J.B. Long@JB_Long
I’ve been in full Jim Cramer BUY mode on Cooper Kupp stock since at least OTAs. But what I didn’t necessarily expect is that he’d be at career-high levels for average depth of target and deep target percentage.

He’s a vertical threat in this offense, more than ever.

Jalen Ramsey seals weird, off-putting Rams win as Matthew Stafford, Jared Goff see familiar faces: The Pile

Jourdan Rodrigue

https://theathletic.com/2910163/2021/10/25/jalen-ramsey-seals-weird-off-putting-rams-win-as-matthew-stafford-jared-goff-see-familiar-faces-the-pile/?source=emp_shared_article

INGLEWOOD, Calif. — A game that had skidded off the rails from its opening minutes was definitively planted back on track by cornerback Jalen Ramsey on Sunday.

In fact, he ended the dang thing.

Ramsey intercepted a pass by Lions quarterback Jared Goff, his teammate before last winter’s blockbuster trade with Detroit, in the end zone with 5:03 left to play in the 28-19 Rams win. It was Ramsey’s 27th birthday, so naturally defensive tackle Aaron Donald gifted him with a big hit on Goff as the ball came out of his hand around the 12-yard line. Ramsey jumped the route of the tight end to whom the throw was intended and pulled in the pick, then sprinted 23 yards in the other direction.

The play seemed to be a catharsis, of sorts, not only because Goff beat a furious Ramsey blitz off the edge by getting the ball out to the screen receiver for a long catch-and-run play in the first quarter and an early Lions touchdown (a lead the Rams would spend the next quarter and a half picking away at) but also because Ramsey watched at least one of his other major third-down stops, a massive hit on third-and-7, wiped away by atrocious and frankly unaware special-teams play as the Lions ran their first of two successful fake punts.

“Yeah, kinda (was more cathartic),” Ramsey said afterward. “There were a lot of ebbs and flows of the game. It was a lot of adversity that we faced. And it did overshadow some of the good moments that the defense had, right, but that’s a part of the game. Who cares? We just move on, and you go to the next opportunity.”

The play also halted a flood of third-down conversions by the Lions on the drive — four of their six total to that point in the game — and quieted the droves of Detroit fans in the stands at SoFi Stadium (kudos to them for traveling well, in part as an homage to longtime former quarterback Matthew Stafford, appearing for the first time against the team for which he played 12 years before the Rams traded for him this spring).

But wow, was it a helter-skelter game before that play — in every phase at times, sure, and we’ll get to that, but in none more than on special teams.

The Lions successfully recovered an onside kick after their game-opening touchdown, then went on to run two successful punt fakes on fourth down that had the Rams spinning in all sorts of directions, none of them good. The onside kick, and the first of the two fakes, also kept the ball out of Stafford’s hands until 7:23 remained in the first quarter, and at that point, the Rams not only had to play under a deficit but also had to change around their play script because of the time constraint. When the Rams did get the ball back, as Stafford noted afterward, they scored 17 points on their next three possessions and Stafford finished the first half 17-for-23 with 166 yards, two touchdowns and no interceptions, with three receivers averaging better than 10 yards per catch.

“It was a strange game, for sure,” Stafford said. “All the fakes, the surprise onside (kick) and all of that, some possessions stolen there. Great plays by them, but just kinda had a weird feel to it and didn’t touch the ball too much in the first half, but when we got our opportunities, we scored with it, which was good.”

Those mishandled special-teams plays forced sudden-change situations for the Rams defense on multiple occasions, and though Ramsey pointed out that the defense held Detroit to a field goal after the first onside-kick/fake-punt drive, then ultimately forced a turnover on downs on the second fake-punt drive, I’ll point out that it’s still not a situation any team wants to, or should, find itself in, and especially not multiple times.

“Obviously, it’s a good wake-up call for us, and something that we’ve got to do a better job of moving forward,” head coach Sean McVay said. “They made the plays and we didn’t, in that phase. And it almost changed the outcome of the game.”

The Rams are 6-1, and buckle up, folks, because we’re starting with a special-teams unit that has been teetering on the brink week to week and finally fell over a cliff Sunday.

