To overthink the Rams offense is to learn too many hard lessons too late

On By Littum

INGLEWOOD, Calif. — If Monday night’s 23-15 loss to the Miami Dolphins was a lesson for the Los Angeles Rams in the “importance of continuity,” as head coach Sean McVay indicated in his postgame comments, it should also be a lesson in the importance of not overthinking the simple things.

Rookie sixth-round draft pick Beaux Limmer played well at center, for example, in place of either guard/center Steve Avila or guard/center Jonah Jackson (and don’t even get me started on flip-flopping between positions for the latter two players since spring). Was it ideal for Limmer to be thrown into the fire after a shoulder injury that has sidelined Jackson since Week 1? No. Did he pick things up little by little until he started playing outright solid football in Weeks 7 and 8? Yes.

But Limmer was replaced by a now healthy Jackson. Don’t get me wrong here: Jackson is a good to very, very good football player. It’s not him that the Rams decided he wanted to play center with about two weeks left in training camp, moving Avila back to left guard, where he excelled in his rookie season in 2023. Then Jackson got hurt, missed about nine weeks of football and returned to the center this week. How many practices has he had at the position, maybe 15? Avila also returned to the lineup for the first time since Week 1. The only player missing from the tackle group this week was veteran right tackle Rob Havenstein, but veteran Joe Noteboom is expected to have steady depth at a variety of positions, including tackling. .

go deeper

GO DEEPER

Dolphins defense neutralizes Rams in 23-15 win to snap streak: Takeaways

Still, the Dolphins’ defensive line and linebackers ran vicious circles around the Rams’ offensive line Monday night. Quarterback Matthew Stafford was pressured 15 times (and at a 30 percent rate, according to TruMedia), sacked four times and hit six times. He and Jackson took a snap out of the gun formation and instead of falling on the ball, Stafford tried to save the play, which ended up being a 13-yard loss. While Miami ran simulated pressure at times (which gave the appearance of sending extra rushers, but dropped them in coverage instead and only actually blitzed at an 18.4 percent rate, per TruMedia), when they sent three extra rushers near the end of the third quarter only (barely) accounted for one, and Stafford got the drill. Usually pressure picks like that are a matter of communication between first and foremost the quarterback to the offense and between the center and the quarterback, and then a matter of execution.

“It didn’t seem very … it seemed like, you know, I’ll be able to look at the tape,” McVay said after the game when asked how he thought the offensive line played — starting its answer and then it stopped. “But there were a lot of things that didn’t match what we were looking for. That’s why you hear us talk about the importance of continuity. Got a lot of respect for the defense, they did a good job, but there (were) too a lot of things that just seemed like we were out and never gave ourselves a chance, and that’s not entirely at stake.”

OK, but continuity in that group was the very point praised by McVay and others as the Rams continued their recent three-game winning streak. I asked McVay, to the point, what went into the decision to put Jackson back in the lineup?

“Both Steve and Jonah were ready to go,” McVay said, “you know, you’d be able to see what it looked like. You never know exactly. But we always try to do what we think is best . This will be a good film to be able to watch and see, ‘What do we think is the best way to put guys in the right spots to give them a chance to be successful — and ultimately our offense ?’ “

Again, don’t get me wrong here: Jackson generally has the resume and credentials to merit the trade. The Rams’ front office also signed him to a three-year, $51 million contract this spring, and it wasn’t to back up a rookie. But if it’s true that continuity was a key attribute to the improvement of line play the past few weeks, why the sudden discontinuity?

The offensive line also struggled to prevent batted passes. That teaching point shouldn’t be overthought, either: Dolphins defensive end Calais Campbell is a redwood of a human being, towering over everyone else at 6-foot-9. He got his long arms free to knock away two passes, including one that was intercepted. Defensive tackle Zach Sieler also picked off a Stafford pass later in the game. He is 6-foot-7.

“I mean, when you have somebody that’s 6-9 and 6-7, you try to get those hands down,” said Jackson, who, to his credit, along with the rest of his position group, stayed in the locker room to respond journalists. ‘ question instead of showing up early. “They wanted to throw the kitchen sink at us and they know what we’re capable of when (we) play a clean game and we can do whatever we want. They wanted to see what we were made of and (sent) different looks that we probably haven’t seen on film before from them. Next time we’re ready for that.”

