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zn
Since 2018 the Rams have had issues with certain fronts that attack the OL, limit outside zone, exploit weak links in the OL (in 2018 it was Sullivan and Blythe at guard), pressure the qb...among other things. Run game is part of this too. BOTH McVay and Goff (along with the OL) respond poorly against those defensive attacks and then what we're left with is fans putting it all entirely on the qb--and to come up with all these theories about why he has regressed, how he's thinking not reacting, and so on.

This qb and this OL and this coach have problems when they face certain defensive attacks and that has not changed since Chicago in 2018.


Rams still have an achilles heel against certain kind of defensive attacks and that is not just a qb problem, it's a game-planning/play-calling problem plus an OL problem.

I will leave out 2019 because the OL was a mess that year, and it is difficult to judge what the real issues are if your OL is that out of sync.

But we're talking about the Chicago game in 2018, the superbowl, both SF games this year, and the Jets and 2nd Seattle game.

In terms of their EFFECTS those games all pretty much look the same.

There's your problem, fix that.
....

No doubt the better the OL plays, the better the offense is. The OL isn't as a glaring of an issue this year like it was last year. Noteboom is no Whitworth but he is better than any backup the Cowboys and other teams have put out there.

Kromer seems like a Top OL coach to me. He took a lot of low round draft picks and throwaways aside from Whitworth and has molded them into an above average unit most of the time under McVay.

They are more of a agile OL instead of power. They've struggled against powerful DLs and an aggressive front like you mentioned Zn. The TEs are a more glaring problem to me. I love Higbee but he is a pretty inconsistent blocker and catcher. Everett is even more inconsistent.

So how to game plan for that? I'm not in love with McVay's condensed bunch formations. It can be tricky for defenses that aren't prepared but the better ones run a wide 6 man front like Chicago in 2018 and dare Goff to throw to the middle or run up the middle. LBs can chose to drop out of the box or CBs can blitz. When you spread out you take away guys that can blitz/disguise making less threats for the QB to account for.

I love Shanahan's style where they spread and move pieces to outnumber/overload the defense at specific points. It's very creative.

With Wolford, McVay has more options to run plays like Shanahan because Wolford is a running number in a way that Goff rarely is.

Btw, Goff was very good at RPO plays (run pass option) in college because they are a quick one decision read plays. I remember Gruden doing his QB camp with Goff before the draft and Gruden said he wouldn't run RPOs in the NFL because it will get your QB killed.

Wolford ran at least two RPOs along with QB designed runs in this game. Would that sustain over a season?



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/05/2021 10:56AM by BearlyThere.