Rams still don't have a touchdown drive shorter than 70 yards this season

[theramswire.usatoday.com]
Rams still don't have a touchdown drive shorter than 70 yards this season

Cameron DaSilva
October 8, 2021 11:45 am PT
Anyone who watched the Rams last season could see that the offense wasn’t very explosive or threatening to opposing defenses. They dinked and dunked their way down the field, requiring sustained drives in order to put points on the board because they simply didn’t create many big plays.

With the arrival of Matthew Stafford, that has changed dramatically and it has allowed the Rams to strike quickly no matter where a drive might start. The best way to show how different things have been on offense is to look at this comparison.


All 16 of the Rams’ touchdown drives this season have been at least 70 yards long, and they’re averaging 78.4 yards per touchdown drive. In 16 games last season, the Rams had only 26 touchdown drives of at least 70 yards, which ranked 18th in the NFL.

That’s an average of 1.6 per game compared to the Rams’ current pace of 3.2 per game. They haven’t gotten many short fields this season and have an average starting position of their own 28.7-yard line, which makes the fact that they’re sixth in points per game even more impressive.

Against the Seahawks on Thursday night, the Rams had touchdown drives of 96 yards, 82 yards and 73 yards, continuing their streak of going at least 70 yards for all of their touchdowns.

Updated Rams TD drive stats, after marches of 96, 82, and 73 yards last night…

16 TD drives in 2021, averaging a whopping 78.4 yards. The shortest is still 70 yards.

The fact they're putting up more than 28ppg despite not a single short-field (or non-offensive TD) is wild. pic.twitter.com/EjLvxhTlrb

— J.B. Long (@JB_Long) October 8, 2021

Stafford has been a major upgrade at quarterback this season for the simple fact that he’s moving the ball with chunk plays rather than having to complete 10 passes on a single drive just to get into the end zone.

Once the Rams figure things out on defense and start giving the offense shorter fields to work with, the points will start to come in bunches – more so than they already are.