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The Coach McVay Show: Week 2

Rams Head coach Sean McVay joins JB Long and D’Marco Farr to react to the big week 2 win over Philly. Jared Goff had a near perfect night, and McVay gives him praise. Plus they look ahead to week 3 against the Buffalo Bills.

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The Pile: A Higbee hat trick, Henderson’s big day and more behind the Rams’ win

Jourdan Rodrigue

https://theathletic.com/2079815/2020/09/20/the-pile-a-higbee-hat-trick-hendersons-big-day-and-more-behind-the-rams-win/?source=twittered

By the time Rams tight end Tyler Higbee scored his third touchdown of the day in Philadelphia, he had run out of touchdown celebrations.

Because of his two previous trips to the end zone, Higbee also was tickled — and a little unnerved — by the piped-in crowd noise and cardboard cutouts that greeted him each time. So on his third score, on a 28-yard beauty of a throw from quarterback Jared Goff, Higbee celebrated with an over-exaggerated opera bow in the direction of all of the cutouts. They did not react.

“Sean (McVay) made a great play call and we kind of got the look,” Higbee said. “When he made the play call and I heard the play, I was like, ‘Oh, this might be six.’

“It happened to be (score) No. 3. I was kind of running out of celebrations there. I just kind of (was) trying to play off no crowd — yeah, it was exciting.”

Higbee’s hat trick helped the Rams to a 37-19 win against the Eagles, and he became the first Ram to score three touchdowns in a single game since Torry Holt in 2006. He also finished the game with five catches for 54 yards, with three of those catches, of course, leading to touchdowns.

“(I was) just trying to do my job, and the ball found me today,” Higbee said. “I tried to capitalize on those opportunities. Shoutout to Torry Holt, though!”

The Rams are 2-0, beating Philadelphia for the first time since 2004 and the first time on the road since 2001, in part because of Higbee’s three touchdowns.

But there was much more to it than that. Welcome to The Pile — let’s start poking around.

Jared Goff’s hot start

Goff began the game with 13 completions on 13 attempts for 158 yards and two touchdowns, far surpassing his previous completion streak of five.

“I didn’t know how many,” said Goff, smiling after the game. “(My teammates) were joking around with me like, ‘Hey, we’re not going to talk to you,’ like when a pitcher is throwing a perfect game. I didn’t know how many I had, but I knew I had not thrown an incompletion yet.”

There were many things Goff did well. Not to be overlooked were a play in the second quarter that he was able to extend with his legs before hitting Higbee downfield for a first down and deep throws to rookie receiver Van Jefferson and running back Darrell Henderson. He also ran a successful fourth-down sneak.

Goff finished the game 20-for-27 for 267 yards with three touchdowns, no interceptions and a passer rating of 142.1.

“Jared was outstanding,” Rams head coach Sean McVay said. “I thought he played a great game. I thought he had great command of what was going on, recognized the different looks — they are a challenging defense with a lot of different things that they can present. He got into a rhythm and I thought guys made plays, but it starts with him and he did an outstanding job today.”

Takeaways and turnovers

The Rams got into a little bit of trouble in the second quarter after a hot start, allowing the Eagles to climb back within five points. On first-and-10 on the Rams’ 21-yard line, Eagles quarterback Carson Wentz took a shot toward JJ Arcega-Whiteside in the end zone, appearing to completely miss cornerback Darious Williams in full pursuit and in position to jump the route.

Interestingly, Williams said after the game that the Rams’ defensive staff had gone over that play with the players during the week, so Williams was able to see what was coming and get himself into better position.

Williams stretched acrobatically across Arcega-Whiteside for the interception, and while the resulting 16-play drive disappointingly led to only a field goal from the Rams, it was a clear turning point.

“I thought one of the plays of the game was Darious’ pick in the end zone,” McVay said. “That was when they started to get a little bit of momentum.”

Williams’ play was huge at the time, but early on, inside linebackers Micah Kiser and Kenny Young set the tone. Kiser stripped the ball out of the hands of running back Miles Sanders in the first quarter, and Young recovered.

Cornerback Troy Hill, who has assumed command of the slot (the Rams call it their “star”), also came away with an interception late in the game. Both Kiser and Hill, despite being relatively new in these roles, are starting to put the pieces together in McVay’s mind. Kiser also finished with a game-high 16 tackles and added a defensed pass.

“Both of those guys built on solid performances last week,” McVay said. “Micah seemed like he was comin’ up with stop after stop, and you feel his physicality. He’s got great command. … And Troy Hill, what a pick. He made a couple great tackles. … I mean, he’s just a great instinctual player.”

But the Rams didn’t get away with a completely clean game. Receiver Cooper Kupp, who this season got moved into a punt-returner role in tandem with his pass-catching duties, fielded an Eagles punt at the 3-yard line and then carried it to the 12-yard line before it got slapped out of his hands by TJ Edwards. Two plays later, the Eagles scored on a carry from running back Miles Sanders.

Later in the game, Goff went to Kupp a few times in crucial situations, and Kupp ran hard and kept the ball secured.

“He’s level-headed,” Goff said. “I know he was bummed. No one is harder on themselves than he is, (but) he was able to shake it off pretty quickly and I’m proud of him.”

Kupp ultimately was Goff’s target on a third-and-1 with 2:19 left to play, and he smartly sat down with the ball in-bounds after getting past the sticks so the Rams could run out the clock.

“I still have the same trust in Cooper Kupp,” McVay said. “He’s going to be a huge part of everything that we do. … He ended up making a couple of guys miss and then the ball just got a little loose. Those are great learning opportunities. But like any great competitor, it’s about your ability to respond — and who ends up closing out the game for us but Cooper Kupp on a jet sweep on a third-and-2 and has great situational awareness to stay in-bounds so we can knee it and run the clock out.”

