A fascinating post about the need for a Top 5 ground attack by Wildflecken...

Here’s Wildflecken...

2018 Rams schedule will demand a Top Five ground attack.

1. ) Rams schedule week 3 through week 11 is brutal. Chargers, Vikings at home then Rams go on the road for 3 weeks in a row. Two very tough road venues in Seattle and Denver then close to home for a divisional contest with the 49er's.

If those 5 weeks were not challenging enough, we then draw Aaron Rodgers at home, head to New Orleans, then home again for two contests against Seattle and our annual home game on the international road in Mexico against the Chiefs.

The first quarter of today's NFL is yesteryears pre season. It is often week 5 when we begin to be able to identify the true playoff contenders and offenses begin to gel enough to incorporate the full install of the ground attack into their game day plan. We begin to see precision develop amongst the playside and backside lineman and for the first time on game day the coordinator/play caller now has the full gambit of power and counter play calls at their disposal (for teams who install a power gap design).

Teams now have a clear vision of what their roster can execute successfully and more importantly what limitations they are faced with due to a shortage of the desired scheme fit talent. They know which play calls their lineman can create the needed gaps at both first (ie.. A/B/C gaps) and second levels (linebacker gaps).

Sean McVay identified the limitations of his ground attack very early in the 2017 campaign. He began to identify them as early as OTA's when he moved Jamon Brown to ROT. By the time we got to training camp McVay had already abandoned a large portion of his power gap playbook and redesigned it. While the power concepts did remain the final design included motion on the sweep/option and counter to create the needed gaps.

2.) McVay is an offensive genius. I came to that conclusion in week 2 of the 2015 campaign when his offense put a thorough old fashioned butt whipping on a very good Rams defense.

Todd Gurley does not have the campaign he did in 2017 if not for McVay and Company realizing early the limitations of the roster up front and more importantly recognizing their strengths and using their strengths to their advantage.

So many offenses fail because the design requires players to perform assignments they simply cannot.

3.) If you want to take the crowd out of game on the road have your offense execute a 6 minute plus drive with running plays that generate 5 yard plus at will.

If you want to exploit a tired defense in the second half after making them chase your hurry up offense for 45 minutes, line up in power formations, go old school on them and let your lineman and blockers have some fun and take the attack at them.

Teams now have a full season of tape on the Rams 2017 offense. McVay now needs the scheme fit talent to make the power gap an option when needed in 2018.

The schedule is now released and our largest need identified. A Brandon Scherff/Zach Martin type lineman at ROG (Tyrell Crosby or Braden Smith) who can also kick out to ROT if McVay/Kromer decides to play the best run blocking lineman on roster at ROG in Havenstein.

This need is magnified by the loss of Olsen and Lafluer. McVay will lean heavily on Kromer in 2018 and Kromer needs the talent he desires to make his run game the best in the entire league.

Go Rams!!