from https://theramswire.usatoday.com/lists/rams-bills-week-3-takeaways-reaction/

Jared Goff looks more like his 2018 self

One of the most encouraging parts of the season thus far has been the play of Jared Goff. once again, he was sharp on Sunday, throwing for 321 yards and two touchdowns, completing 23 of his 32 pass attempts. His lone mistake was an ugly interception intended for Van Jefferson, forcing the ball into tight coverage on third down.

He made several great throws down the field, hitting four different receivers for gains of at least 20 yards – and Gerald Everett twice for gains of 18 and 16 yards. He looked sharp, more like the player we saw two seasons ago than the one that struggled mightily last year.

The improved protection certainly helps, but he’s making great decisions, throwing accurately to all levels of the field and has really found a rhythm on the field.

Ramatic@randy_mcmillon
Rams fans FYI Jared Goff was 23 of 32 for 321 yards 2 touchdowns 111.8 passer rating

Rich Hammond@Rich_Hammond
Rams did not record a sack, a tackle for loss or a QB hit in the first half.

Suh-weet!

Rams lose without punting once all game

How many times has *that* happened?

I’m not going to run thru everything, but the Rams:

– Passed for more yds than the Bills
– Ran for more yds w/a higher YPC than the Bills
– Never punted (Bills punted twice)
– Had fewer turnovers (2-to-1)
– Had more sacks
– Didn’t give up a special team score
– Held the ball 5 min longer

… and lost.

==

Cameron DaSilva@camdasilva
Jared Goff hit four different receivers for gains of at least 20 yards each. And that doesn’t include 16- and 18-yard passes to Gerald Everett.

He was good today.

Stu Jackson@StuJRams
Rams WR Robert Woods: “I’ve been saying it to these guys every single day I’m around them, really. We’re a great team, the best team in the league, believe it, go out there and play like it. We were down 28-3 but that still didn’t put any fear, any doubts in our head.”

Rams QB Jared Goff on team’s resiliency facing a 25-point deficit: “I think that’s the main thing you take away from this… At the end of the day, I think you learn that we’re never out of it, no matter what the situation is, what the game is, who we’re playing.”

Sarina@sarina
Sean McVay after losing to the Bills 35-32:
“I saw a lot of individual efforts that were outstanding. I saw resilient group. I saw a team that stayed connected when you go down 28 to three against a really good football team, and they just kept battling. They kept swinging.”

Greg Beacham@gregbeacham
Rams coach Sean McVay was clearly agitated in his postgame interview, but also upbeat: “I was really proud of this group. I think I learned a lot about this team, things I already knew and thought. I’m excited for the future with these guys.”

Sosa K@QBsMVP
There’s maybe one area of genuine concern for me as it pertains to the Rams – the pass rush. Outside of Aaron Donald, they’re just bad. They made some big plays down the line today (mostly #99) but they have barely gotten any pressure over 3 games now.

Very concerning.

Alec Z@alec_zamora
Goff cooked a top 5 d today btw. You’ll still hear slander tomorrow though.

How Sean McVay views timeouts pic.twitter.com/c6hGx8Fjey

— SeattleRams (@seattlerams_nfl) September 27, 2020

Bills blow 28-3 second-half lead but score with 15 seconds left to win 35-32 https://t.co/KGQxIWzWOE

— ProFootballTalk (@ProFootballTalk) September 27, 2020

Game Recap: Rams fall to Bills 35-32 despite late rally

— Los Angeles Rams (@RamsNFL) September 27, 2020

from https://ramblinfan.com/2020/09/25/fox-sports-speak-for-yourself-bucky-brooks/

Bucky Brooks made me sit up and take notice of his observations about the LA Rams starting quarterback Jared Goff.

