Pro-Football-Reference.com

28th– Rams red zone scoring defense ranking, down from 14th a year ago (by the way the Rams finished 5th in red zone offense)

37.5– number of sacks by players not named Aaron Donald, up from 20.5 last year.

One– number of times two Rams have had 90+ catches and 1,100+ receiving yards in the same season (Woods and Kupp in 2019…)

2– number of games where Brandin Cooks had 5 or more receptions, down from 9 a year ago.

72.7%– Zuerlein’s FG percentage, lowest of his career. He was 5-of-11 from 40-49 yards after previously being 84% from that distance for his career.

+30– Rams Points Differential for the season, down from +143 and +149 the past two seasons.

16.9– Rams points per game allowed in the 13 games other than losses to Tampa, Baltimore and Dallas (where they gave up 48 ppg…)

For those freaking out about Sean McVay going 9-7. Here’s Sean Payton’s career with legendary QB Drew Brees at the helm. pic.twitter.com/HjaZ8Ytemc

— DOWNTOWN RAMS [DTR] (@DowntownRams) December 30, 2019

from PFF: NFL teams that could make the playoffs in 2020 after missing the postseason in 2019 — https://www.pff.com/news/nfl-four-nfl-teams-that-could-make-the-playoffs-in-2020

LOS ANGELES RAMS

This is an interesting case. On the one hand, the Rams don’t have to go very far to reach the playoffs for the third time in four years in 2020. They have a very good head coach and defensive coordinator. They have some of the best talent that the league has to offer in Aaron Donald, Robert Woods, Jalen Ramsey, Cory Littleton and Andrew Whitworth (pending retirement). They have a theoretically easier road as well, facing the relatively weak NFC and AFC Easts in 2020.

One the other hand, Jared Goff showed significant issues in 2019. After a season in which Goff was a top-10 quarterback in terms of PFF grade, he slipped to 18th in 2019, throwing almost as many interceptions (16) as touchdowns (19) while ranking 22nd in adjusted completion percentage behind players like Mason Rudolph and Drew Lock. The Rams run one of the most unique schemes offensively in all of football, one that used a league-leading play-action rate in neutral situations heading into Week 17, a high amount of outside-zone running plays, an above-average depth of target and light box counts. Receiver injuries and offensive line issues aside, if Goff cannot succeed in those circumstances, the Rams may be in trouble even if the Seattle Seahawks regress and the Arizona Cardinals cannot see a second-year jump for Kyler Murray and Kliff Kingsbury.

In addition to question marks about Goff, the Rams do not have a first-round pick in the foreseeable future; they also need to sign Jalen Ramsey to an extension, and they already have big contracts dolled out to Todd Gurley, Brandin Cooks, Goff and Dante Fowler. It will take some creativity for the Rams to be good moving forward, but we wouldn’t doubt them.

Cameron DaSilva@camdasilva
The weird thing about the Rams is they have so much talent still under contract next year that it’s hard to find any positions that need a lot of work (OL/edge could use some help).

It shouldn’t take much for them to get back in contention in 2020

Lindsey Thiry@LindseyThiry
Sean McVay says they are still waiting on MRI results for Michael Brockers ankle.

𝕋𝕠𝕞 – 𝕃𝔸 ℝ𝕒𝕞𝕤@TL_LARams
Tyler Higbee, last 5 weeks of the season:
43 catches, 522 yards, 2 TDs

Travis Kelce: 34 catches, 396 yards, 1 TD
George Kittle: 33 catches, 383 yards, 2 TD
Michael Thomas: 45 catches, 483 yards, 3 TDs

Rich Hammond@Rich_Hammond
This won’t get widely discussed because it goes against the narrative, but there’s a strong crowd at the Coliseum for a meaningless Week 17 game against a non-interesting opponent.

Greg Beacham@gregbeacham
Nobody has contacted the Rams to interview any of Sean McVay’s assistants for bigger coaching jobs this month, McVay says. That’s a bit of a change from the last 2 years.

Stu Jackson@StuJRams
#LARams who started all 16 games this season:

LT Andrew Whitworth
QB Jared Goff
DE Michael Brockers
NT Sebastian Joseph-Day
DT Aaron Donald
ILB Cory Littleton
FS Eric Weddle

J.B. Long@JB_Long
If it wasn’t a whole month sample size, I’d never do this. But if you projected [Higbee’s] last 5 games over a 16-game season:

137 catches | 1,670 yards | 6 TD
Over 9 yds per target & over 12 yds per reception

For context, George Kittle’s record-smashing 2018:

88 catches | 1,377 yards | 5 TDs

Lindsey Thiry@LindseyThiry
Andrew Whitworth on how Sean McVay handled the uneven season: “He’s always taking the heat… more people need to carry the load.”

==

If not for this phantom P.I. at Dallas, #LARams corner Darious Williams would have finished his first stretch of steady NFL reps with 3 INTs in 3 games (and 5 passes defensed). pic.twitter.com/dERQ0m6oS7

— J.B. Long (@JB_Long) December 30, 2019

Strange But True: None of the top 5 passing leaders from this season made the playoffs. pic.twitter.com/aKmZ2MWXW7

— FOX Sports: NFL (@NFLonFOX) December 31, 2019

Andrew Whitworth: Returning to Rams is top choice 'without question' https://t.co/UBO6aQay8v

— Rams Wire (@TheRamsWire) December 31, 2019

LMU93

FootballOutsiders final 2019 Ratings- interesting…

https://www.footballoutsiders.com/dvoa-ratings/2019/final-2019-dvoa-ratings%5DFootballOutsiders 2019 DVOA Ratings

Rams finish ranked 12th overall (16th on offense, 9th defense, 23rd special teams).

Goff finished ranked 15th out of 34 QBs
Gurley 22nd out of 45 RBs
Kupp 18th out of 81 WRs, Woods 44th, Cooks 48th
Higbee finished 10th out of 49 TEs

On 2019 strength of schedules: “This year’s hardest schedules by DVOA were all in the NFC: Los Angeles Rams at No. 1, then Seattle, Arizona, Carolina, and Atlanta. Houston and Cincinnati had the toughest schedules in the AFC.”

Also interesting that the Bucs, the first team to really shut down the Rams running game this year, finished as their top run defense of 2019. “Most impressive was the (Tampa) run defense, which allowed just 3.3 yards per carry, a yard below the NFL average. The Bucs come out as the No. 6 best run defense we’ve ever measured.”

from PFF: Ranking all 32 NFL offensive lines following the 2019 regular season — https://www.pff.com/news/nfl-offensive-line-rankings-following-2019-regular-season

…

31. LOS ANGELES RAMS

The offensive line was a strength of the Los Angeles Rams’ NFC champion team in 2018, but that changed in a hurry this season. Injuries, shuffling pieces and declining play from players who performed well last season — such as Rob Havenstein — resulted in a pass-blocking unit that allowed a pressure rate four percentage points higher than it did a season ago despite Jared Goff getting rid of the football significantly faster on average and running play action at one of the highest rates in the NFL. Given how much Goff relies on a clean pocket, improving the group up front will be a priority heading into 2020.

@CharlesRobinson
#Rams are still expected to make coaching staff changes but McVay wants to be very deliberate about the moves, so he’s going to take the time to go through his process. Possibly into next week. I’m told football ops will also have at least one more departure beyond Bruce Warwick.

RamsNewsNow@RamsNewsNow
Johnny Hekker named NFC Special Teams Player of the Week for Week 17