This play design is fantastic. pic.twitter.com/XcOs5Se6K3

— Rams Bros. (@RamsBrothers) October 8, 2024

Rams’ youth shows in loss to Packers and they’ll need to grow up fast to save season

By Sam Farmer

https://www.latimes.com/sports/rams/story/2024-10-07/rams-youth-shows-home-loss-green-bay-packers

The Rams are the second-youngest team in the NFL, and they’re showing their age.

They don’t know how to win.

Oh, they’ve gotten close. Over and over. But just as they showed Sunday in their 24-19 loss to Green Bay — incidentally, the league’s youngest team — they haven’t shown an ability to finish the job.

Now the Rams head into their week off knowing that three of their four losses were by six, six and five points.

With Sunday’s loss, the Rams’ Sean McVay dropped to 0-5 against his old coaching buddy, Matt LaFleur. The two worked together in Washington and with the Rams, before LaFleur took over as coach of the Packers in 2019.

“This one hurt,” McVay said.

He was referring to the team, of course, not the head-to-head coaching battle. The Rams have gotten tantalizingly close to winning at Detroit and Chicago, and at home against the Packers but so far they’ve lacked anything close to a killer instinct.

That said, it’s too early to start piling dirt on them. The NFL is weird that way. For instance, both the Rams and Packers were 3-6 through nine games last season, yet both wound up making the playoffs. So a 1-4 start isn’t fatal.

But the Rams can’t draw a lot of inspiration from being close in games, either. That’s the way the NFL is built. After the afternoon games Sunday, there had been 46 games decided by seven points or fewer, and 40 decided by six points or fewer, both the most such games through Week 5 in NFL history.

In other words, there’s a thin line separating the good teams from the bad ones, and at the moment, the Rams are on the wrong side of that equation.

They rose from the ashes last season, but that team was far steadier along the offensive line and was generally healthier than this one. These Rams have too many young and inexperienced players at too many key spots to flip the same kind of U-turn.

They’re particularly vulnerable in the interior of their offensive line. Green Bay was especially effective with its pass rush up the middle Sunday, swarming Matthew Stafford, sacking him three times and repeatedly leveling hits that left him writhing on the turf.

Stafford was tired and terse in the wake of defeat, wearing a Hawaiian shirt that was far more festive than his mood. His team has a week off, and none too soon.

Issues in the red zone continue to haunt the Rams. Case in point: They had a first-and-goal from the eight in the opening quarter, and followed a couple of two-yard runs with two incomplete passes, giving the ball back to the Packers.

“We’ve moved the ball nice between the 20s, we just haven’t scored enough points,” Stafford said. “That’s the name of the game in this league. You’ve got to score points and you’ve got to take care of the football. We’ve got to be better in both those areas.”

Presumably, help is on the way. Sure-handed receivers Cooper Kupp and Puka Nacua could be back as soon as the next game, Oct. 20 against the Las Vegas Raiders, and offensive linemen Steve Avila and Joe Noteboom too are on the mend.

The current collection of receivers has done a pretty respectable job in the absence of Kupp and Nacua, but none of those fill-ins strike fear in opponents.

No one is running away with the NFC West. The Rams’ only win was a big one, knocking off San Francisco, and the 49ers lost again Sunday to Arizona. The Cardinals are 2-0 in the division, but they’re 2-3 overall, and — though they throttled the Rams — don’t have the look of a top-tier contender.

Seattle lost at home Sunday to the New York Giants, who were 1-3 heading into Sunday.

Basically, the division is four middling teams that aren’t likely to be heavily favored in any given game. There is opportunity in that.

McVay is one of the best coaches in the league. He showed that again last season with his team coming out of the off week to win seven of its last eight games to improbably reach the postseason, then almost win at Detroit in a wild-card game.

But it could take an even better coaching job to turn this team around. The Rams are more banged up, the offensive line isn’t as good, and the defense is prone to forehead-slapping breakdowns.

What’s more, the players haven’t proven they’re closers.

In baseball parlance — fitting for a Dodgers-obsessed city — the oh-so-close Rams are a team bubbling over with warning-track power.

Good enough to make games interesting. Not yet good enough to close the deal.

Jayden Daniels is the 1st player in #NFL  history with 1,000+ pass yards and 250+ rush yards in his 1st 5 career games. pic.twitter.com/aRwtvQSrtb

— NFL Stats (@NFL_Stats) October 6, 2024

Well one thing has gotten better on defense. With White out and Williams back (and with Witherspoon and Durant playing too), pass D looks to be better.

First 4 games, Rams were 32nd in yards per attempt allowed, with 8.1.

Yesterday the Rams allowed 7.0 per attempt, which if ranked against all teams in the first 4 games, would have been been 16th. Which. You know. Is half of 32.

ramsman34

MCV said the corners played well “sticky”. I have to find time to watch again/all 22. But, you can be sticky all day then have a 3rd qtr and 1 in the first where you give up massive explosives. That can’t happen if you really want to be a top team.

They literally have to come out of the bye and run off 5+ wins. The defense has to tackle better and eliminate explosives in order to do that. If an offense goes 15 plays and scores, so be it. But even that can’t happen more than 2x a game.

The passing game on offense is really limited based on who is out at G/C and WR – and damn I miss Higs and even Davis Allen. Our TEs just don’t make a difference like we need them to – not to my eyes. All the more reason to design a heavy run approach with new play action wrinkles.
We are not close. But at the same time, not so far off that it can’t be recovered.

Day of strange touchdowns continues:
pic.twitter.com/oCVdjTJbs4

— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) October 6, 2024

PFF@PFF
Kyren Williams is the only RB who has played 80% or more of his team’s offensive snaps

from https://www.therams.com/news/jordan-whittington-is-ascending-in-the-rams-wide-receiver-room

Well, it wasn’t surprising to everyone.

👀👀

thru week 4 – rams defensive rankings
nowhere to go but up, right?
up next, the packers #10 scoring offense pic.twitter.com/zL921ZaDPU

— roberto clemente (@rclemente2121) October 4, 2024

Blaine Grisak@bgrisakTST
Rams rookie Jared Verse has been named defensive rookie of the month. Verse led all rookies with 5 TFLs and was the only rookie to record 4-or-more tackles in each game this month.

Rams iOL Logan Bruss is a prime example of why it’s important to be patient in player development. Not sure his comeback this season has been talked about enough. Bruss currently ranks fourth via ESPN’s run-block win rate. He is PFF’s top-rated guard on gap-scheme runs. This isn’t to say that Bruss has been perfect. Still has some rough moments in pass protection.

Might just be me, but Rams RB Kyren Williams seems to be a little more shifty this year in spots.

Has two really nice cuts here to pick up 12 yards. Rams back to 11 personnel. Good block by Parkinson to move Sweat and Kyren does the rest. pic.twitter.com/uMWEL5GzlD

— Blaine Grisak 💭 (@bgrisakTST) October 2, 2024