But WAIT! They won’t stop are super-secret screen!!!

Sean McVay can remember play calls from his years as an assistant but can’t remember he ran a failed screen the play before and the opposition had been fouling his screen gm since late in the 2018 regular season. pic.twitter.com/7ggr9AAFMJ

— Matt Waldman (@MattWaldman) October 5, 2020

Head Coach Sean McVay — October 4, 2020

(Opening Remarks)
“It was a great job by the defense, special teams. I thought the play that (WR Cooper) Kupp made to put us up eight was real big. Struggled to get into some momentum today offensively but defense made stop after stop. I thought even after the turnover to be able to only allow them to three points on the sudden change was big. And then what can you say about (CB) Darious Williams? What an unbelievable pick to end the game. No win is easy, we don’t take any for granted. There’s a lot of good things that we can look at this film and be able to clean up but hats off to (Giants Head) Coach (Joe) Judge and the Giants. They came in ready to go and they gave us everything that they had. We’ll get to 3-1 and we’ll be able to have a lot of things that we can look at after this first quarter to continue to improve.”

(On what it says about the defense having two big stops and a pick and what happened on offense)
“We just couldn’t get into a rhythm offensively, but defense did a great job. You know, you win as a team and thought they made enough plays to be able to win. You could kind of feel the momentum. We were probably a little bit more conservative than I would’ve liked to have been offensively but couldn’t get anything going in the run game. We just really never were able to get into a rhythm outside of that first drive and a lot of things that we can look at to do better.”

(On what some things that the Giants’ defense did specifically going from a team that didn’t force a punt last week to giving that trouble that was talked about today)
“Yeah I’d have to go back and look at the film to see. A lot of it really boils down to, they did a good job, give them credit, but it’s more execution on our end.”

(On what happened there at the end with after the game when CB Jalen Ramsey was in the middle of a mess)
“I’m not really sure I was shaking hands and I just kind of got in the middle. Fortunately got it broken up and nothing occurred from there.”

(On when they have a sluggish start and what kind of adjustments he makes or what he says to the team to get out of that)
“Yeah, I mean, you just have to make some plays. I thought the one drive, you know, really if we had gotten a couple more opportunities, I think you would have seen us get into a rhythm. We just sent it up kind of getting it where we were up eight on that last possession, wanted to keep the clock running. That’s something where we can never go out of bounds either there, Cooper knows better than that. But, if you’re really attacking, like we were, I think just the feel for the flow of the game and the way our defense was playing, let’s run off as much clock as we can. Ideally, you don’t ever have to punt it back. I think I would have switched momentum. I would have switched some of the things that we were doing where, you know, you’re just not letting them really get set. Sometimes when you let a big front like that settle in, it plays to their advantage and those are things that we can all learn from. Ultimately, we ended up getting the win, the guys made enough plays and that’s what it’s about. There’s no style points in this league.”

(On how he feels the team stands after the first quarter of the season and what he thought was his problem as a play maker getting into a rhythm)
“My problem? I have to go back and look at it. There was a lack of continuity and being able to get some drives going. We weren’t good on third down, so I’d have to go back and look at the film and see, but overall, we finished the first quarter 3-1. There’s a lot of good things. There’s a lot of things we can clean up and we’ve got to continuously improve. I thought defense took a major step forward, as did special teams, and offensively, we’ve got a lot of things that we can do significantly better, but one game will never define you. It’s still a short sample size, but I love this team’s mental toughness and resilience and glad to come away with the win today.”

(On CB Darious Williams growth to be able to make plays like he did today)
“I think he’s just a clutch player. Even he’s been doing that ever since he got an opportunity to play really last year. He’s a guy that if he gets his hands on the ball, he’s usually going to catch it and be able to get it back to the offense and right there, that was a game clenching play and a situation that we had to have. He was bumped, they ran kind of a stem in, breakout and for him to be able to make that play was unbelievable. It was a great catch and another great pick for him in a crucial situation, even more important than the Philly game a couple of weeks ago. So big time play by Darious. Really happy for him.”

