Brandon Staley and the Rams speed out of solutions

By Label Schofield |

January 16, 2021 7: 49 pm

This season Brandon Staley took what turned into a genuine Los Angeles Rams protection – ranked ninth in Total Defense DVOA in 2019 – and made it mammoth. Entering Division Round Weekend the Rams had been fourth in Total Defense DVOA (and first overall in the Weighted DVOA, which emphasizes latest play). That success made Staley one amongst the recent commodities in this 365 days’s head coach interview circuit, and the Rams a unhealthy crew to face in the playoffs.

But on Saturday afternoon, Staley and the Rams ran out of solutions against Aaron Rodgers and the Inexperienced Bay Packers.

One in all the pieces that made the Rams protection so tricky turned into their capacity to forestall the speed despite the exhaust of a diversity of two-excessive security alignments previous to the snap. By enforcing a lighter box, Staley turned into almost plucky teams to speed the football. Yet the Rams would possibly maybe presumably maybe peaceable stop the speed out of those alignments, as evidenced by their third-overall ranking in Bustle Defense DVOA, and the truth that Los Angeles allowed genuine 3.8 yards per lift this season (third-fewest in the league) and 90.5 yards speeding per game, also third-fewest in the league.

Smartly, if Staley turned into plucky Matt LaFleur to speed the football, the Packers had been energetic to comply. In the first half Inexperienced Bay ran for 74 yards on 18 makes an try, averaging 4.1 yards per lift. No longer flashy, however LaFleur would preserve calling running performs against those lighter boxes.

Aaron Jones rewarded that faith on the first play of the 2nd half:

Right here’s genuine an internal zone running play, however as you would possibly maybe maybe presumably maybe stare Los Angeles performs with a lightweight box right here. That permits blockers to circulation up to the 2nd level almost straight after the snap, enabling Jones to gain into the secondary with ease. From there he puts a switch on the security in the launch arena, and it adds up to a 60-yard gain to pen the third quarter.

Jones would camp off the flexibility himself with this touchdown drop to develop the Packers’ lead:

Undoubtedly anytime you originate up having success on the ground, that opens up the possibility of the monumental shot play over the cease of the protection. That would near halfway by the fourth quarter, after the Rams sever back the Inexperienced Bay consequence in seven. Dealing with a 2nd-and-6 at the Packers’ 42-yard line, LaFleur called for the deep shot off of play-action. Scrutinize how the Rams possess an even bigger box up front, and drop a security into the front wearisome previous to the snap:

In the blink of an gape, the Packers had been up two scores again.

Because of the the very excellent “dots” from NFL’s Subsequent Gen Stats, you would possibly maybe maybe presumably maybe stare how the play-action worked to perfection on this play:

You would stare how the 2 safeties – Jordan Fuller (#32) and John Johnson III (#43) – gain sucked downhill, giving Allen Lazard (#13) a leverage advantage against the launch air-aligned cornerback and over-the-high of the protection.

Despite their success of the season, Los Angeles’ defensive luck had speed out.

Leading up to this game, this turned into the matchup individuals wished to notion: How Staley’s protection would are trying and stop Rodgers and the Packers. Would Jalen Ramsey be on an island all game prolonged against Davante Adams? How would the Packers’ offensive line take care of Aaron Donald?

On this night the Packers had the total solutions, and the Rams had been left to genuine set an verbalize to more questions in the cease.