Short answer --Goff owns his pressure rate. I'm going to throw alot of responsibility McVay's way because he babies Goff and it is his offense. Obviously we had some turnstile play last year but we did in 18 and 17 as well. But Goff can succeed behind an average line; but he must improve versus the blitz.
Now some long winded stream of consciousness explaining.
I think there are two kinds of pressure:
1. No blitz, max coverage pressure
2. 5+ man rush, 6 or less in coverage
Rams were blitzed 31% (26% in 2018 19th) of the time (not including screens and playaction) 10th most. Goff's avg time to throw dropped 2 tenths of a second, and no QB was under pressure more often.
Focusing on pressure rate(stats below) the Rams were average in 2018. 17th in overall pressure rate and they had nearly fifty less dropbacks. So three less passes a game. Three less chances to give up a pressure.
If we can get back to 2018 performance we will be more than fine. This first entails staying ahead of the sticks. We need to be successful on first and second downs-stay out of obvious passing situations. Do that and the pressure rate falls. And the amount we are blitzed falls. And to add, this is not the running game being successful. That helps for sure. But teams can stack the box and take that away fairly easily. We need to be able to pass successfully on first and second downs. Only Belichicks defenses have the discipline to not bite on play action.
Next is we are absolutely terrible vs the blitz. This screams a scheme issue or Goff isnt reading the defense and checking to the right play. For example, no hot route or Goff doesn't know to check to the hot route. Goff's average time to throw vs a blitz is 2.61s 6th highest. And he is not mobile. He needs to either get the ball out of his hands faster or McVay needs to reevaluate his scheme. Versus a blitz a good offense should have an answer in under 2.5 seconds. Goff owns his pressure rate vs the blitz.
Main takeaways:
We suck against the blitz.
We put ourselves into too many situations to get blitzed.
Goff holds onto the ball too long. (scheme or QB idk--but I lean strongly to Goff being the issue)
I don't think the solution is personnel(well maybe Hav if he plays like last year). We had an average line in 2018 but they looked better because of the situations they were placed in during the games. Goff simply must have and use a 2.5 second or less hot option when blitzed. We do the WR screens and the HB screens to try to beat the blitz and it works sometimes. But the offense must evolve to allow for the standard dropback passing game to be successful. Would love to see more iso plays for Everett. He is our only real game changer--other than Cooks who is almost always doubled.
Also, I might be too hard on Goff because WRs have to get open. I haven't analyzed that enough but it could definitely be a factor in Goff holding onto the ball.
These are all plays minus screens and play action:
Pressure % vs 4 man pass rush 44% 29th (2018 38% 18th)
Pressure % vs 5+ man pass rush 62.3% 32nd (2018 43% 21st)
The big change in the above stats is the performance vs 5+ man pressures. 4man got worse but if I'm going to try to solve the problem I'm looking at my performance vs the blitz first.
Goff Avg Time to Sack (All Plays) 2.97 -second lowest, Case Keenum was the lowest at 2.81
-For reference Baker, behind a bad line, was at 3.59, Dalton at 3.31, Carr at 3.31
Goff's Avg TTT
2019 2.66
2018 2.84
2017 2.85
Overall pressure rate(no screens and playaction) was 48.9% last in the NFL. 31st was Miami at 46.4%, Avg was 38% and first was Balt at 22.9%, best standard offense was Saints at 28.3% (2nd)
In 2018, pressure rate was 39.2% 17th. 360 dbs
In 2019, pressure rate was 48.9% 32nd 407 dbs