(On putting pressure on QB Daniel Jones and why the defense is so disruptive)
“I think they did a good job. I thought (Defensive Coordinator) Brandon (Staley) called a good game, mixed it up a little bit. There was a couple where he kind of got out of it when you felt like you had him sacked and Daniel Jones made a couple of good plays, but I thought there was a lot of different guys that created some disruption in the backfield today. It’s always a collaborative effort and we’ll go back and we’ll look at it, but I thought it was a good mix of some pressure that we were applying with four-man rush and then when we activated more than four.”

(On WR Cooper Kupp’s touchdown being the longest play from scrimmage this season and what made that work)
“They actually busted a coverage and we were able to get over the top and Cooper ended up doing the rest himself. When we were going fast, that was something that we probably should have done a little bit sooner and Jared and Cooper made a great play right there. I thought our guys were protecting and ultimately, we’ve got to be better on third downs, but that was a big-time play. A great job by Cooper and Jared making it happen there.”

(On his evaluation of how Jared played today)
“He did a nice job. I think there wasn’t as many opportunities. It really wasn’t a very good overall offensive performance and a lot of that stemmed from just the lack of plays and drives that we could really get off, but I thought Jared controlled what he could and he made the biggest plays when he had to. We put it in his hands, basically threw it every drive, on the scoring drive that we did have and he ended up making enough plays for us to be able to win it. That put us up eight and then defense closed it out from there, so he did a nice job. I thought he was his best when it was the most important and that’s the most important thing for us.”

(On what went into the last third down call when leading 17-9)
“I just wanted to keep the clock running right there. I felt good about our defense and wanted to ensure that they either had to use a timeout or we were going to run it down to two-minute there.”

“Is that a man butchering two college kids? Is he running at me? Maybe I should walk away…” pic.twitter.com/cHzTQ7jeGG

— Matt Waldman (@MattWaldman) October 5, 2020

This pickup doesn’t get enough credit. pic.twitter.com/MUqAjwNc9c

— DOWNTOWN RAMS [DTR] (@DowntownRams) October 5, 2020

NFL Week 4 PFF ReFocused: Los Angeles Rams 17, New York Giants 9

https://www.pff.com/news/nfl-2020-week-4-pff-refocused-los-angeles-rams-17-new-york-giants-9#:~:text=The%20Los%20Angeles%20Rams%20got,it%20was%20supposed%20to%20be.

The Los Angeles Rams got away with an expected win in this game, but it wasn’t nearly as easy as it was supposed to be. The New York Giants were within a score and chased to tie it up right up until a Daniel Jones mistake in the final seconds cost them a chance to stay alive.

STORY OF THE GAME

The low-scoring affair tells you much of what you need to know. The Rams just didn’t play well, struggling to overcome a Giants offense that was eviscerated a week ago by San Francisco’s B team. The Giants’ defense made some plays, but the Rams’ struggles on offense were more about their own inaccuracies than the great play from New York.

The strength of the Giants’ defense is against the run, and the unit was able to maintain that this week — even against an offensive line that has been vastly improved in 2020, especially on the ground. The Rams totaled just 58 rushing yards and averaged less than a yard per carry before contact, which put the pressure on Jared Goff and the passing game.

Aside from the Cooper Kupp touchdown that ultimately proved to be the difference between the two sides, the Rams’ offense couldn’t get much going. Goff completed 78% of his passes, but that’s partly a product of having an average depth of target of just 5.6 yards, despite that deep touchdown to Kupp. The Rams averaged just 24 yards per offensive drive and will be happy to escape from this game with a win.

The Giants may still be struggling to earn their first win, but compared to some of the other teams dealing with ugly starts to the season, they are still fighting hard and doing all they can to get it. Daniel Jones will have to live with the final pass — underthrown and left inside — which was picked off to end the comeback attempt, and that’s going to hurt his grade overall. However, he was still making plays late and was causing problems for the Rams’ defense — even when they had receivers bottled up.

