from https://theramswire.usatoday.com/2020/12/13/rams-12-personnel-sean-mcvay-offense/

In the last two weeks, the Rams have actually used 12 personnel more than any other package. According to Next Gen Stats, the Rams have had one running back, two tight ends and two receivers on the field 59% of the time, which ranks highest in the NFL.

“I think it’s added another layer to our offense that’s important,” McVay said last week. “That was something that we wanted to be intentional about this offseason. I think Coach (Aaron) Kromer, our coaches and then it all goes back to the players’ execution. It’s big because when you play against some of these bigger defenses, where they’ve got some heavy edges, being able to have seven true bodies committed to the blocking surface gives you a little bit more versatility in what you can activate in the run game, as opposed to when you’re just in your three-receiver sets. For us, we want to make sure that we’re able to be as multiple as we can, kind of try to continue to try to apply pressure to the defense based on what they’re giving us. The last two weeks has definitely been reflective of that and really a lot of credit to the players.”

Zooey wrote:

I just sort of feel like if any of your ideas had merit, they would be re-tweeted by John Cleese. But I’ve never seen that happen with you, so….

Touche.

.

NFL Week 14 PFF ReFocused: Los Angeles Rams 24, New England Patriots 3

https://www.pff.com/news/nfl-2020-week-14-pff-refocused-los-angeles-rams-24-new-england-patriots-3

The Los Angeles Rams were finally able to enact their revenge on the New England Patriots, who held them to just 3 points in Super Bowl LIII. Aaron Donald and Co. gave the Cam Newton-led Patriots a taste of their own medicine, defeating them 24-3.

Jared Goff and the passing game did not have their best night, but it didn’t matter as rookie running back Cam Akers carried the offense to its division-leading ninth victory of the season.

STORY OF THE GAME

Although many players have come and gone for both sides since their Super Bowl bout two years ago, Sean McVay and the Rams were seeking retribution for their poor outing in the last matchup. Still, it was not the offense that led the team to the win, outside of Akers’ heroics.

It was the defense holding the Patriots to a single field goal on four red zone drives, manufacturing pressure on over 60% of dropbacks, and Kenny Young returning an interception 79 yards for six points.

Donald excelled in his usual fashion, this time generating five QB pressures — just two less than the entire Patriots defense. The Rams’ defensive line forced six QB sacks — their second-most in a game this season — all of which came in the second half. Jalen Ramsey and Troy Hill were the stars of the secondary, combining for nine targets and allowing five to be caught for 26 yards, none of which gained a first down.

The Newton experiment is wearing out in New England, as he has now thrown for five touchdowns against 10 interceptions on the season. His rushing ability is undeniable, but with a lack of receiving prowess on the outside and Newton’s shortage of elite accuracy, the Patriots offense has been uninspired, to say the least. Bill Belichick seems to agree, as he pulled Newton in favor of second-year QB Jarrett Stidham in the fourth quarter.

There is not much to write home about for the Rams offense. No receiver had more than 40 yards and Goff completed just 16 of 25 passes for 137 yards with a touchdown and an interception.

There really is only one player to recognize, and that is Akers. The rookie took his 29 carries for 171 yards, not only the most by a Rams running back this season, but the most by a rookie RB. McVay has often gone with the hot hand in 2020, but no back on the roster has received more than 21 carries in a game this season. This performance showcased just how much he believes in Akers heading into the playoffs.

ROOKIE WATCH

Outside of Akers, only safety Jordan Fuller saw more than 20 snaps for the Rams. The sixth-round rookie did not make much noise in the secondary, allowing both his targets to be caught for 20 yards and a first down. He did, however, net two tackles in the running game with one resulting in a defensive stop.

On the other side of the field, tackle Michael Onwenu, tight ends Dalton Keene and Devin Asiasi, safety Kyle Dugger and linebacker Anfernee Jennings saw significant playing time tonight. Onwenu struggled in pass protection, allowing three QB pressures — including a sack — and was beaten on a couple more occasions on 32 pass-blocking snaps. Despite seeing plenty of playing time between the two, Keene and Asiasi combined for just one target and no receptions.

Dugger did not need to do much in coverage, as he saw just one pass come his way, which wound up incomplete. But he was a force against the run, netting three total tackles, two defensive stops and one tackle for loss or no gain. Jennings was unable to make much of an impact in his time on the field, recording no significant stats.

69RamFan

My Recap After the Patsies Game…

First off, let’s give big props to our OL/two TE set.

They out muscled the Pats DL…

They played outstanding the whole game, except for a few false starts on Everett at the end.

But I’m not going to let him go unnoticed; Everett was blocking his ass off.

Lined up in the backfield as a FB to lead the way through the holes to block into the second level and Akers did the rest….