Leonard Floyd pressures Jared Goff. (Robert Hanashiro / USA Today)
Welcome to The Pile. Let’s start poking around. Maybe we’ll find a kick returner down there somewhere.

‘Special’ is not the right word
The Rams have to figure out their issues on special teams, and they have to do it yesterday. They gave up three trick plays in this phase, the fake punt conversions and the onside kick recovery, had at least one hold penalty and couldn’t average a kickoff return past the 20-yard line.

Each week has been a “what catastrophe will occur next” bingo card of error. While I certainly give some leeway — because it’s an incredibly young group that features turnover in a few crucial spots, and injuries have added to the mess in some phases — this unit has a complete lack of identity. I watch these guys in practice every day. They play hard, and they’re coached hard by first-year coordinator Joe DeCamillis, a veteran, well-liked coach in the NFL. So why aren’t they putting it together? They don’t need to necessarily run the fakes or even stack up brain-breaking returns. No, they need only to be consistent week over week. That’s the floor. But this unit is in the basement.

The special-teams unit is pinballing up and down each week in DVOA, ranking as high as No. 12 two weeks ago after being No. 30 the previous week, then plummeting back to No. 28. They’ve had every issue presumably possible, from missed kicks to returnable kickoffs to missed tackles to continual penalties to a lack of cohesive, decisive returners. Hell, rookie receiver Ben Skowronek was returning kickoffs for the Rams on Sunday, his first crack at doing so (McVay said earlier in the week that rookie second-round pick Tutu Atwell would handle those duties after the Rams lost Jake Funk to injury, but he was nowhere to be found, there or on offense). Veteran receiver DeSean Jackson even got a look on a punt return over Atwell, and he’s playing on an injury-preventive contract!

Sunday, the special-teams unit was not oblivious to the possible scenarios a desperate, winless team would try. McVay even acknowledged afterward that they saw it coming. But they still couldn’t execute, which prompts the question: Is being ready, and then failing, actually worse than being surprised and failing?

I don’t believe McVay was bluffing, either, when he said the Rams were ready to counter those tricks. The Rams usually work on those types of situations throughout the week and were clearly prepared for a fake punt situation the first time around, considering they sent Ramsey out in coverage contain on the “receiver” near the Lions’ sideline. The pass on the first fake punt, though, went to Nick Scott’s man on the opposite side and totally spun him around for an 18-yard gain.

“That’s what is a little bit disappointing, is that it was not stuff that we were surprised by,” McVay said. “But we didn’t execute, and they did. They ended up creating a bunch of momentum … (those) things were things that we did anticipate and expect, but we didn’t execute, and they did. That wasn’t good, and it was a lot of things that we can learn from.”

McVay, visibly angry when discussing those plays, firmly reiterated that even the second fake was something the Rams were set up to defend by being in a “punt-safe” alignment. Yet the play, a carry around the left end, picked up 28 yards — the first down, and then some.

“We lost the edge,” McVay said.

The bright spot was kicker Matt Gay, who hit touchbacks on his kickoffs and made a 47-yard field goal in the fourth quarter to ice the game.

Stafford and Kupp, rinse and repeat

Stop me if you’ve heard this before: Holy crap, Cooper Kupp.

Kupp had 10 catches on 13 targets for 156 yards and two touchdowns as Stafford’s top receiver Sunday. He’s the fourth player in the Super Bowl era with 50-plus catches, 700-plus receiving yards and eight-plus receiving touchdowns in his team’s first seven games, according to NFL Research, which puts him in the company of Steve Smith Sr. (2005), Torry Holt (2003) and Marvin Harrison (1999). It’s Week 7, and Kupp has 809 yards and nine touchdowns. And there’s an extra game this year!

Sunday, Kupp also averaged 15.6 yards per catch with longs of 59, 29 and 27 yards — but it was the slick work he did in smaller spaces that stood out, first on a juke on second-and-10 that picked up 11 yards and may as well have left his defender’s socks on the field, and next on his first of the two touchdowns. The Rams ran what several savvy viewers noted was a “shield slant,” in which Van Jefferson (who also had an impressive touchdown in the second quarter and has eclipsed his rookie numbers just seven games in) served as a “peloton” blocker, similar to the way competitive cyclists shield teammates in a cluster against the wind and provide a drafting situation, allowing their team leaders to get small in the tunnel created and shoot forward with less in their way. Kupp snuck behind Jefferson on the 2-yard play, and Stafford fired in the ball for the score.

