And you only have two guys going out on routes, one of the DB’s is in press the other is off…and the WR’s are only 2 yards off the LOS. So you think that all the DB’s should just be 20 yards off waiting for the WR’s to run to them?
I am thoroughly confused as to why you think these pics are odd or any different than normal?
With Cooks and a decent O-line… 2 safeties line up 15 yards deep… and 1 of them hits 28 yards of depth within 3 seconds of snap.
Without Cooks and a struggling O-line in 2020… they get 1 deep safety… and 8 defenders still within 4 yards of the LOS at the top of Goff’s drop. Kupp is only 6 yards off the LOS and Reynolds only 7 yards… at the top of Goff’s drop. No threat to a deep safety at all. It isn’t very visible in that pic… but Tre’Davious White was still keeping his eyes in the backfield as he backpedaled… because he had no worry that Kupp would beat him deep a single high safety over the top.
The pictures certainly can’t show the whole story of these plays… but watching the film shows 2 very different offenses from 2018 to 2020. Like I mentioned above… it is HARD to find a play where there is even 1 Rams WR 20+ yards downfield in 2020. In 2018… they made plays down the field regularly.
And… then there is the play in the picture below… which is the LONGEST reception of Kupp’s career… and was made possible by Cooks drawing the deep safety to the top of the screen… and leaving Kupp to be covered by a LB in man coverage. That doesn’t happen in 2020 for the Rams because they had zero speed at he WR position.
They were in 2018…
This play below was Brandin Cooks’ 47 yard TD.
Pre-snap pic shows 8 guys near LOS… with CB covering Cooks 9 yards deep.
Just after snap… this pic shows 2 deep safeties behind the off man CB… and 1 safety is about 15 yards deep and the other is about 20 yards deep. This was a 1st and 10 play as well… near field goal range and plenty of time left in the half… not like it was 3rd and 15 with 20 seconds left.
And Cooks still got behind them.
I’ve brought this up myself.
What people fail to realize is that the Rams offense lost a ton of talent over just a couple seasons.
Austin, Cooks, Gurley, and Watkins at skill positions. Along with two starters on their interior OL.
That’s a lot of changes for a young QB to go through.
Those changes drastically changed what that offense was and what it could do. I believe that this had a major impact on Goff.
Wonder if we go after Cooks if we get off to a good start. Can’t imagine it being all that hard to get the Texans to agree to a deal.
Losing Watkins and Cooks hurt their deep game. Those two got a lot of separation deep and we’re often wide open.
McVay and Snead admitted that losing those two had an impact and that’s why they went out and added a few better options this offseason…… however McVay also made it clear that Goff had guys getting open deep and Goff wasn’t making the play. The difference is Reynolds, Kupp and Woods did not get the deep separation that Cooks at Watkins did and Goff was unwilling, or unable, to make those tighter window throws. This was clearly a pet peeve McVay.
McVay clearly felt the problem was with Goff and that’s why he shipped him out. But …. I’m not so sure. That’s a lot of changes for a Young QB to adjust to. It’s hard to get in a rythm and hard to build confidence as a result.
I guess time will tell.
My concerns for Goff are that the weapons we brought in likely won’t stick long term and we will probably be making changes to the group next year. Putting Goff in the same position of having to build a report and rythm all over again.
Good OL helps??? 
2018… 47 yard bomb to Cooks… with a clean pocket.
2020… Jets get to Goff before WRs even get 5 yards downfield.
1st… Quinnen Williams sacks Goff before Higbee (#89) turns sround on a 5 yard route.
Then… Blythe is beat badly by Shepherd… and Kupp is 5 yards downfield before Goff is down.
.
All true. Good post.
I don’t have access to the all 22 film for all the Rams games… so I really can’t say for sure that Goff was… or wasn’t… missing opportunities down the field.
On the other hand… the 2018 film available shows Goff getting solid protection… and having WRs running 20+ yards downfield… sometimes for easy throws. It also shows many safeties getting a bunch of depth because they respected the deep ball.
In 2020… I can’t find any video… outside of the Robert Woods TD against WFT… of a WR running a deep route for an easy catch. And… I see a lot of DBs sitting on routes at the sticks.
Some QB’s really need a clean pocket to be successful. Drew Brees is one of them and that’s why the Saints always signed good interior OL.
Stafford isn’t one of them. He plays under pressure and a collapsing pocket better than most. So he should do well for the Rams.