What did he say? Well, it went something like this:

“So Acho (Emanuel)< just last week we had an opportunity to see number one and number two square off in Philadelphia. Jared Goff lit the Eagles up, and so now if I’m (Eagles GM) Howie Roseman if I’m (Eagles head coach) Doug Pederson, I am over there looking across the sideline with envy because I’ve seen Jared Goff not only get my team into the playoffs, and take my team to a Super Bowl. But I’ve actually seen him run out and play in the game. And then, when my guy Jared Goff had a bad year? (Do) you know what he did? He fixed it and rectified it. And now I’m looking at the Rams and they are undefeated. And (Rams head coach) Sean McVay has somehow found a way to unleash the number one overall pick (of the 2016 NFL Draft). And so, maybe just maybe, the Rams got it right when they made the decision to take Jared Goff over Carson Wentz? Because they knew there was only one franchise quarterback in that draft, and his name was Jared Goff – Bucky Brooks

Highest passer rating when targeted (TEs):

1. Noah Fant – 158.3
2. T.J. Hockenson – 155.8
3. Tyler Higbee – 149.8 pic.twitter.com/aODDIYmU25

— PFF Fantasy Football (@PFF_Fantasy) September 27, 2020

Ian Rapoport@RapSheet
Sources: The #Falcons-#Bears game is officially on, despite ATL CB AJ Terrell being placed on the COVID-19 reserve list and contact tracing over the last more than 24 hours. All ATL players and personnel are cleared for today’s game. No positives from testing conducted yesterday.

Two notes on this:
— When checking contact tracing for #Falcons CB AJ Terrell, the tracers found no players registered as being a close contact for Terrell.
— The rest of the teams and players were clear for today’s games, source said. No issues.

Is Josh Allen Actually Good Now?

link https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/is-josh-allen-actually-good-now/

Josh Allen has had his share of doubters since entering the league. Perhaps his most outspoken critic — Jalen Ramsey — will be playing across the line of scrimmage from him this Sunday.

Ramsey, a starting cornerback for the Los Angeles Rams, infamously described Allen as “trash” after the Bills selected him with the seventh overall pick in the 2018 draft. At the end of Allen’s 2018 rookie season, there weren’t many who would argue with Ramsey’s assessment; in its annual QB Index, the NFL network ranked him 32nd among the 33 NFL quarterbacks with at least 500 snaps. The next year, in 2019, Allen improved to 18th despite completing just 58.8 percent of his passes and averaging 6.7 yards per attempt, numbers that didn’t do much to quell his skeptics.

This year — at least so far — things have been quite different. During his first two years in the league, Allen never threw for more than 266 yards in a game. In his first two games this season, Allen has already eclipsed 300 yards passing twice, the first Bills quarterback to have back-to-back 300-yard-plus games since Drew Bledsoe in 2002. Allen is just the fourth QB in NFL history to start the season with 700-plus passing yards, six-plus touchdowns and no interceptions.

Allen’s Total Quarterback Rating (QBR) is fourth-best in the NFL, behind only Aaron Rodgers, Russell Wilson and Patrick Mahomes. That’s heady company for a guy who ranked 24th in ESPN’s signature metric both of the past two seasons. His top-line season-to-date stats are just as impressive: Allen completed 70.4 percent of his passes for 727 yards against the New York Jets and Miami Dolphins. He passed for six touchdowns and zero interceptions despite facing the fourth-most blitzes of any quarterback through Week 2. And he’s been particularly good when forced to operate on the fly: On passes outside the pocket, Allen has the third-best QBR in the league (97.3).

Allen has also made strides in the small things coaches expect from a franchise QB. In Week 1 against the Jets, facing a third-and-5 early in the second quarter, Allen coaxed an offside penalty from the Jets defensive line with his hard count. The flag was enough to give the Bills the first down, but Allen wisely wanted more. He used the free play to take a deep shot downfield to John Brown, who narrowly missed catching the ball for a 30-yard gain.

