Vinny B: Late season calibration lead to Rams winning formula.

Great read


[theathletic.com]


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LOS​ ANGELES​ —​ To truly​ appreciate​ the​ manner in which​ the​ Rams​ mauled their way​ to the brink of​ Super Bowl​​ LIII, it’s necessary to revisit them at one of their darkest moments of the season.

Out of it emerged a team mentally and physically tough enough to body slam the Dallas Cowboys on Saturday night at the Coliseum. In their 30-22 win, the Rams imposed their will in such a way that the NFL has no choice but to reassess everything it previously believed about Sean McVay’s team. And in the process, the Rams set themselves up beautifully to move one step closer to punching their ticket to Atlanta.

Using a cunning game plan borne out of necessity and then ruthlessly carried out, the Rams unleashed 273 rushing yards on a Cowboys defense many believed was too big, too fast and too tough for them to handle in such a way.

The Rams won’t say if they were aware of the misconception. But they clearly knew where, and how, this game would ultimately be won.

More importantly, they knew they could.

“You know what, I feel like we think we can run the football on anybody,” left tackle Andrew Whitworth said. “We were confident coming into this game that we could do it. It took a team effort. Hats off to (run game coordinator) coach (Aaron) Kromer, (head coach) Sean, and all the offensive staff with the plan, and then guys going out and executing it.”

“It’s always going to be a competition each week to be the most physical and most mentally and physically tough (team),” right tackle Rob Havenstein said. “And as an O-line, you want to control the line of scrimmage.”

On the other side of the ball, the Rams’ defensive front controlled the line of scrimmage and stonewalled Cowboys running back Ezekiel Elliott, who stepped onto the Coliseum turf having rushed for 1,434 regular-season yards and 137 more in the playoffs, but was rendered obsolete by the Rams while gaining just 47 yards on 20 carries.

As a team, the Cowboys managed only 50 yards on the ground.

“That’s how you win in the playoffs,” Rams safety John Johnson told The Athletic. “You have to run the ball and play great defense. And that’s what we did tonight.”

The 223-yard swing in running yards changed the entire complexion of the game — or at least the pre-conceived one. The Rams were able to control the clock, wearing down the Dallas defense in the process and keeping the ball out of the hands of its offense.

It allowed Jared Goff to sit comfortably in the pocket and manage the game rather than shouldering too much of the burden. There might come a time this postseason when Goff has to carry the Rams, but when Todd Gurley and C.J. Anderson are the kind of two-headed ground monster they were Saturday night — Anderson, the late-season revelation, had 123 yards rushing and Gurley, coming off a knee injury, added 115 — Goff merely needs to be a game manager.

The Rams pounded the rock 48 times. It had the desired effect on both themselves and the Cowboys.

“I thought we were able to really control the game for the most part by being so efficient running the football — getting consecutive runs off,” Goff said. “Any time that you have 48 carries, the clock’s going to run. Really, we were able to keep their offense off the field.”

Just as importantly, controlling Elliott forced the Dallas offense out of its comfort zone and made it far too one dimensional. The Rams, taking advantage, built a 23-7 lead that Dak Prescott and the Cowboys were incapable of closing.

“It was a goal for us,” defensive tackle Ndamukong Suh said. “We understood that teams felt they could run the ball on us, a big emphasis for them. I watched a previous playoff game against Seattle. He (Elliott) was obviously dominant and probably one of the reasons why they won that game. Our focus was to shut him down and obviously get after the passer.”

With their confidence soaring, the Rams converted two huge fourth downs, including the fourth-and-goal touchdown run by Anderson with 7:16 remaining to go up 30-15. It essentially put the game away. They also held firm on a Cowboys fourth down play at their own 35-yard-line while clinging to a 23-15 lead midway through the fourth quarter.

It was a big-boy team making the kind of big-boy plays needed to win this time of year. There were some people questioning if the Rams had to fortitude to dig that deep in a moment of this magnitude.

