It was a revelation to watch what Rams could do with patchwork starters on both sides of the ball. Kinda renewed my faith in the roster potential on this team, tbh.
McVay was calling lots of runs and used 12 personnel to great effect. This was first of Akers’ 100+ yard games and Broncos seemed helpless to stop the run.
Meanwhile, Higbee had at least 9 catches and I believe 3 TD’s and Hopkins impressed with both his blocking and receiving, believe it or not. Again, Broncos seemed helpless to stop our TE’s throughout.
The OL consisted of the following:
Nsekhe
Skura
Shelton
Aboushi
Hav
And yet they consistently opened holes for Akers and protected Mayfield well. I don’t remember him getting sacked once.
That’s right, Mayfield, our 4th QB for the season, played very well while executing a balanced attack.
On D there was no AD nor ARob. Hoecht was at one edge and Durant and Yeast were in the secondary.
So, how did that work out?
They smothered Wilson and drove him nuts, frankly. 7 sacks and 3 interceptions. Shut down Broncos running game, too.
Hoecht got at least 2 sacks and Murchison got 1 1/2 himself.
Rams hung 51 on Broncos and were pulling their starters in 4th quarter. That’s without 7 opening day starters on Offense alone. And without 5 on D.
What to conclude from all this? Well, it appears that Rams still have some talent behind their handful of elites and that at least occasionally the coaches call a good game on both sides of the ball.
If we get our elites back healthy and plug about 5-6 positions this offseason then Rams will once again be back in the SB conversation.