The Bills have an analytically inclined front office1 and have surrounded Allen with talent. They traded four draft picks — including a 2020 first-rounder2 — to Minnesota for wide receiver Stefon Diggs in the offseason. Diggs already has 16 catches for 239 receiving yards on the year. The offensive line has done a good job of protecting its QB, posting the sixth-best Pass Block Win Rate in the league. And Bills offensive coordinator Brian Daboll has also done his part to give Allen the best chance for success, dialing up play-action — the most efficient play type in all of football — 34.8 percent of the time, good for fourth-most frequent in the league. It’s paid off: 54.4 percent of the Bills’ passing yards have come from those play-action calls, tops in the NFL.

There’s been a lot to like in Allen’s game this year. But how confident should we be that this season is the new normal, and not just a mirage? After all, we have two seasons of Allen playing below average and just two games of him playing close to elite. One way to make sense of the numbers is to divide them into two groups: stats we know are predictive of future performance and stats that are not.

For quarterbacks, the stats that tend to be stable over time include passing efficiency from a clean pocket, passing efficiency with no play-action, completion percentage over expected and the share of throws that are off target or negatively graded. Each of these aspects of a QB’s performance is indicative of their true skill and is less affected by circumstances and luck. Stats that aren’t predictive of future performance — and that tend to be highly affected by circumstances and luck — include passing under pressure, passing outside the pocket and passing efficiency with play-action.

Allen’s numbers are great in the unstable, less predictive metrics and middle of the road in their stable, more predictive counterparts. Allen’s QBR when not under pressure (79) is good for just 19th in the league. His off-target throw percentage (16.3) has improved from previous years3 but is still good for just 16th in the NFL. And his completion percentage over expected, an NFL Next Gen Stats metric that compares the difficulty of each pass to that of a league-average quarterback in a similar situation, is just 2.1, 16th in the league.

Given the Bills’ opponents so far, this should probably give us pause. Both the Jets and the Dolphins are rated as bottom-10 teams by our Elo rating system, while the Rams, the Bills’ upcoming Week 3 opponent, are a top-10 team.

Allen has raised his ceiling this year, performing at a level many would have considered improbable before this season. But if the math holds up, and Jalen Ramsey has anything to say about the outcome of this Sunday’s game, we should probably expect Allen to begin looking a little less like Mahomes and Wilson and a bit more like the player we’ve seen take the field the past two years.

Week 3 Game Preview: Early undefeated showdown as Rams look to slow down Josh Allen and Bills

J.B. Long

https://www.therams.com/news/week-3-game-preview-rams-bills-2020

Game Trailer: Rams vs. Bills | Robert Woods back in Buffalo to face the franchise that drafted him
This is the Rams least important game in the first two months of the season.

Folks, that is not how journalism school would want you to lead a column. “Thanks for stopping by; see you next week!”

Of course, this is a meaningful showdown between a pair of 2-0 teams, and there are mesmerizing matchups throughout. My point is only that if you were to rank the Rams schedule in the first half of the season in terms of playoff implications, this trip to Buffalo would be last or second-to-last.

Tier One: San Francisco (no explanation necessary)

Tier Two: Chicago, Philadelphia, Dallas (NFC contenders)

Tier Three: New York, Washington (NFC pretenders)

Tier Four: Miami, Buffalo (AFC)

Now, how can the Rams convince themselves its Super Bowl LV in September?

Dead Heat Division

One way might be to remember there is no margin for error in the division.

Of the five unbeatens left in the conference, three of them are in the NFC West. It’s the only division in the NFL where all four teams are .500 or better, leading to some speculation that under the new postseason format, the entire West might reach the NFC postseason.

And looking at the out-of-town scoreboard, there’s a solid chance the 49ers, Cardinals, and Seahawks are all winning again this week.

Dual-Threat and Doubters

For the third consecutive week, the Rams defense will face a quarterback capable of doing damage on the ground.

Dak Prescott picked up 30 yards rushing; Carson Wentz only seven.

So far, so good for Brandon Staley.

However, this side of Lamar Jackson, you won’t find many signal-callers more dynamic than Josh Allen, who has more yards than 22 teams this season and has authored 18 rushing scores in 30 career contests.

