Geoff Schwartz@geoffschwartz
Bills vs Rams next week should be awesome.

Jourdan Rodrigue@JourdanRodrigue
Sean McVay on going for it on fourth down this time around: “I betcha they didn’t think we were going to do that.”

Love this – as Jared Goff was on his 13/13 streak, players were joking with him on the sideline like “oh we can’t talk to you!” as when a pitcher is throwing a perfect game.

INACTIVES

Gary Klein@LATimesklein
Rams inactives: RB Raymond Calais, OL Brian Allen and Tremayne Anchrum, WR Trishton Jackson, TE Brycen Hopkins and DL Eric Banks.

Cameron DaSilva@camdasilva
Everett is good to go, as expected. Natrez Patrick is also up

PARAM

Since the 2016 draft, the question has been Wentz or Goff. But let’s look at the head to head. The Eagles are 2-0 against Goff and McVay’s Rams. Wentz started one game and left with the Rams leading 35-31. Foles relieved him and brought Philly back. Foles started and won the other. Some say ‘the Eagles have McVay’s number’ and while that may or may not be true, it’s definitely not because of Wentz.

I despise the local Philly sportcasters (as I probably would any in other cities if my team weren’t the home team they loved to love). They brought up the point the Eagles have a 6 game winning streak over the Rams. Wins in 2005 (the end of the Martz era, height of the Reid era), 2008 (Linehan), 2011 (Spagnuolo), 2014 (Fisher) and twice against McVay (2017, 2018). To repeat an oft stated theory, I say, “we’re due”.

Keep your shirt on: Will body overhaul mean production upgrade for Rams’ Jared Goff?

Lindsey Thiry

https://www.espn.com/blog/los-angeles-rams/post/_/id/42002/keep-your-shirt-on-can-body-overhaul-mean-production-upgrade-for-rams-jared-goff

THOUSAND OAKS, Calif. — He says he has always taken his job seriously, but this season, Los Angeles Rams quarterback Jared Goff is taking his preparation a step further.

“You can see that there is a different gear with the way he’s preparing,” right tackle Rob Havenstein said. “I mean, shoot, he even has his own diet going on. Get that body right.”

Teammates have taken notice of the new Goff. “He’s in the best shape of his life,” tight end Tyler Higbee said.

However, Goff’s head coach has not.

“No,” Sean McVay said, chuckling, when asked if he could see a difference in Goff because of his newfound diet. “I haven’t seen him with his shirt off — so, I’d be able to tell you if I saw him with his shirt off.”

The 6-foot-4, 222-pound Goff is hoping the results will be noticeable with his shirt on.

After an uneven 2019 season that included a statistical downturn in several major categories, Goff is not only ready to return to form, but wants to perform even better than when he helped the Rams to consecutive division titles and a Super Bowl appearance to end the 2018 season.

“Put in a lot of work this offseason,” said Goff, who signed a four-year, $134 million extension before the 2019 opener. “Had a lot time to really reflect and figure out what wanted to get better at and really focus on.”

Last Sunday, Goff and the Rams got off to a promising start, opening the season with a 20-17 victory over the Dallas Cowboys at SoFi Stadium.

In Week 2, they’ll embark on their first road trip of this unusual coronavirus season to play the Philadelphia Eagles and quarterback Carson Wentz, the No. 2 pick behind Goff in the 2016 NFL draft, at Lincoln Financial Field.

With Goff now in his fifth season, the Rams’ offense firmly belongs to the former top overall selection, who becomes the focal point of a unit that no longer includes running back Todd Gurley II.

“I’ve been very pleased with his decision-making, his ownership, his command of the offense,” said McVay, now in his fourth season as coach.

Goff intends to take advantage of 1,000-yard receivers Robert Woods and Cooper Kupp, Higbee, as well as a trio of running backs. But to do that, Goff took extended measures to improve himself.

“I have the whole thing going now,” said Goff, who turns 26 in October. “And I feel really good.”

He worked with a trainer over the offseason, hired a nutritionist to examine and shape his diet and a chef to prepare meals. Goff says it was partly an effort to become more mobile and quicker on his feet, though he didn’t divulge his new superfoods.

“Hopefully, I can extend plays a little bit better than I have throughout my career,” he said.

A season after being ravaged by injuries and inexperience, an improved and sturdier offensive line will help Goff’s attempt to bounce back from a season in which he threw 16 interceptions to 22 touchdown passes. So will his intangibles, including an accurate arm and bad memory.