“We got the look we wanted and Van did a great job. It’s really all on Van to be able to occupy the inside defender,” Kupp said. “I just have to catch the ball. … It was pretty cool.”

Kupp said the Rams have had the play in their arsenal for several years.

“Back (in) my first year, second and third year, I was in Van’s position and Sammy Watkins and Brandin Cooks were the ones making those plays. … Just something, a play we have run before and we did a good job executing it,” he said.

But you’ll also note, as ESPN’s Brady Henderson pointed out on Twitter, that the “shield slant” is extremely similar to the now-infamous passing play the Seahawks ran at the goal line in their Super Bowl loss to New England.

Look familiar? This is basically what the Seahawks ran at the goal line in Super Bowl XLIX. Watch what No. 12, Van Jefferson, does to create a clean passing lane. If only … https://t.co/bgqnsrD9kV

— Brady Henderson (@BradyHenderson) October 24, 2021

Robert Woods was the No. 2 receiver Sunday, catching all six of his targets for 70 yards and converting the Rams’ two-point play after Kupp’s second touchdown.

Markedly better on third down

Last week, Kupp remarked that the Rams had been “atrocious” on third down in games against Seattle and New York, and he was right: The offense converted just 4 of 21 third-down attempts in those games. But against the Lions, the Rams were much better, converting on nine of 12 tries.

“I think, throughout the week, we had a lot of stuff to kind of work through and did a great job trimming (the play menu) and giving us a more streamlined approach to what we wanted to do,” Kupp said. “Guys just executed, being able to make plays and progress through things. And then Sean just got us into some great plays, as well, being able to get some stuff (in) ‘hurry-up’ and get up onto the ball and make some plays that way, and then just our third-down play in general. … I thought we did a better job executing.”

“I thought Sean gave us an opportunity to be great on third down today. He does every week, and it comes down to execution,” Stafford said.

Sunday, two notable conversions included Kupp’s 59-yard pickup on third-and-12 and tight end Tyler Higbee’s 14-yard catch on third-and-10 that set up Kupp’s second touchdown and the corresponding two-point conversion, courtesy of Woods.

“Those are huge plays in the game,” Stafford said. “I can’t say enough about those guys. They worked their tails off, and I’m happy that work is paying off for them on Sundays and they’re going to go out there and shine.”

Cornerback injury situations

In his third start (and first at SoFi), Rams rookie cornerback Robert Rochell made a big stop in the first half, but shortly afterward he left the game. The Rams reported a knee injury and that Rochell’s status would be “questionable” in the second half. Rochell did not return.

The cornerback corps is already thin because veteran starter Darious Williams is recovering from an ankle injury. Without Rochell, the team sent back in David Long Jr., who started on the outside this season but lost his snaps after the Rams’ loss to Arizona and didn’t see much time in extra-defensive-backs packages until the very end of last week’s blowout win at the Giants. The Rams can’t afford to lose more personnel here, although they expect Williams back within the short-term injured-reserve window, probably early November. They’re not expected to make much noise at the trade deadline, but if they do get in a bind in the defensive backfield, we probably can’t rule it out.

McVay said he thinks Rochell “will be OK,” although he had not yet met with the medical staff when he had his news conference. He had, however, spoken with Rochell directly.

“He said that the initial tests checked out well, but I’ll be able to give you further clarity (Monday),” McVay said.

Bottom of The Pile

• McVay and Goff opted to greet each other at the end of the game instead of before it, and the two shared a hug and a few words. The Rams played tribute videos for Goff and another well-loved former Rams player, defensive lineman Michael Brockers, before the game.

• Many in the crowd showed up in Stafford’s old Honolulu Blue No. 9 Detroit jersey, which Stafford certainly noticed. He even got a bit choked up.

“It was humbling. It was really nice to see,” Stafford said. “Driving into the stadium today, I saw a few walking around and thought to myself, ‘That’s pretty cool.’ And I really appreciate it. I’ve said it a bunch of times and I truly mean it, I loved my time there. I love all of the people there who treated me, my family, my wife with a ton of respect and a ton of grace for a long time. It was cool to see that. Once the ball was snapped, it was football time and I was ready to go play. But it was cool to see some of the stuff going on around (this morning).”