Which might be why, for the third consecutive week, Jared Goff has to hear pundits prefer the opposition’s signal caller.

A chip on a shoulder is never a bad way to stay sharp and motivated, either.

Jekyll and Josh

One of two things has happened for Allen in 2020:

Either he remedied his major deficiencies or he’s due for a regression.

After two seasons, the book on Buffalo’s 2018 first-round pick was too many turnover-worthy plays (last out of 38 qualifiers last year, per Pro Football Focus) and inaccuracy beyond 20 yards (lowest downfield completion percentage in the NFL in 2019).

After back-to-back career-best performances to begin this season, it’s been a total 180 for Allen. And everyone thinks they know the reason why.

Digging This Matchup

Stefon Diggs — one of the best deep targets in football – shares the NFL receiving lead and will collide with Jalen Ramsey for only the second time in their careers on Sunday.

With Minnesota and Jacksonville, respectively, in 2016 the star wideout went for three catches and 55 yards receiving against Ramsey, who was playing his rookie season for the Jaguars.

After a bumper-crop of draft picks exchanged hands, they’re playing for different franchises this time around.

Cornering the Market

The undercard has to be Robert Woods versus the second-highest paid corner in the league, Tre’Davious White. Last year’s NFL interception leader helped set the market for Ramsey and Los Angeles back in April.

Meantime, it will be the first trip back to Orchard Park for Bobby Trees, who was drafted 41st overall by the Bills in 2013.

“He’s one of the few back-to-back 1,200-yard fullbacks in the NFL,” McVay quipped this week, referencing his receiver’s tenacity. “If you don’t like Robert Woods, then something’s wrong with you.”

American football@NFL_Journal
little known fact: According to Phil Olsen who shared agents/lawyers with Gabriel, all players were traded (as assets). As such Gabe had no-trade clause & so demanded payment from the Rams-which he got

the lawyer? Edward L. Masry of Erin Brockovich fame

pic.twitter.com/ISLm7FWCle

— 𝐏𝐫𝐨 𝐅𝐨𝐨𝐭𝐛𝐚𝐥𝐥 𝐉𝐨𝐮𝐫𝐧𝐚𝐥🏈 (@NFL_Journal) September 26, 2020

Rodrigue, from https://theathletic.com/2091559/2020/09/25/rams-mailbag-inside-goffs-hot-start-pass-rush-woes-and-containing-josh-allen/?source=twittered

Against Bills quarterback Josh Allen…the Rams’ defense will need to be especially disciplined when plays break down. Allen can extend a play with his legs and is a big body who is hard to bring down. That will be the role of the defensive line and linebackers; when Allen takes off and runs, the secondary absolutely must maintain coverage and be sticky, because Allen will be looking downfield for players and has shown marked improvement in getting the ball to them after going on the run.

The Rams want to make Allen’s life miserable in many ways on Sunday, but the biggest one is introducing him to what defensive coordinator Brandon Staley calls “New York City rush hour traffic.” That means getting in his face, staying in his face when he runs, forcing him horizontally and keeping him off balance and off schedule, and locking down the back end so he can’t find an outlet. It seems like when Allen tries to force plays, things go wrong for him.

Safety John Johnson III said it much better: “Huge arm, huge body, and I just remember watching him take off and run like, ‘Wow you really gotta have a tackling plan for him.’ He’s not going to go down easy. He’s not going to run, he’s not going to slide. So you really gotta have plan. He just has a powerful arm, sometimes to a fault. So we just gotta make sure to stay deeper than the deepest, and go from there. We can’t let any balls go over our head.”

This is just me thinking out loud, but with the amount of trust the Rams are developing in their secondary and the overall range of the players within it, I wonder if they’ll try to activate more blitzers this week? They aren’t blitzing much — just 14 times so far, among the lowest in the league — but if they think flushing Allen can work for them and they know they’ll be OK sacrificing a defensive back on the other end, maybe…