ROOKIE WATCH

Giants first-round tackle Andrew Thomas continued his underwhelming rookie season, again having his fair shares of losses, with most of his worst reps coming today in the run game. As a pass blocker, Thomas allowed four total pressures from 32 pass-blocking snaps, with one of them resulting in a sack.

On defense, the Giants saw significant snaps from linebacker Tae Crowder and cornerback Darnay Holmes. Crowder made some plays, with a pass breakup and had a chance at an interception that he failed to come up with. Holmes was also solid in coverage but struggled a little in the run game, where he got blocked inside at the second level a couple of times.

For the Rams, rookie receiver Van Jefferson barely featured in the game, with just three total snaps. He was targeted once and was open on the play, but Goff overthrew him. On defense, safety Terrell Burgess played 10 snaps and was largely away from the play in a week that didn’t feature much in the way of rookie contributions for Los Angeles.

The Pile: Getting real about the Rams, postgame clash, and more from Week 4 win

Jourdan Rodrigue

https://theathletic.com/2114200/2020/10/04/the-pile-getting-real-about-the-rams-postgame-clash-and-more-from-week-4-win/?source=emp_shared_article

INGLEWOOD, Calif. — Hey, Rams, let’s have a chat.

I think you’re great, first of all. Let’s start there. You have some dudes. And then behind them, some more dudes. This is a talented football team, and potentially very, very talented. A bright, dynamic young coaching staff. A new stadium that is aging better every day. New uniforms that look so futuristic that, on the broadcast, it feels as if one is watching a video game.

So why waste it?

Sunday’s 17-9 win against the New York Giants — the on-their-way-to-0-16 New York Football Giants — was so full of missed chances and offensive woes that by the time it ended, it somehow felt worse than last week’s loss to Buffalo because you guys are just so … much … better than that!

It wasn’t just a lack of rhythm, or an inability to capitalize on momentum plays, or going 5-of-13 on third down, or a first-quarter turnover, or the flat-out cruelty that comes with failed offensive football as the defense is left stranded on the field, down after down, for 33 minutes and 17 seconds, with heaving breaths and aching legs.

“We just couldn’t get into a rhythm offensively,” head coach Sean McVay said after the game. “The defense did a great job. You win as a team, and I thought they made enough plays to be able to win. You could kind of feel the momentum — we were probably a little bit more conservative than I would like to have been offensively.”

There also were head-scratching issues: At a certain point, it didn’t even matter that the Rams were basically stashing a hot-streak Darrell Henderson on the sideline in favor of veteran running back Malcolm Brown (who, in fairness, is great at picking up pressure in pass protection, and the Giants were getting home more often in the second and third quarters). Literally nothing about the way the Rams were running the ball worked.

A team that averaged 170 rushing yards per game in the first three weeks ended Sunday’s game with 58. They only mustered 2.5 yards per carry. When that failed, the motions and sweeps that are so cleverly installed within McVay’s offense failed, too. The Rams often looked as if they were wading back and forth horizontally across the field, knee-deep in Jello. Quarterback Jared Goff’s passing chart, via Next Gen Stats, has only two attempted throws over 20 yards, and neither were completed.

Here are the Rams’ offensive drives, after a game-opening touchdown: Fumble, punt, field goal, punt, punt, punt, touchdown, punt, end of game.

The Giants, by the way, didn’t force a single punt last week against a badly beat-up San Francisco 49ers team.

Here is the time of possession: Giants 33:17, Rams 26:42. None of the Rams’ final six drives lasted over three minutes (though one was by design, as they needed to hurry downfield and score because they only led by four points through much of the game). That meant time and time again, the defense was shuttled back onto the field to make a stop.

“That’s why we’re out there,” cornerback Darious Williams said. “No matter how rough it gets, we are the backbone. We always got our offense’s back.”

Somehow that defense kept the motor running after each of the offense’s failed series, though not without a couple of issues of its own on third and fourth downs. The Rams didn’t allow a touchdown and gave up just 67 net yards in the first half.

