Rams Film Review: Matthew Stafford and ‘empty’ formations key to win over Bills

Matthew Stafford and the Rams put up a huge performance against the Bills. What did the film show?

When Matthew Stafford is dialed in, there may not be a more fun quarterback to watch in the NFL. He is your favorite quarterback’s favorite quarterback. His performance for the Los Angeles Rams against the Buffalo Bills on Sunday was a perfect example of why, even at 36 years of age, he deserves to get mentioned among the elite quarterbacks in the NFL.

While Stafford has had several elite-level performances, his best game in a Rams uniform arguably came on Sunday against the Bills. His 0.83 EPA per dropback and 97.6 QBR were both bests since joining the Rams in 2021. When you consider the opponent on the other side and where this Rams team is, it may not be close. Stafford put the offense on his back and had a near-perfect game. It was as close to an athlete being ‘in the zone’ that you’ll see.

Sometimes, you just have to let your elite quarterback sling it, and that’s exactly what McVay did. McVay and Stafford got back to their ‘greatest hits’ list and the offense on Sunday looked a lot like the one that dominated in 2021. Stafford didn’t have a single passing attempt out of the pistol after having 65 passing attempts out of pistol in Weeks 1-13.

Instead, Rams let Stafford drop back in empty and let it rip. Prior to Week 14, Stafford had 26 total passing attempts out of empty. Against the Bills, Stafford was 7-for-7 for 97 yards and had two touchdowns out of empty sets.

As Dan Pizzuta of The 33rd Team noted,

“The Rams went back to the version of the offense run during Stafford’s first seasons with the team. This was the first game of the season the Rams did not play a single snap in pistol… Instead, Stafford played empty on 23.3 percent of his snaps…He’s only used empty more than 10 percent of the time in three other games this season and no higher than 14.3 percent back in Week 3. Stafford had not been in empty on more than 20 percent of his dropbacks since Week 8 of last season (33.3 percent) before the Rams made their second-half changes on offense. While in empty, Stafford went 7-of-7 for 97 yards and two touchdowns, good for 2.50 EPA per play.”

The Rams didn’t operate completely out of empty, but they went to it in the important moments. All but one of Stafford’s passing attempts out of empty came on third or fourth down. On those plays, the Rams quarterback was 6-for-6 for 73 yards and two touchdowns.

Operating out of empty allowed the Rams offense to get vertical and create explosive plays. The Bills have allowed the second-fewest passing plays of over 20 yards this season with 28. Following Sunday’s game, the Rams account for four of those or 14 percent of them. That doesn’t even include the long play to Demarcus Robinson.

Throughout the season, offense has seemed “hard” for the Rams and the typical McVay offense has looked broken. The ability to get into empty shows a confidence level in the offensive line as they get more comfortable playing together, but it also allows the Rams to attack more down the field and create the explosive plays that many have grown accustomed to seeing.

Rams offense attacks the edges

It was very clear that the Rams and McVay saw something on film with the aggressive nature of the Bills edge rushers. From the first drive of the game, the Rams attacked that space with the Bills edge defenders crashing inside. On the second play of the game, Stafford found Nacua on the perimeter for a screen which helped get the Rams offense back ahead of the sticks and in a manageable down and distance. The Bills caught on as the game went on, but the gameplan worked. Bills edge rushers had a total of four pressures throughout the game, and Greg Rousseau was completely shut out.

McVay extended this into the running game as well. It’s not very often that the Rams incorporate the jet sweep into the offense. What’s so odd about this is that the jet sweep used to be a staple in the offense from 2017 to 2020. The Rams will bring it out occasionally, but it seems to get saved for special occasions. Sunday against the Bills defense was one of those occasions.

Nacua had five carries for 16 yards and a touchdown. Again, the Rams went to it on the opening drive in the red zone. You can see AJ Epenesa and the linebacker crash inside towards Kyren Williams. This leaves the edge open for Nacua. The Rams would score on this play later in the game.

Tutu Atwell’s continued improvement

The Rams arguably have four starting quality wide receivers and that makes it difficult to get all four players equitable playing time. Cooper Kupp and Puka Nacua are the top two players in the offense and both Demarcus Robinson and Tutu Atwell have a role. At times, the Rams have struggled with this rotation when all four have been healthy. For example, Atwell went from playing 70 percent or more of the offensive snaps for four consecutive weeks to less than 20 percent in three of the next four weeks. This was after McVay said that he needs to do a better job of getting him involved.

Atwell has seen an uptick in his snap count recently. He played in 27 percent of the team’s offensive snaps against the Philadelphia Eagles and then 39 percent of the snaps in last week’s win over the New Orleans Saints. On Sunday against the Bills, his snap count was up to 45 percent.

Tom Brady mentioned Atwell’s “squirrel route” on the broadcast, but this type of play has been very successful for the Rams this season. Atwell sells the speed out, explodes up the field as if he’s running a “go” and then cuts back towards the sideline. It’s a very nuanced route and Atwell executes it perfectly.

You can see more of Atwell’s route development on the fourth down play. While Atwell isn’t the initial read, he does a good job staying with the play. Atwell creates a lot of space at the top of the route because the defensive back has to respect his speed before he cuts inside on the dig. The result is a first down.

Sunday’s fourth-down catch wasn’t the first time this season that Atwell has delivered in a big moment. Atwell also had a few big catches on third downs earlier this season against the 49ers back in Week 3. He also had a fourth down conversion against the Eagles. Atwell trails only Puka Nacua on the Rams this season in first downs per route run.

Honorable Mention

This is not to say that the Rams defense played well. However, take away some of the execution errors with penalties, and it’s much better than what the scoreboard showed. The defense needs to clean up some of those mistakes, but at the end of the day, they still made plays when needed.

In a game that ends 44-42, it’s going to come down to a handful of plays and the Rams defense came up big in specific moments. With the Rams leading 24-14 and the Bills driving before the half with a chance to double-up on points, getting a stop was critical. On 3rd-and-2 from around midfield, Shula dialed up a BOSS pressure look, loading up the right side. By walking linebacker Christian Rozeboom towards the line of scrimmage, it forced the offensive line to account for him and gave Jared Verse an iso look on the edge.

Kobie Turner won inside while Byron Young contained the edge, not allowing Josh Allen to escape. The pursuit by Turner forced a throw away and the Bills had to punt. While the Bills had a chance to tie or take the lead, the Rams defense got stops on both sides of the half.

The biggest stop of the afternoon came late in the fourth quarter. The Bills trailed by nine and had all three timeouts with a little over a minute to play. A quick score they would have been able to kick deep, get a stop, and potentially get the ball back and go win the game. That seemed almost guaranteed with the ball at the one-yard line.

Earlier in the game, the Rams defense stopped Josh Allen attempting a quarterback sneak at the goal line. They did so once again when it mattered most. Using the same formula, Turner went low while Tyler Davis and Bobby Brown III went high. The defensive line got a lot of push and stopped the 6’5, 237-pound quarterback short. That stop forced Sean McDermott to call a timeout. The Bills scored on the next play, but never got the ball back.