Incidentally, Limmer did not escape the game unscathed. He received a false start penalty while on the field goal unit that nullified a 52-yard kick by Joshua Karty, then Karty backed it up 57 yards. He missed that attempt.

However, Karty was responsible for all of the Rams’ points on Monday night. The offense also failed to score in the first quarter for the fifth time this season and didn’t have a touchdown in the first quarter for the eighth time in nine games. They failed to score a touchdown from their 49-yard line thanks to a Dolphins penalty, from the Miami 43-yard line thanks to a defensive takeaway, or from the Miami 36-yard line thanks to another takeaway. In fact, they coughed up the ball a single snap after inside linebacker Christian Rozeboom intercepted Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa (a Kyren Williams fumble), and rookie outside linebacker Jared Verse’s strip-sack and fumble recovery saved them for another try. They couldn’t even push the ball into the end zone from Miami’s 4-yard line with 6:34 left in the fourth quarter, usually a period reserved for Stafford’s heroics, and settled for a field goal white flag on an incomplete pass on third-and-4 (Yes, readers, I know it was still an eight -point game on the north side of the two-minute warning and the Rams had their timeouts … show some courage Show a different kind of identity than repeatedly leaving everything you have to do to win football games, plus a little luck , in the last few minutes and seconds – the margins within which no team on the planet can sustainably exist). The next Rams field goal — right before an onside kick attempt that the whole world knew was coming, even though it was now not a league rule to declare in advance — came on third-and-10. From the Miami 12-yard line.

How would McVay describe his offense — even with nearly his entire lineup back from injury? His response was cut.

“Inconsistent.”

The last time this team was held without a touchdown was in 2023 against the Green Bay Packers, when backup quarterback Brett Rypien and the offense hit rock bottom as an injured Stafford could only watch. Rypien was cut after the match. Stafford returned to the lineup the next week. Rams started rolling. What’s the solution now that the quarterback isn’t necessarily the problem, but is also unable (for any number of reasons, including pressure and his own mistakes) to pull the unit out of the quicksand?

Conversely, this was a defense that actually got into the mindset of the game less and playing fast and loose, and aside from a few explosive plays due to missed tackles (including three plays of 15-plus yards on third down) it showed. Let me explain: Because the Dolphins’ offense specifically with Tagovailoa is predicated off speed and the precise timing of concepts such as layered routes that distribute receivers to exact spots on the field at an exact time, the Rams’ defense reduced its language to a few “pitch ” (making their own plays on the ball based on pre-studied looks and tendencies), but largely played Tagovailoa’s receivers’ hallmarks on the field.

“I think for us, (the plan this week) was maybe a little bit simpler as far as getting to your spots, having your eyes on and then making a play,” Rozeboom said. “I think we were in it maybe more than we usually are. We always have some calls for it to be like that, but this week with their speed, you really wanted to hit those lanes and they have plays that they liked us to look like we thought we might be able to hit our pitches.”

That led to a couple of key plays, including Rozeboom’s pick (a combination of playing a landmark and hiding his own read of the play, turning his hips late when Tagovailoa released his throw and then jumping the route). Another, Byron Young’s sack for a 15-yard loss in the second quarter, was set up by outside linebacker Michael Hoecht’s fake-innocent interference on the crossing route Tagovailoa would have targeted (and that receiver would also have been open had Hoecht not had positioned himself, facing Tagovailoa, into the route path). Hoecht’s body positioning hid this disruption to look fortuitous and avoided a flag — Tagovailoa held on to the ball and eventually moved to avoid incoming pressure until Young brought him down.

The Rams’ defense overall has played (and statistically measured out) like a top-10 unit over the past few games. It’s strange and uncharacteristic of most of McVay’s teams to feel how penciled the attack is, how it weighs down the entire team instead of lifting it. It feels like a group that overthinks the simple things, creates its own mistakes and adversity, and is trapped deep in its own head.

What happened to the free-spirited and cool team in 2023? They show up in defense, I suppose. Offensive aficionados, avert your eyes.

“It’s got to be a lot better,” McVay said. “We have to evaluate everything and we have to be much better.”

(Photo: Sean M. Haffey/Getty Images)