“I remember being with him in camp and he would have stretches in camp where I’d be like, ‘My goodness Jared, this is bad, like you’re making bad decisions, you’re late with the football, it’s coming out of your hand funny,'” said Dan Orlovsky, an ESPN NFL analyst, former NFL quarterback and a brief teammate of Goff’s during training camp in 2016. “And then you’d have the very next period, he’d look like Joe Montana.”

Even with an arm that can place any pass with precision, it might be Goff’s ability to move on from disappointment that could be considered his best asset, and his best hope to rebound.

“It’s always been a strength of mine,” Goff said. “And something that a lot of people have noticed as teammates throughout my life.”

It helped him quickly put behind the seven winless starts he made as a rookie under former coach Jeff Fisher, and he went on to put together an 11-win season in 2017, helping spark the Rams to their first division title in 14 seasons.

And it will help him move on from the disappointment of 2019, when the Rams finished 9-7 and missed a playoff appearance only a year after a Super Bowl run. Goff passed for 10 fewer touchdowns (32 to 22) than 2018 while throwing four more interceptions (12 to 16). His total quarterback rating plummeted from 63.7 in 2018 to 50.6, dropping him from a top-10 ranked quarterback to 22nd in the league.

Along with Goff’s self-improvement efforts, McVay also took the initiative to hire Kevin O’Connell as offensive coordinator, filling a role that sat vacant the past two seasons after Matt LaFleur’s departure.

O’Connell not only will assist with preparing the offensive game plan, but has become the de facto quarterbacks coach.

Goff expressed excitement over the arrival of O’Connell, who was Washington’s coordinator last season and spent five seasons as an NFL backup quarterback.

“He’s played the position,” Goff said. “He understands the little intricacies that go along with playing it.”

O’Connell and Goff choose different skills to work on daily, including Goff’s fundamentals, stance and posture. They’ve also continued to focus on his footwork, an effort Goff honed in on during the offseason.

Goff’s accuracy has proved to be a difference-maker in the Rams’ past three seasons. But could his diet help provide an extra boost this year? That’s still to be determined.

“We’ll see if that pays off,” Goff said.

For McVay, diet or not, he likes what he sees from his quarterback … at least on the field.

“He’s feeling good, he’s playing good football,” McVay said. “So that’s the most important thing. Whether he looks better or not without his shirt off. I think [Goff’s girlfriend] Christen cares about that more than me.”

wv wrote:

all the Agreement was vexatious

InvaderRam wrote:

i’m not all that bothered by it.

as far as the missed tackles. he hasn’t played competitive football in awhile. didn’t have a proper offseason to get ready for the first game. so hopefully he cleans that stuff up.

To be fair the guy I quote who looked at the game tape says it was not 7 missed tackles.

The source that said it was 7 was counting being blocked out of the play as a missed tackle, which doesn’t make any sense.

This game reviewer guy sees 2 definite missed tackles. Not 7.

Lions’ Matthew Stafford recounts seeing racism against Black teammates firsthand

https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/29915121/lions-matthew-stafford-recounts-seeing-racism-firsthand-black-teammates

In an essay on The Players’ Tribune on Friday, Detroit Lions quarterback Matthew Stafford detailed racism against teammates that he saw firsthand in the spring while working out in Georgia.

Stafford wrote in the essay that he went to work out with receiver Danny Amendola one week at a field — something he had prearranged — and had no issues. The next week, Stafford showed up to the same field with the same permissions, this time with four Black teammates, and was told to leave.

“We were just starting to dump all the footballs out on the field and some of the guys were still stretching when a gentleman came out and told us that we were trespassing — and to leave immediately. We didn’t even have our cleats on yet. I remember I was standing there in my socks, just kind of stunned and confused, like, What?” Stafford wrote. “But he didn’t even want to listen. We were still gathering up the footballs and trying to figure out another spot where we might be able to go when the gentleman pulled out his cellphone.

“He said, ‘I’m calling the police.’ After everything that we’ve witnessed over the last few months, and how situations can escalate for no reason at all … and here the police are being called.

“We were there for maybe 10 minutes total. Nobody said a bad word to him. And he still called the police and told them that we were being ‘uncooperative’ and ‘not leaving the property.'”

Stafford wrote that he and his teammates left immediately and that the quarterback was “embarrassed to have put my teammates in that situation.”