The pressure was there — five sacks, eight quarterback hits — and though they ultimately gave up two “explosive” plays (likely from sheer fatigue), the Rams defense mostly contained and played a “bend, don’t break” scheme. Star cornerback Jalen Ramsey made a huge stop on third-and-3 in the fourth quarter that finally handed, wrapped in a freakin’ bow, the offense the momentum it needed to score just its second touchdown of the game — a 55-yard pass from Goff to Cooper Kupp for a 17-9 lead with 6:56 remaining.

And still, somehow, the Giants were too close. Too close, certainly, for the Rams to bafflingly decide to run the ball on third-and-11 on their next drive. Even if the goal was to try to run down the clock, they were averaging less than three yards per carry and were approaching the two-minute warning. That’s too close, and too much time on the field for a tired defense to allow Giants quarterback Daniel Jones to gash the Rams defense with his legs on what ultimately was his final drive.

The Rams can be thankful for stops, first on third-and-15, then on fourth-and-11 on the Giants’ second-to-last drive of the game. The Rams’ response was to give the ball away after about 15 seconds.

The Rams can be thankful for Williams, who floated through the air to snag an interception and ice the game with under a minute to play, with the why-were-they-even-this-close Giants inside the red zone.

Why does last week’s loss to the Bills feel better than this week’s win at home against the Giants? Probably because the Giants are not a good football team, and there is no reason on this planet (or the next eight) that the Rams shouldn’t have hung 40 points on them. And instead of a seriously tough effort on both sides of the ball like last week, this week the Rams offense gifted the defense a car with no wheels and said, “Drive!” — and somehow that defense kept it on the road all the way to Canada.

McVay said last week, after a real gut-out effort and near-comeback against Buffalo, that he learned a lot about his football team. This week, I can only imagine those lessons continued.

Don’t let the above tirade fool you, Rams. I still think you’re great. So great, in fact, that you’re light years better than an eight-point victory over one of the NFL’s worst teams. You’re not a wheel-less vehicle en route to Canada. You’re a Porsche on Pacific Coast Highway, top down.

I just think what you take away from a win matters equally to what you take away from a loss.

“I know I say this often, but it just comes down to us executing,” Goff said. “They weren’t doing anything that we didn’t expect, or that we can’t handle. We just have to execute better and (put) more points on the board. Our defense really picked us up today.”

Welcome to The Pile. The Rams are 3-1, and a win is a win. Let’s start poking around.

Jalen Ramsey’s roller-coaster day

Ramsey’s big stop in the fourth quarter and all-around solid play on Sunday unfortunately won’t be the talking point of most programming following the win. Instead, chatter will be drawn to a midfield skirmish that occurred between Ramsey and Giants receiver Golden Tate immediately after the game ended.

The two clashed, went down in a heap, were surrounded by teammates and eventually were pulled apart and went to their respective locker rooms. As postgame Zoom interviews commenced, Ramsey returned to the field in uniform with a Rams staffer and walked its length several times, the two talking the whole way. He stayed out there for about 20 minutes before returning to the locker room. ESPN’s Jordan Ranaan reported, via a source, that Ramsey waited outside the Giants’ locker room for Tate after the initial dust-up cleared.

Yes, I am aware of the familial connections between the two, and yes, they were going back and forth physically all game, and yes, Ramsey’s big in-game stop was on Tate — and it was more of a forklift-and-slam (though clean). That personal stuff is Google-able, and is none of my business.

Rams players seemed to follow the same cue postgame. When asked, none said they really saw what happened, and those who went into the fray in the middle of the field (and who also were made available postgame) said they were just trying to separate people. Ramsey was not made available to media after the game.

Meanwhile, we finally got to see Ramsey rolled into the slot a few times by defensive coordinator Brandon Staley, at times to defend Tate and also tight end Evan Engram. That’s something we were promised (and viewed a few times) in training camp this summer. When Ramsey shifted inside, the outside cornerbacks were Troy Hill (usually at nickel) and Williams. Ramsey was sent on at least one blitz and got home, but his assisted sack was later credited fully to outside linebacker Obo Okoronkwo.

Leap-day Darious Williams

I loved what Williams said after his interception, his second of the season, both of which were acrobatic in nature and happened in crucial situations.