Now to our Skill players, no, I’m not going to start with our RBs,,,, I’m going to go to are WRs,,, they were also blocking their asses off…

Now to our RBs… It was a group effort, but it was Akers night,,, he ran for 171yds to include the rest of our RB for a total of 186yds

As for Goff, I thought he played a decent game. Some nice passes to his receivers. His stats were 16/25 for 64% comp 137yds 1TD and 1 run TD 1 INT 74.9 QB passer rating.

His final number should have been better in yardage, comp percentages and QB passer rating, if not for the three drop passes by his receivers and the Refs made a bad call on that INT,,, the film shows that Woods caught the ball and he was down by contact and then the DB took the ball away…

But the Los Angels up above saw the Refs made a mistake, so they rewarded us with a pick six… 😀 😀 😀

Talking about the pick six, it was a great play by both AD and Young….. AD held the RB from getting into the position for a screen in which Young intercept the pass for a pick six.

The whole defense was playing excellent. With Six sacks and 7 TFL and 10 QB Hits

The whole team played unselfish…

ST played ok, and I think we found a Kicker for good even though he kicked one OB during the KO.

Now to Coach McVay,,,

He called an outstanding game, he out smarted Bellicheat

The game against AZ, he used a heavy dose of the 12PG but was using Goff in the passing game out of that scheme/formations.

But against the Pats, he use a very heavy dose of 12PG but using as a run game…

He use the 12PG on 43 plays compared to 18 play with the 11PG…

He has never done that before during his time with the RAMs…

What I liked about this team, they seemed to play unselfish, they cheer for each other success.

Its not just the main players that are getting success, it seems like every week, its someone new that makes a big play or is playing outstanding…

This season, I never got a chance to watch and evaluate the team in camp because of covid.

Before the season started, I had my prediction as the RAMs coming in at 10-6.
Then after the first game against the Cowgirls I raised it up to 12 – 4 record…

Well they need to win the next three for my prediction to come true.

This was a great win, and next victim coming to town are the Jets…

aeneas1

reeder – both young and reader had great games, the first clip in this series shows both guys hustling to the flat on newton’s first pass of the game to make the tackle:

Deadpool

I liked the Akers pick. He had nothing at Free Shoes U. No OL, no Qb, no anything. It was him gameplanned against week in and week out, he didn’t quit, complain or half-ass it. He flat out worked and dominated. He would have been a 1st rounder for Alabama or OSU or Oklahoma. (That’s a fact if facts were things I couldn’t prove to be facts.)

Akers has bellcow size and elite wiggle with HR speed. Not many RBs can claim they have all 3…And he has vision and patience.

And he can thread the needle. He had to at FSU otherwise he was going nowhere. It’s impressive for a thicker back like Akers to get small.

aeneas1

goff currently ranks 2nd in the league in 3rd down pass attempts completed for a first down (46.6%), second only to mahomes, ahead of rodgers at #3.

InvaderRam wrote:

zn wrote:

I have a theory (which I can get to if it interests anyone) as to what it is that triggers this achilles heel when it happens (like in the Miami and SF games this year) but it is not due to pressure alone. There are other factors besides just pressure. If you don’t have those other factors (like in the recent Arizona game), the bad stuff doesn’t happen.

well what is your theory?

Well bear in mind what I said about the numbers. Rams have faced 5 of the top 10 pressure percentage defenses this year and won all 5. Goff looked decent to very good in all of them. And in addition to that, according to PRF numbers Arizona pressured him the 4th most times (16) of any games from 2018 on. So they are facing pressure. They handle it better this year with a relatively healthy, good OL than they did in 2019 with a problem OL, but that’s just to be expected.

So the issue is not pressure alone.

The games like Miami and SF this year, and Chicago in 2018, combines other things WITH pressure.

1. a top secondary that slows the passing game (it is never just pressure, it’s pressure plus facing a top secondary)…this is especially true if the secondary is slowing Goff down and getting him out of rhythm
2. no running game–either cause of the RB or the other team defends it, or McVay refuses for some inexplicable reason to run the ball (like Miami this year)
3. McVay does not adjust in-game to the defense he is facing and struggles with in-game instincts and adjustments (like the infamous 6-1 D front issue). McVay adjusts to tough defensive gameplans between games, not IN games. So for example he couldn’t crack the Patz D in the superbowl but he did the next time he played them.
4. also, pressure

The complete collapse games we have seen from Goff have all those features, it is never just one of them–and it is absolutely not just pressure. For example, Tampa is top 10 in pressure percentage on defense. Rams could not run the ball against them. They had to throw to win. In fact they threw 51 times. But it was not one of the infamous Goff meltdown games.