• Stafford’s touchdown to Kupp marked his 300th career touchdown pass. He sits at No. 12 on the all-time list, now with 301. Directly above him: Fran Tarkenton, with 342.

• Yes, the Rams defense allowed only one touchdown and took the ball away when it needed to seal the game, courtesy of Ramsey. But the Rams couldn’t seem to piece many drives together without missed tackles, bad angles and explosive plays that came courtesy of misses on catch-and-run plays, including the third-and-9 dump-off pass that Goff threw to beat the blitz (this was Ramsey coming hard off the edge, the play on which he said he should have stopped and covered the screen player) and resulted in a touchdown for the first Lions’ lead of the year. I also agreed with Ramsey’s assessment of the pressure the defensive line was able to bring against Goff throughout the game, which came from a variety of fronts and looks, even if the sacks didn’t come until later. (Sebastian Joseph-Day had a sack, and a great quote: “Those guys were rushing their asses off,” while inside linebacker Kenny Young also sacked Goff and contributed to major third- and fourth-down stops.) According to TruMedia, the Rams pressured Goff 17 times, hit him four times and hurried him 15 times on passing downs (outside linebacker Leonard Floyd led the effort with four pressures).

A reporter asked whether Ramsey felt that Goff, who finished 22-for-36 for 268 yards, a touchdown and two interceptions, successfully handled the standard pressure the Rams brought as well as the designed pressure.

“Really, I guess we think differently on that,” Ramsey said. “They only had one touchdown today. The rest was field goals. Their run game did pretty well. They had a couple good passes here and there, but I don’t think we struggled. … He’s an NFL quarterback, he’s able to do those things. I don’t really feel like that was anything for us to worry about.”

But better teams than Detroit can, and have, capitalized on those types of catch-and-run plays, which can be so difficult to contain. And the Rams, as mentioned, are thinner than ever at the cornerback spots that are supposed to act as “overhangs” and contribute to some of that containment and tackle support. On the second level, linebacker Troy Reeder missed on at least two tackles that led to larger plays, and Young also had a miss that safety Jordan Fuller had overcommitted to near the box, which led to a big gain (Fuller led the Rams defense with nine tackles, including two big run stops). And late in the fourth quarter, Detroit converted four of its six third downs on a single drive, including on a set of downs that started as a first-and-20. The Rams allowed an all-too-easy third-down draw that got more than the 11 yards needed. The margins are thin, and they will get thinner in November and December. Those types of drives can’t happen. The Rams also allowed just 105 rushing yards between the two Lions backs, Jamaal Williams (12 carries, 57 yards) and D’Andre Swift (13 carries, 48 yards), but the major issues here were the runs of 10-plus yards and when they happened (both players had at least one run of 14 yards, and one 11-yard run by Swift converted a third-and-11). Another 28 rushing yards by the Lions came courtesy of that second fake punt.

• The Rams’ decision to go for it on fourth-and-1 at the Detroit 46-yard line was absolutely the correct one, and McVay, if you’re reading this, don’t stop doing that. According to Ben Baldwin’s fourth-down algorithmic bot, the Rams would have added 5.1 percent in win probability by going for it there, had they have converted the play.

Stafford, however, missed the throw intended for Higbee — he could have converted the play himself by tucking and running for the “gimme” yards in front of him — and was pretty blunt with himself about it afterward, going out of his way and off-topic to point it out.

“Somebody tell me to run the dang thing,” he said. “It’s so open. I just don’t know what the hell to do in space. I gotta run that thing, get the first for us.”

Sosa Kremenjas@QBsMVP
Someone called Cooper Kupp “Vanillatron”

J.B. Long@JB_Long
Things you love to see: DeSean Jackson on the field as the punt returner for the first time with Rams.

Chris Burke@ChrisBurkeNFL
Dan Campbell said it himself. The Rams are “a different-caliber team” than the Lions. A team that’s been built over years.”

To get there, the Lions have to go through this. And that’s OK, if they keep making progress.