Keeping up with Darrell Henderson

Last week, the Rams’ hot hand at running back turned out to be Malcolm Brown, and this week, it was Henderson’s turn.

The second-year back saw his touches increase after rookie Cam Akers left with a rib injury and did not return. Henderson finished with 112 scrimmage yards and a touchdown, and the 80 yards he racked up on the ground were crucial for helping Goff set up the play-action that allowed him to be more successful in the passing game.

“It gives me a lot of guys to throw to, a lot of space. … We’ve made that an identity of ours as far as moving the ball downfield,” Goff said. “When we’re running the ball well, we can kind of do anything we want.”

Henderson also pulled in a 28-yard catch from Goff and burst open on a 40-yard run in the fourth quarter that set up Higbee’s third touchdown of the day.

“He comes into work every day, and he’s an exciting player,” said Higbee of Henderson. “He’s got some juice to him. … You never know whose day it’s going to be. Everybody just comes in and competes, and when it’s your turn to make a play you try to capitalize.”

Carry dispersal was actually pretty even between Henderson and Brown, as the former finished the game with 12 carries and the latter with 11. Injuries aside (Henderson was still a little ginger off a hamstring injury recovery in Week 1; now Akers’ ribs are the concern), McVay is clearly still trying to use his backs in committee.

No. 1 receiver-by-committee

The distribution of touches among the Rams’ eligible receivers — including running backs and tight ends — cut through the Eagles’ defense in the first quarter and part of the second.

In fact, a drive that possibly best showcased how the Rams like to use their receivers was the team’s second of the game, in which Goff and McVay used Kupp and Jefferson to convert three third downs and ultimately capped the drive with a touchdown off a reverse to Robert Woods.

By the time the Rams went up 21-3, Goff had targeted three receivers, a tight end and a running back in the passing game and used two receivers in the running game on reverses. By the end of the game, seven different players (including Goff himself) had been utilized in the rushing game, while six players were involved in the passing game. That’s … a lot for a defense to keep track of.

“No. 1 receiver-by-committee” doesn’t exactly roll off the tongue, but it certainly makes for an effective, efficient and hard-to-defend offense. How hard to defend? Multiple Eagles players said that the motions, sweeps, misdirection and use of various pass-catchers and ball-carriers was “identical” to what they had practiced for when preparing for the Rams’ offense, and they still could not stop it.

Bottom of the Pile

• One interesting moment near the end of the first quarter: It was pretty windy in Philly, so kickoff man Samuel Sloman couldn’t get the ball to stay on the tee after the Rams’ second touchdown. He had to ask receiver/special teams ace Nsimba Webster to hold the ball Charlie-Brown-and-Lucy-style in order to get the kickoff rolling.

• I know, I know — the NFL instructed stadiums to make their piped-in crowd noise as realistic as possible. Still, what a hilariously brutal scene to have the home stadium piping in booing as the Rams went up 21-3 in the second quarter. I suppose that’s what Eagles fans would be doing.

• Other than the touchdown, Woods, who just signed a four-year extension, didn’t jump off the stats sheet. But as we know, Woods’ game goes well beyond stats, so look closer: The veteran receiver was movin’ bodies as he blocked downfield for Henderson.

• The Eagles were trying every trick in the book through the second quarter to try to keep a rhythm and disrupt the Rams’ pass rush on their first drive of the second quarter, down 21-3, from hard counts to quick, short passes to running backs and receiver screens, to even using backup quarterback Jalen Hurts as a decoy. This continued with some effectiveness into the third quarter and kept Wentz sack-free and the Rams a little off-balance, until Williams’ pick helped reset the tone.

• There’s merit to being a little concerned about the Rams’ special teams, though overall it’s a pretty young group of players. Aside from Kupp’s fumble, Sloman also had a point-after attempt blocked, and Eagles kick returner Boston Scott ripped off a 25-yard kickoff return and averaged 20 yards per attempt. Additionally, it’s likely the Rams would have preferred to get a second-quarter punt by Johnny Hekker down inside the 20, but instead it dribbled on a bad bounce into the end zone for a touchback.

• Woods took a helmet-to-helmet shot by former teammate Nickell Robey-Coleman on a downfield catch late in the third quarter, and he mimicked a “talking” gesture with his hand afterward at his former Rams teammate as a flag flew.

• We love to talk about fourth-down calls in this space. McVay opted to go for it on fourth-and-1 at the Los Angeles 29-yard line, which, according to our friends at EDJ Sports, increased the Rams’ win probability by a little over eight percent. It’s obviously a very different yardage situation, but McVay opted to punt on fourth-and-1 at the Rams’ 49-yard line last week and while he couldn’t exactly walk back the call after a win, I got the slight impression that he would re-think a fourth down in this game were the opportunity provided (and it was). McVay mentioned again after this week’s game that he wasn’t as much going off of hard data but off the momentum of the moment (in this case, in favor of his offense).

• There are absolutely some issues the Rams must hammer out in their secondary, owing to the fact that it’s a pretty young group of players, but notable flashes of real promise throughout included the picks by Williams and Hill, Jordan Fuller, Hill and John Johnson combining for 25 tackles, two defensed passes by Johnson and a marked ability by all in the second and third tiers to really swarm to the ball.

• A silent achiever on the Rams’ defense was outside linebacker Leonard Floyd, who last week recorded a sack and this week helped halt a two-point conversion attempt.

• A few injuries to note, aside from Akers. Left guard Joe Noteboom suffered a calf injury and left the game in the second half. He was replaced by David Edwards. Additionally, Brown suffered a finger injury late in the game and his availability was limited — but as noted above, Henderson really stepped up in his absence. McVay did not have immediate updates on Akers or Noteboom after the game.