Rams get just enough offense to win

Rams snap count review: Who played and how did they do?

In a back-and-forth game that saw nearly 800 yards in total offense, the Los Angeles Rams were able to snatch a 26-20 victory from the jaws of defeat in overtime and knock off the home team Seattle Seahawks. L.A. won their third straight game and now scurry home to host the Miami Dolphins as favorites on Monday Night Football.

The Rams offense sputtered in the first half and most of the game, only awakening for a dominating third quarter and the winning drive in overtime. Over 13 drives, the Rams had eight punts, an interception, two touchdowns and two field goals. When they were rolling in two third quarter possessions and the overtime winning drive (27 plays), L.A. totaled 196 yards and 16 points. For the rest of the game, it was 173 yards on 43 plays and 10 points. When the offense stalled, it was four straight three and outs in the fourth quarter.

As for the defense, it was two steps forward and one step back. At times, they haunted the Seahawks with a pass rush onslaught and on others, the deep secondary fell asleep and allowed opposing receivers to run right past them. The frustrating part is the Rams had seemed to have gotten those explosive plays under control in recent games. Of 15 drives, Seattle only scored three times and were forced into seven punts, three interceptions, a kneeldown, and the overtime stop on downs.

With the Rams now at 4-4, who played vs. Seattle? And more importantly, who played well? Players, their snap counts, and percentage played are in bold.

Quarterback

Matthew Stafford (77, 100%) is always interesting to watch, but Staff giveth and Staff taketh away. While the winning drive was a thing of beauty, in both play-calling and execution, he had, at least by my count, four turnover worthy passes that could have tipped the game the other way. Winning is always the best deodorant.

Running back

Happenstance betray’s the work Kyren Williams (76, 99%) put in, 23 touches for 95 yards. The Rams came into the game committed to the pass, not establishing a ground attack and at least four good runs were called back on penalty. The fumble is concerning, though.

On his single carry, Blake Corum (1, 1%) didn’t show patience or vision and plowed straight ahead instead of reading the blocking— he wasn’t to be seen again. I realize the Rams want to get him involved, but kickoff return doesn’t really suit his style of play. Opposing teams are not going to continue to kick the ball through the end zone and let the Rams start at the 30 until they can show the ability to press it that far on returns.

Wide receiver

Nothing new for Cooper Kupp (71, 92%), he ’s always ready to be the “go to” guy. Not sure if it was the Seahawks scheme or his knee, but Puka Nacua (27, 35%) didn’t have much effect on the game before getting tossed.

Although it was his lowest percentage of snaps on the season, Demarcus Robinson (54, 70%) had another strong game. Over the past two games, he has given the Rams a lift in the mid-depth areas and more importantly, the red zone with eight catches for 129 yards, 16.1 yards per grab and four touchdowns. All from the WR#3 role.

The Rams closest thing to a “contested catch” warrior, while Tyler Johnson (29, 38%) lacks elite athletic and physical traits, he wins on competitiveness. His going up and snatching that final drive Matthew Stafford floater into double coverage was just nails.

While the presence of Tutu Atwell (26, 34%) creates space and makes the offense more multiple, he only had nine snaps vs the Vikings and likely only had his workload vs. Seattle increased because of Nacua’s ouster. He cannot afford to drop passes if he wants to get more snaps and targets. In theory, Xavier Smith (1, 1%) can offer the same upside as Atwell, but is even deeper down the depth chart.

Tight end

Very interesting play mix with this unit. The Rams used less two-tight end sets and hardly used them in motion at all, resulting in only a couple wham block attempts. There were only seven total pass targets doled out to the three.

With his reps going up for the third straight week, Davis Allen (42, 55%) appears to have wrested TE#1 from Colby Parkinson (32, 42%). I thought the holding call on Hunter Long (26, 34%) was weak, the play was well-past them.

Just a thought. since the L.A. tight ends are obviously not particularly strong blockers, why not bring Logan Bruss as the second tight end on running situations. That’s his strength, run blocking. The Rams don’t use a variety of plays out of “12”, using it to run successfully on short yardage seems a good building block.

Offensive line

In pass protection, after showing a big improvement against the Vikings, the Rams reverted to struggling against blitz pressure and in particular, the delayed blitz. Also recurring were problems on switching off.

Seahawk star interior lineman Leonard Williams led an opposing interior that really gave the Rams fits. In the first half run game, first down play calls were not mixed up enough and the ‘Hawks attacked it with safeties and/or linebackers busting into the gaps and forcing the Rams into negative situations.

Beaux Limmer (77, 100%) had another was solid outing. It’s not all his fault, but since he took over, opposing teams are successfully using stunts, loops, twists and delayed blitzes. The shine has quickly come off Justin Dedich’s (77, 100%) game. Kevin Dotson (77, 100%) played pretty well, although he had some problems getting over fast enough on switch-offs and fills.

Outside, although Alaric Jackson (77, 100%) slipped off a few run blocks, he did well in pass protection. Some of the best news was that you hardly noticed that Warren McClendon (19, 25%) had subbed in when Rob Havenstein (58, 75%) left with an ankle injury.