Marcus Mosher@Marcus_Mosher
The 5-best teams in the NFL are all in the NFC… right?

Cardinals
Rams
Bucs
Cowboys
Packers

J.B. Long@JB_Long
Things you love to see: DeSean Jackson on the field as the punt returner for the first time with Rams.

6 key takeaways from the Rams’ 28-19 win over the Lions. https://t.co/o2qplNifvn

— Rams Wire (@TheRamsWire) October 25, 2021

Josh Kollack@real_kylo
Cooper Kupp has 809 yards and 9 TDs through 7 games. He’s on pace for 1965 yards and 22 TDs

Flipper’s Anderson@dcfilmninja
Another game that makes a case McVay should give over playcalling. 4th and 1 pass. Calling the game tight. Team not prepared.

Chucky Santiago@madmanxxl
That INT does not happen if Ramsey isn’t the DB. The man is a DB god. And AD gets the assist

J.B. Long@JB_Long
Teams with 20+ points scored in every game this season: Rams (7) Cowboys (6)

Jourdan Rodrigue@JourdanRodrigue
Jalen Ramsey agreed that his game-sealing interception felt a bit more cathartic in the end, because it provided a definitive stop to things. Earlier, and especially in the first half, some big moments on third down had been wiped away by fakes on special teams (my words).

Stu Jackson@StuJRams
Sean McVay hasn’t met with Rams medical staff yet but did talk directly to CB Robert Rochell, who told him initial tests on his knee checked out well.

McVay said he’ll have more clarity tomorrow.

Zooey wrote:

I agree. It is worth it…if you get a guy like that. There aren’t many of them, though.

But imagine this offense with prime Gurley or Jackson. Or Faulk, Bettis, or Dickerson.

Losing Akers was big. I don’t know if he would have been on that level, but he was showing some real promise.

Agamemnon wrote:

Yeah, Akers looked good.

I don’t think Akers is Dickerson, Faulk, Jackson, Gurley level.

But I do think he was very good and if he can come back from this injury will be very good still. I said before that I can easily see him on a top 10 best Rams backs of all time list. He actually is that good IMO. He has the toughness and contact balance of the other Rams backs in 2021 but he has superb movement and lateral quickness in traffic. Henderson and Michel will gain yards and they’re good but Akers always had the chance to make plays out of nothing and to have a break out play when there’s nothing there. I really do believe this offense, as good as it is already, would be at another level with a healthy Akers.

The Rams restructured Rob Havenstein’s contract to create about $3.1 million in cap space today https://t.co/YPQGNBHyas

— Cameron DaSilva (@camdasilva) October 23, 2021

Kevin O’Connell explains the similarities between Matthew Stafford and Jared Goff before the Rams and Lions square off in Week 7. https://t.co/pp1qiggdwR

— Rams Wire (@TheRamsWire) October 22, 2021

A cool story that took place after @RamsNFL practice Wednesday that shows how serious players are about improving every…little…detail. From NFL Now @nflnetwork pic.twitter.com/5shDHezAYA

— Steve Wyche (@wyche89) October 21, 2021

"You felt great energy from the guys and you knew you would get it because of how this unit is and how these people are."

🎥 DC Raheem Morris at the podium pic.twitter.com/2CkuuHfOsQ

— Los Angeles Rams (@RamsNFL) October 21, 2021

.@RamsNFL the record and stats say everything is great in “La La Land” But is it? Deeper dive says they are missing a lot and the question is WHY? I am not hating; but I feel like McVay and others are wondering about the same things. #BaldysBreakdowns pic.twitter.com/PgKLTPMO8e

— Brian Baldinger (@BaldyNFL) October 20, 2021

What an amazing Sack by the great @LFletcher59 against the Lions in 2001. Notice his path to QB where Fletcher shoves off the RBs attempt to pass protect. Whew! pic.twitter.com/iuPpFiQwaY

— RAMS ON FILM (@RamsOnFilm) October 20, 2021

QB play always shocks me. By the time Matthew Stafford let this pass go, Cooper Kupp was entirely covered. Crazy to see the anticipation and ball placement some guys have. pic.twitter.com/zeF1VMHNBO

— Sosa Kremenjas (@QBsMVP) October 20, 2021