“At the end of the day,” Williams said, “I try to basically be like a ‘red dot.’ Someone who is dangerous on the field. And I want every quarterback who ever targets me to notice a 50/50 chance of getting picked.”

Williams knew this season that having Ramsey on the other side meant he would be targeted much more, especially when Hill slid inside to man the nickel role nearly full time.

“All credit to Jalen,” Williams said with a laugh, “because he is just so good on his other side. But of course that plays a big role. Teams have only targeted him a few times, so I’m the only one they can go to.”

McVay said Williams has sticky hands, even if he gets just a piece of a pass.

“He’s been doing that ever since he got an opportunity to play, really, last year,” McVay said. “He’s a guy who, if he gets his hands on the ball, he’s going to be able to catch it and get it back to the offense. Right there, that was a game-clinching play and a situation that we had to have.”

Williams said he had a feeling Jones would come back at him on that last drive, because he had pulled back a little on a previous play.

“Basically, just seeing that play, seeing the release, the stem, everything — I knew that was his play,” Williams said. “At the end of the day, I just made a play on it.”

Oceans of Motions

When the Rams’ run game works, it sets up all sorts of pretty things. Motions before or at the snap open wider spaces between the tackles for a running back.

Last week, the Rams ran the ball 32 times for 167 yards. According to NFL film analyst Brett Kollman, who also shared this note on Twitter last week, on the 12 carries when they integrated motion into the snap, they had 77 yards (6.4 YPA). The 20 carries with no motion at snap went for 90 yards (4.5 YPA).

At the same time, when the run game is working, the motions the Rams utilize into the passing game work better, especially if the defense thinks a passing play is coming and tightens down in the middle. This gives pass-catchers more space to work around the edges, allows them to be effective on things like end-around and sweeps, and also helps keep a defense imbalanced.

For example, tight end Gerald Everett scored the Rams’ game-opening touchdown on a slick little jet sweep that actually was set up by how the team used Henderson on the opening drive. Everett was sent in motion a couple of times on that drive, but never got the handoff. Instead, it went to Henderson for a carry.

But on second-and-goal from the Giants’ 2, Goff motioned for Everett to come across and to the left, and the ball went to the tight end instead, for an easy, untouched score.

Everett also had a great callback during his postgame interview: The Rams actually ran that play against the Giants in 2017, again using then-rookie Everett on the jet sweep.

Bottom of The Pile

• With rookie starting safety Jordan Fuller out with a shoulder injury, Taylor Rapp and rookie Terrell Burgess split safety duties alongside John Johnson III. Fuller’s status was a game-day decision, I was told, and was less about the injury itself than about managing the pain throughout the game. The team didn’t want to risk it.

• Starting linebacker Micah Kiser left the game in the fourth quarter with a groin injury and did not return. Troy Reeder came in alongside Kenny Young to finish the game.

• I do think that Brown being in so much instead of Henderson may have had something to do with how good Brown is in pass protection. The Giants upped their pressure, especially through the middle and later parts of the game, and Brown is extremely adept at handling blitzes, etc. Still, it was strange to see the Rams move away from Henderson, who has been lights-out the last two weeks. Henderson is not injured, for what it’s worth. In our brief interview with McVay postgame, we didn’t get around to the details of this decision. He will next address the media Monday at 5:30 p.m.

• I’ll have to look at the snap counts on Monday morning, but it really at felt and appeared like Staley and defensive line coach Eric Henderson were rotating guys a lot more, and getting players like Morgan Fox and Greg Gaines more snaps. Outside linebacker Samson Ebukam had a great day both against the pass and in run support, finishing the game with a sack and four tackles, while nose tackle Sebastian Joseph-Day was really solid in run support and Fox had a sack that forced a fumble (recovered by New York).

“I think they did a good job,” McVay said. “I think that (Staley) called a good game, kind of mixed it up a little bit. … I thought there were a lot of different guys who created some disruption in the backfield today. It’s always a collaborative effort … but I thought it was a good mix of some pressure that we were applying with a four-man rush and then when we activated more than four.”