With Hav out at least a week, L.A. must decide on a replacement. Should McClendon get another chance? Or, should Joseph Noteboom get the role? The swing tackle spot should belong to ‘Boom and although not yet activated, he’s been a full participant in practice since returning from the Injured Reserve List on 10/16.

Special teams

Both long snapper Alex Ward (12) and plackicker Josh Karty (10) handled their business. One week rental, punter Ty Zentner (12), wasn’t a problem, the block was not on him. Wouldn’t it be cool to have a special teams coordinator who ran loops in kick block situations?

Defensive line

Whether to credit Defensive Coordinator Chris Shula or defensive line coaches Giff Smith and his assistant AC Carter, it doesn’t matter. Since the opening loss to the Detroit Lions, they have really done a stellar job of setting the rotation, keeping guys fresh and playing hard to the final gun.

The Seahawks didn’t have answers for Kobie Turner (59, 74%) and Braden Fiske (49, 61%), the duo combined for 10 tackles, three sacks, and seemingly constant pressure.

Bobby Brown (25, 31%) got the start over Fiske and stacked his second consecutive strong showing at 25 snaps, that must be the magic number. He played heavy on the nose, was able to get penetration, and didn’t slip off tackles.

Notching his first sack as a pro, Tyler Davis ( 20, 25%) doubled his snap count from last week, as well. Desjuan Johnson (10, 12%) was so quiet, it was hard to notice that he played at all and Jonah Williams (1, 1%) nicely ate up a double team on his only rep.

Edge

It was another bull-in-the-china-shop performance for Jared Verse (69, 86%). I cannot wait for the analytics sites to print the L.A. pressure rates., it’s going to be a crazy number.

Surprise! It was Byron Young (65, 81%) dropping into coverage and not Michael Hoecht (38, 48%). Problem is, the results weren’t much different. The Rams would be better served to drop their edges into flat coverage, because while both Young and Hoecht are athletic big men, they are not able to mirror smaller, quicker runners in space and the pursuit angles are much different. Put them where they can use the sideline as a bumper.

Although he only had three reps, Nick Hampton (3, 4%) batted down a pass and got a full day’s work on special teams. His biggest play day all year.

Off-ball linebacker

It’s not hyperbole to say Christian Rozeboom (78, 98%) played the best game of his career. He always hustles and pursues well and on Sunday he looked a little more under control and in better position to tackle when he got to the ball.

Why is Jake Hummel (7, 9%) not playing? On 3rd and 6 with 7:20 left in the game, inside the red zone the Seahawks ran a short delay pass, Hummel was tentative in attacking and instead of putting his pads into the receiver/runner, he dove at the runner’s ankles and was leapt over. The next play was a Rams interception, so the play had little bearing on the game, but inside linebackers have to be more aggressive and physical than that. Even though he didn’t play much either, limited to short yardage running situations, Omar Speights (5, 6%) effort/tackle on the overtime 4th down stop was critical.

Safety

Although he had eight tackles and a sack, Quentin Lake (80, 100%) struggled in deep coverage. He did not react to the first Seattle touchdown pass even though the QB never looked anywhere else and a few plays later, again did not react, letting the wide receiver run right by him for a huge gain.

Jaylen McCollough (56, 70%) had his biggest workload of the season and has carved himself out a nice role as a pseudo-linebacker. Although undrafted, he started 51 college games in the SEC and it shows in his toughness and ability to track the ball.

Two clutch interceptions always make for a strong game. While Kam Kinchens ( 41, 51%) is still learning the pro game and some of his pursuit angles need to be improved, he’s the closest thing to a free safety the Rams have. Just as big as the two picks was his tackle in overtime that forced Seattle into the final 4th down. Although it wasn’t solo, he made a stellar form tackle to stop the running back’s momentum short of the stick.

Burned badly for a touchdown in deep coverage Kam Curl (40, 50%) saw his snap count drop markedly for the second straight week.

Cornerback

Up and down day for Darious Williams (78, 98%). He had some solid run-fill tackles and good coverages, but you can deservedly bust on him for getting beat on a couple of long plays. The touchdown in the final minute of the first half looked like he was playing zone and expecting help deep, while the other deep completion, in the fourth quarter, was a well-thrown back shoulder catch.

The Rams decided to start Ahkello Witherspoon (67, 84%) as the other outside corner and he played pretty well. For whatever reason, Cobie Durant (79, 99%) just doesn’t seem to play as well in the slot and he was beat consistently.

Odd man out with Witherspoon in the lineup was Josh Wallace (3, 4%), with a big drop in snaps, by far the least work he’s had in a month. To be fair, he got hurt on the second half kickoff and left the game, but previously had been a regular first half contributor. He did force the incompletion of deep pass on the backline of the endzone while on the field. Charles Woods (7, 9%) was the second half recipient of those extra snaps in passing situation packages.

Inactives

QB Stetson Bennett, RB Cody Schrader, WR Jordan Whittington, P Ethan Evans, DT Neville Gallimore, E Brennan Jackson, and CB Tre White

Back to .500

Struggling with what to make of this game? Enjoy it for what is, a road win against a tough, intra-divisional rival. With all their struggles, the Rams are a ¹⁄₂ game out of the NFC West top spot and within 2 ¹⁄₂ games of playoff berth #7 with nine games left to play.

“Have a little faith, crapgame…they’re beautiful people”