Goff needs a clean pocket. When he didn’t have one he struggled. Especially downfield.
The Lions OL has been improving and the addition of Sewell at RT and Big V moving inside should help to solidify that line. Constant injuries and a revolving door at OG has really hurt the Lions OL play but in 2021 I’m expecting a quality OL and a good pocket. This should help Goff.
Honestly I have little faith in our starting WR’s but Hock, Brown and the RB group (as receivers) maybe enough weapons to keep Goff and our offense moving the chains.
I’m also expecting an improved run game. Maybe even a top 10 run game. If that happens it should take enough pressure off our outside WR’s and hopefully open things up down field.
But I’m also expecting growing pains and struggles for Goff. There’s going to be an adjustment period.
He has a bright future. He is fun to watch and infectious.
He’ll be working for one of the networks in the not so distant future.
That’s some great stuff.
Thanks for putting that together.
I agree that the Rams offensive scheme has changed and been bad. It seemed whenever I watched them it seemed they favored the bubble screens, to Woods especially. I don’t know what the reasoning for this was, lack of O-line probably.
It’s no wonder that if you look at each WR for the Rams over the last couple of seasons their Yards per Air Yards went down.
I wasn’t a huge fan of either Watkins or Cooks (though they both made the Rams offense a lot better). Maybe if the price was right (4th-5th rounder). T Williams looks more legit than either if he can stay healthy. Perriman is more talented but I worry about the dropsies.
Watkins seemed to give up on the play a lot if he didn’t think it was coming to him. Cooks was better but seemed to shrink in big games or if double teamed. Neither is a true 1st rounder as someone posted most of the top 10 guys were not taken within the first 25 of the draft.
For a bit of fun, one of the ways Belichick defeated the Rams in the Super Bowl is he did the opposite of what most coaches did and put Gilmore (#1 CB) on Woods (#2 WR) and completely erased him, then double teamed Cooks with a safety dedicated over top. Then he showed blitz from the TE side nearly every snap forcing Higbee to stay home to block. Without Kupp and Gurley, Goff had no one else to throw to. It’s no wonder the Rams couldn’t score.
He’s seemed to have corrected that.
Perriman dropped just one of his 65 targets in 2019. In doing so, he became one of five wide receivers in 2019 with 50+ receptions with one or fewer drops , according to Pro Football Focus. For Perriman , this is an encouraging sign for things to come, especially as he attempts to prove himself as the Jets’ deep threat.Jul 21, 2020
Plus, in training camp, it was noted that some of the misconnections Goff was having with Perriman had to due with Goff not being accustomed to Perriman’s speed and/or the fact that he was more open than Goff expected. As they get more reps together, that should improve.
Here’s the problem with @Phunnypharm pictures is that defenses switch coverages and alignments all game long, all of them do it, it’s not something new. So to snap a few pics of any game and say “this is what the defenses are doing” is very short-sighted. I know you can go to any game of any team and do this same thing to fit a narrative, it shows almost nothing of any significance. Yes, it can be an example and if you had some stats to say, “yeah, 80% of the time in this game, they played their coverage like this”…well, ok, then you have something…but to just snap a few pics and try to come to a conclusion is just not how it works.
I could bring up pics of the Rams in 2018 where the defense was stacked to stop Gurley and say this was why the Rams could throw downfield, instead of they threw down the field because Cooks was out there…and to be honest, I’d probably be closer to the truth now that I think about it. LOL
Anyways, the pics are cool but don’t really tell the story imo.
Can you find pics of the Rams from 2020 with safeties lined up as deep as I showed in 2018???
Can you find any video of Rams WRs 40 yards downfield in 2020?
That is the story I am looking at here.
I think on that play, Kupp got tackled at the 30 yard line, it was a dead-duck of a pass from Goff…but I’m sure if Stafford threw it, it was placed “right where it needed to be”! LOL
Stats don’t tell the story either.
Cooper Kupp had a number of long plays, i.e. three 20+ yarders, three 30+ yarders, one 49 yarder, and one 55 yarder, in 2020. But, were they catch and run situations or deep balls?
Robert Woods also had a number of longer plays, i.e. two 20+ yarders, four 30+ yarders, and one 56 yarder in 2020, but same question arises.
Interestingly, both Kupp’s 49 yarder and Woods 56 yarder both happened against WFT in the same game.
But, even so, that’s not many.