They answered those questions convincingly on Saturday night.

“I think, really when you think about what our team is, we always talk about attacking success and never fearing failure,” McVay said. “I think that really just personifies our team mindset and mentality. We wanted to come out here and play fearless tonight.”


The Rams limited Ezekiel Elliott to just 47 yards rushing on 20 carries. (Gary A. Vasquez / USA TODAY Sports)
As a result, it’s the Rams moving on to the NFC Championship Game next Sunday to play either the Philadelphia Eagles or New Orleans Saints. Either opponent would represent a rematch against one of the three teams to beat the Rams this season, although in many ways this Rams team is far different than the one the Eagles and Saints previously saw this season.

The Rams have been hardened by experiences and been altered to fit the changing times that dictate the manner in which football games are won at certain times of the year. Ironically, the Eagles played a role in the metamorphosis the Rams have gone through.

It was in the bleak hours after the Eagles rolled them at the Coliseum in early December that McVay thought long and hard about what kind of team the Rams needed to be to pull themselves from their funk and salvage the last two games of the regular season in order to secure at least the second seed in the NFC playoffs and the first-round bye that came with it.

With the playoffs beckoning. McVay knew it was time to recalibrate his teams’ mindset.

It wasn’t just that the Rams had lost in consecutive weeks that had the young coach contemplating a reset. NFL teams hit bumps in the road all the time, and after sprinting to their second straight division title by winning 11 of their first 12 games, no team was better cushioned than the Rams to absorb a couple of losses.

This was about how they lost.

The brute force with which the Eagles and Chicago Bears had their way with them. How McVay too easily got away from his principals at the first sign of trouble. And how the offensive line passively protected Goff and got pushed back in the run game.

It was uncharacteristic of the Rams who, for all the highlights and glitz and glamour of the second-highest scoring offense in the NFL, there has always been a callused substance about them that sometimes goes overlooked. Maybe it was all the winning. Or the ease with which they could seemingly drop 30 or more points on anyone at any time.

Whatever the case, their edge had been dulled a bit.

“We’ve got to get it figured out in a hurry,” McVay muttered, with his jaw clenched, after the Eagles game.

Determined to come up with a winning formula that could carry the Rams beyond just the first round of the playoffs, McVay and the Rams challenged themselves to be their truest selves. That meant re-claiming the line of scrimmage to allow Anderson — the late-season replacement for an injured Gurley — to utilize his eyes, footwork and cutting ability to continually break off positive yards.

With the run game established, Goff could do what he does best, standing tall in comfortable pockets — many times off play action — and spraying the ball around to the Rams’ playmakers.

“We run the ball to set up the play-action pass,” center John Sullivan said. “We get big chunks off that. It limits your drop backs and your exposure to known pass-rush scenarios. So it’s all complementary football.”

A new foundation set — or better yet, reset — the Rams beat the Arizona Cardinals and San Francisco 49ers to finish up the regular season. To the naked eye, it was just two wins against outmatched opponents. But it was how they won. Anderson went off for more than 100 yards in both games thanks to big holes blown open by the offensive line. Goff had clean pockets to throw from.

It was the Rams dedicating themselves to their cornerstones. For all the flash and pizazz, they’ve always been much more hard hat than Hollywood. They were the third-best running team in the NFL for a reason.

“You want to be able to be a balanced offense and we were fortunate throughout the year to be able to have some success running it or throwing it,” McVay said.

It’s really never been about the opponent for these Rams, anyway. Quietly, they’ve always believed winning and losing is predicated on how they play.

They got away from that a bit in early December. It forced McVay to think long and hard about what kind of team he wanted his Rams to be in the playoffs.

The formula he came up with was a return to their roots. The Rams found themselves, just in the nick of time.

The Cowboys paid the price for that re-discovery. And as long as the Rams stay true to themselves, there could be a couple more victories.