He wrote, “The only difference is what we all know in our hearts. Danny and I are white. We don’t get the cops called on us in those situations. We don’t immediately get called uncooperative. And even if Danny and I somehow did get the cops called on us, we all know how that interaction would’ve gone.”

Stafford wrote that in the day of meetings leading up to the team’s decision to cancel practice in August in protest of the Jacob Blake shooting, the story that stuck with him was the one told by teammate Trey Flowers.

Flowers explained what he does if he is ever pulled over by police and how “he copes with the anxiety” of any dealings he has with law enforcement.

“Trey was explaining that if he were to ever get pulled over in his car — something that I have experienced many times without even thinking twice about it — he would roll down his window, put both hands on the wheel and ask the officer if he would like him to step out of the car so he can handcuff him,” Stafford wrote.

“Just so that he is not seen as a threat. Just so the officer can’t say, ‘Oh, he was reaching here, he was reaching there.’ … Just so he makes it back home.

“If you’re a white person, all I’m asking you to do is to really think about that. Imagine that being your first instinct when you see police lights in your rearview mirror. No one in America should have to feel this way.”

Stafford said after the team’s protest that he received text messages that opened his eyes to how far away he believes some people are from listening.

“Things like, ‘Sorry you had to miss practice’ or ‘Sorry you have to deal with this stuff, man,'” Stafford wrote. “The fact that anyone would feel sorry for me, or be thinking about a football practice at a time like that, really speaks volumes.

“There are still people in this country who just want sports to be a distraction, and that’s their right. But I beg to differ.”

Stafford had long been quiet about many topics for the majority of his career. In the past six months, he has become vocal, from speaking in town halls on voting rights to donating money for social justice initiatives in Georgia — where he went to college — to the essay he wrote Friday.

“When something’s important to him and he feels a certain way, he’ll express his opinions and he’ll do that,” said Sean Ryan, Stafford’s quarterbacks coach the past two seasons. “I think when he sees something that’s wrong or something that he feels that he can help make right, he’s going to do it.

“I’ve seen that from the start. I think situations have changed in the last year-and-a-half that have given him the ability or the situations that present maybe what he feels like, ‘Hey, this is the time to voice my opinion.’ So I think things have changed for a lot of us in that way. But it does not surprise me at all that the guy’s out in front, that he’s leading and that he’s being genuine and letting his feelings be known and trying to help things. That does not surprise me at all.”

J.B. Long@JB_Long
If you believe that Dallas and Philadelphia will ultimately contend for the NFC East crown and a Wild Card berth – and I do – then what an opportunity this weekend is for the Rams.

What can stats tell us after 1 game? Probably not a whole lot.

Anyway. Eagles are 1st on defense (yards) but 27th in points allowed.

They’re 29th on offense and 30th in yards rushing and 26th in yards per rushing attempt. Their defense can defend the run but then it’s one game and no one knows yet if Washington CAN run.

Everyone knows about Wentz getting sacked 8 times but as we all know their top ROT Lane Johnson was out and he makes a difference. They left the Washington game 24th in 3rd down conversions on offense. (Rams are 8th.)

On defense they are 5th in 3rd down conversions allowed. (Rams are 3rd.)

At their best the Pederson Eagles have had both a top DL and a top OL and that combination has made it hard for the Rams to beat them. They beat up the Rams OL and stymie the Rams DL. AD has never gotten as sack against them.

So….Rams win.

Gary Klein@LATimesklein
FWIW, to an observer, from the day he arrived at USC in 2010, Robert Woods practiced like a focused NFL vet. Or at least like a player with an eye toward playing in the league for a long time.

Los Angeles Rams@RamsNFL
Friendly reminder that we don’t have the answers to your salary cap questions. We just run the social media here.

—

alyoshamucci

I only worry about games we should win. Those are the only ones we can screw up.

If we win the games we should win, we make the playoffs.

Buffalo is a top 6 or 8 team. Winning that will be awesome … losing won’t bother me that much.

Losing to Philly will mess with my week.

JackPMiller wrote:

Let’s not forget, the last time we beat the Eagles in Philly, you have to go back to 2001. That is in their old stadium, which was the Vet. We have not won at Lincoln Financial Field yet.

Actually it’s 2004. Monday night game on Dec. 27th. Rams won 20 to 7. Jackson ran for 148 yards, Faulk for 54. Eagles qb was Jeff Blake because they pulled their starters (they were 13-2 at the time).