Can’t get enough. Check out Troy Reeder destroying the pats FB 😳 ⁦@troyreeder9⁩ pic.twitter.com/MX30CrZosJ

— RAMZILLA (@elitster) December 12, 2020

InvaderRam wrote:

zn wrote:

But, people get these impressions, and the plays from each game that I point to apparently just don’t count.

no. they do count. but they have to be taken into a larger context.

if he only demonstrates it one out of ten times. and i’m not saying that’s the case with goff. i’m just saying hypothetically. then that’s not good.

or if he is demonstrates it 5 out of 10 times. and the average nfl qb demonstrates it 7 out of 10 times, then that’s not very good.

i don’t know. now i’m curious to see how he compares to all nfl qbs in that category.

The context is this (a stat-head on a different board explored this). Goff strip sacks and fumbles happen in bunches. This year it’s 2 games. This goes all the way back to 2017.

I don’t have comparative numbers. But the reason I keep saying people magnify this is because they expect it all the time BUT historically it happens in discrete bunches (this year 2 games).

If he has the ability to sense the rush and bail on it, which he has shown (like I demonstrated with the highlights vid from the Patz game), then, he has that ability. Just watching him I don’t expect Wilson but I also don’t expect those “massive bad plays in 2 games” syndrome to repeat, either.

….

InvaderRam wrote:

for me it’s not enough to just point to plays where he does demonstrate pocket awareness. it has to be compared to his peers.

I don’t think that’s significant at all, frankly. I mean either he can handle pressure or the rush or he can’t. To me it doesn’t matter who does it better or who isn’t as good.

There’s this myth that he is always bad in the pocket.

And–he’s not. I can show plays from each game that demonstrates that.

But, people get these impressions, and the plays from each game that I point to apparently just don’t count. 😎

Arizona pressured him 16 times. That’s the most he has been pressured for more than a year. He did fine in that game. We don’t have the numbers on the Patz game yet (PFR does them). But as I said the Patz are 2nd in the league in pressure percentage. He played well in both games. For a 9-4 team leading its division.

InvaderRam wrote:

pocket presence or pocket awareness is one of those things that’s holding goff back

Did you see the vid I posted and the plays I named on it?

IMO people exaggerate this idea that he has no pocket presence, or bad pocket presence, etc.

New England is 2nd in the league in pressure percentage on defense and I name plays where he evades the rush in the pocket to do something positive.

Zooey wrote:

He is ranked 22 in QBR

I don’t do qbr (if you mean the espn qbr system) because it favors qbs who run with the ball. I do old fashioned qb rating.

How is Goff without the 3 bad games? (which I don’t put all on him.) By qb ranking, the other 10 games, he averages out to 10th in the league.

So it all depends on what people think is up with those 3 bad games.

For some those games seem to dominate everything they think of the guy.

For some they are part of a bigger dynamic.

Either way I know I can go through the vids and point to the plays where he IS doing what the more negative take says he can’t or doesn’t do.

….

merlin

Running the ball is not really about smoke and mirrors. Everyone runs the same stuff and when someone does something new (like McVay’s jet sweep threat tied in consistently) other teams copy it.

When you run the ball it really is about your guys beating the guys in front of them. Even in zone you have to prevent the penetration and string guys down the line. And last night the Rams were winning all across the formation. That was not scheme by any stretch it was good basic execution and a back who took full advantage with great suddenness.

If we do run the ball well Goff is more than capable of complementing that all the way to a championship. So our hopes of a championship IMO lie primarily in our ability to keep Akers rolling and to have him and Hendy both adding some complexity in the pass game on top of occasionally flipping the field for us with big gainers. What happens if those guys get going is suddenly you won’t want to flood the field with constant dime packages, and all of a sudden our excellent possession wideouts are separating because they’re not seeing bracketed coverages.

wv wrote:

Just seems like he gets surprised a bit more than a guy like Wilson.
All it takes is a couple of surprises to lead to a loss.

I come in peace to offer a different view. 😎

IMO the thing about JG being a sitting duck against the rush is being exaggerated. Example–even in just the highlights vid you can see him evade/escape the rush a few times during the game. Before the game, the Patz were 2nd in the league in pressure percentage, and sometimes the rush verged on getting there, but it didn’t because he sensed it and escaped or stepped up… ie. made a play. I even went through the vid and noted a few of those plays. They’re at 1:38, 2:29, & 4;12 in: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uRWqmdWindA&feature=emb_err_woyt

He’s not like Wilson when it comes to that but then Wilson is one of the absolute all time best at that. I think what happens with Goff, to be honest, is that some of his worst plays get remembered as this deep indication of who he is…when, no, he is in general better than those worst plays seem to indicate.

In fact here’s another example from the previous game. Arizona pressured him 16 times, according to PRF. That’s the most he has been pressured since early in 2019 against Tampa (when it was 20 times). But no one thinks of him as having endured heavy pressure in the Arizona game. That’s because he is better at reacting to it than a lot of people seem to be assuming.

…