• To end on a positive, this was a good quote from McVay: “One game will never define you. It’s still a short sample size. But I love this team’s mental toughness and resilience and I’m glad to come away with the win today.”

Lindsey Thiry@LindseyThiry
The Rams produced just enough offense to hold off the Giants today, but Cooper Kupp perhaps described the performance best: “Kind of a bad taste in our mouth just in terms of an offense in terms of how we executed today.”

==

Terry Nelson (1), Ernie Conwell (2), and Gerald Everett (1)
are the only Rams tight ends to rush for a touchdown#NYGvsLAR #RamsHouse @JourdanRodrigue@RamsNFL @Rich_Hammond#Rams @LATimesklein#GiantsatRams@LindseyThiry pic.twitter.com/HCXU0ePOWH

— 𝐏𝐫𝐨 𝐅𝐨𝐨𝐭𝐛𝐚𝐥𝐥 𝐉𝐨𝐮𝐫𝐧𝐚𝐥🏈 (@NFL_Journal) October 5, 2020

Studs and duds from today’s Rams win. The pass rush and secondary were really good for the most part https://t.co/2RdRMvY6rR

— Cameron DaSilva (@camdasilva) October 5, 2020

The run game has been so dominant this season…. so where has this been? pic.twitter.com/HcgRpzgmol

— JB 🐏 (@JB_Peeples) October 5, 2020

McVay gave Austin Blythe an earful after he and Corbett let a defender come through free for a sack in the red zone pic.twitter.com/yNDDlrXmGU

— Cameron DaSilva (@camdasilva) October 5, 2020

RIPKobeBeanBryant@Rams24_7
McVay could benefit from looking at the Bills playcalling. Up 7 in the 4th they take a deep shot downfield rather than playing not to lose. Against 30 other teams today’s performance is an L. Very unimaginative on O after looking so good the past 2 weeks

I can’t remember being this pissed after a win in a while. I guess I was hoping the Rams would come out with a more inspired effort after a disappointing finish to last weeks game. This was a chance to get the bitter taste out of our mouths and it’s still lingering for me

J.B. Long@JB_Long
Might not see two bigger INTs all season than @Dee_Willl2 (at PHI, vs NYG) has in first four weeks of 2020 for @RamsNFL. Beyond clutch.

SeattleRams@seattlerams_nfl
While Golden Tate is busy getting his ass beat at the bottom of a pile in LA, let’s remember that while he is mad about his sister and Jalen, here in Seattle the talk has long been about Tate sleeping with Wilson’s ex wife and was also punched by Percy Harvin during SB week.

=

THIS LEAGUE https://t.co/9O2NVBRhzs

— Albert Breer (@AlbertBreer) October 4, 2020

pic.twitter.com/Ml6dzKgqDM

— 𝐏𝐫𝐨 𝐅𝐨𝐨𝐭𝐛𝐚𝐥𝐥 𝐉𝐨𝐮𝐫𝐧𝐚𝐥🏈 (@NFL_Journal) October 4, 2020

TurfShowTimes@TurfShowTimes
The NFC East is such that the Rams can’t expect to face a team today that’s ready to take any games off. The 0-3 Giants could end the day tied for 1st place if they upset LA.

miller M.Ed, Sy@Gunn_Ball_Coach
Why did the Rams not get a proven return man?

Gary Klein@LATimesklein
That has not been a priority the last few years. They’ve fared pretty well by picking up undrafted players or others that were released.

Alec Sturm@alec_sturm
What is a realistic expectation for how they finish, playoff wise?

Gary Klein@LATimesklein
Going into the season, I thought they were an 8-8 team. But no fans in stadiums plays to Rams advantage. Too early for playoff prediction. Have to see how healthy the Rams and other NFC West teams remain.

Robert Goulet@FeltFootball
Fuller playing today?

Gary Klein@LATimesklein
Great question. He looked fine in the portions of practice reporters are allowed to watch, but that was only individual drills. But if it’s questionable, why risk it in this game?