Jared Goff Bounce Back Player of the Year? Dose of Dion Video

So, you’re saying the only reason that McVay tightened-up his offense was because he didn’t have a speed guy?
Second question, was it really McVay’s doing or was it just Goff being Lionized and dumping passes off too soon?
Third question, (or point) is that you need an O-line and protection for a WR to run deep routes.

Ya know, we brought in how many guys to try and reduce Stafford’s interceptions. One of the ways was to run a conservative, short passing game. Could this have been one of McVay’s reasons for tightening-up his offense?

Maybe it’s just because they didn’t have a 4.3 guy, idk. …but I feel like there’s more to it than just that.

Do all these guys have a speedy #1 or #2 WR?
Do the QB’s at the bottom of this not have a speedy #1 or #2 WR?
Is there really a direct correlation?

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From what I see Goff isn’t missing deep open WR’s …. One could argue that maybe he was dumping off and not giving the plays a chance to develop?... Maybe? …. But from what I see …. he isn’t forcing the deep ball. He isn’t taking jump ball situations…… I don’t think I’d consider that a knock on him but guys like Stafford and Russell Wilson often thread passes into those windows and let the WR make the play. But that comes with confidence and experience in your receivers.

Personally I just don’t think the opportunities were there. I think there was a bit of a perfect storm and there were a lot of contributing factors.

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I dont think the Rams have that luxury of a jump ball WR that you can just throw it up and they’ll come down with it.
It will be interesting to see what Stafford does when he’s under pressure from the d-line.

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Wouldn’t it be fair to speculate that Atwell and DeSean being added is an acknowledgment that they went into last year without proper deep threats?

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They only put 10 guys close to the line of scrimmage. All of the other defenders were back deep.

Funny GIF

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All good questions and I don’t know all the answers. Here are my guesses.

  1. McVay tightened-up his play calling. Speculation on why below.
  2. Goff was not dumping passes too soon. That is not his style though some of his INTs were poor decisions under duress.
  3. Lastly, yes you do need an OL to hold up long enough for a WR to get up field for a deep ball. They were very inconsistent.

When you don’t trust your OL, you often leave in more blockers like your TE and RB. That means theoretically more protection but also less targets to throw to.

In situations where Goff was getting smothered up the middle in less than 2.5 seconds, McVay would change his play calling to a bunch of screens and wide zone stretch plays. It did appear that for whatever reason McVay didn’t trust the offense in 2020 to go deep like he did in other years. It’s not that Goff can’t throw them. Fans were clamoring for more deep threats and McVay finally got them just now. Why didn’t he do that sooner? Was McVay calling a conservative short game only perpetuating and magnifying their struggles? If they had switched to spread, would that have made it easier on Goff to account for blitzers and have more targets to throw to?

Having everyone bunched and max protect meant that defenses could load the box 6 wide and create exotic blitz packages making it even harder on the offense to figure out who was blitzing and who needed to stay in to block.

It should be noted that McVay also pushed out his OL/Run Coordinator coach Aaron Kromer this season. A very respected OL coach that helped rebuild the Rams OL over the last 4 years from the ground up. It appears as if he thinks Kromer was part of the problem with the OL as they didn’t add any guys and just let their center Blythe walk to the Chiefs.

McVay claimed that he spent more time on the defense in 2020 and hence why they were #1 and he didn’t focus on the offense as much (yet he was calling the plays). Lot of mysteries heading into this season. They didn’t add a lot to the offense other than Stafford and a few speed guys. The defense lost quite a bit and the DC but still has their super stars.

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I think they might have been hoping that was going to be Van Jefferson’s job…maybe he’s not fast enough or good enough at it?

Relying on a van for speed is a shoddy strategy.

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Yeah maybe…but Holmes stuck with the same thing he saw with Kupp at the Senior Bowl.

the Rams took Van Jefferson, who didn’t run at the combine due to a Jones fracture in his foot. And while we don’t know exactly what Jefferson would’ve run in the 40, he does have plenty of speed.

At the Senior Bowl, Jefferson was clocked as the fastest player on the field. He topped out at 21.05 mph and 20.99 mph during punt return drills, which were the highest speeds of anyone in Mobile.

They lost their only deep threat option in FA too. But … yes.

I think they’ve sent mixed messages.

Both Snead and McVay have stated that losing Cooks and Watkins hurt their offense and that adding enough adequate weapons that can stretch the field was a priority. McVay also admitted he was calling a more conservative game. But then they blame Goff for their offensive struggles.

The situation is odd for sure. Holmes clearly believes in Goff but McVay lost confidence in him.

I think we saw a lot of contributing factors that lead to those offensive struggles and I think that they put the blame on Goff instead of standing behind him and putting the blame on the staff.

I just don’t buy the story McVay and the Rams tried to put out. At least not in the entirety. I think Goff was the escape goat. I do think Goff can turn it around and he deserves a staff that will get behind him and show confidence in him. I think a solid OL and some solidified weapons will help him tremendously. Unfortunately he may have to wait a few years before the Lions can solidify their WR group but I think there’s enough weapons there for him to be successful.

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No. It was not just Cooks… though I did make a lot of mentions of him.
Returning to my original post in this thread… my very 1st point was about the O-line.

The 2018 Rams O-line had John Sullivan at OC and Roger Saffold at LG.
They were a much better O-line in 2018.

Sometimes the adjustments defenses made against the Rams (due to lack of deep threats IMO)… was the reason that Goff didn’t have time to capitalize even when the route was open.
The fact that the O-line play was not as good was like a synergistic problem for them.

Check out that play against the Jets I mentioned above.
Play action… but Jets have 10 guys within 5 yards of LOS.

Jets bring a 5 man pressure… and Everett misses his block.
That happened so fast that Reynolds is crossing behind the LOS to run a short crossing route, and ends up being tripped by Everett and not able to be the intended safety valve.

Higbee is wide open with a lot of room to run… but Goff can’t even get his feet set to throw it.

@BearlyThere … I think you have been really spot on with your observations of the Rams.

Here is a play I find VERY interesting.

The Rams had a rough 1st half against the Dolphins… as we all know.
This Miami game has been a hot topic when people discuss how Goff fell out of favor.

But here is a play at the end of 1st half… AFTER the Dolphins had forced several turnovers with blitzes… which McVay was not prepared for in any way.
If anyone needs a reminder… the Dolphins scored a TD off a fumble, a TD off a punt return, and TD scored just after another fumble… in less than 8 minutes of game time.

Down 28-7… the Rams had the ball at the 5 yard line with a chance to make it 14 point game.
3rd and 3 yards… from the 5 yard line… and McVay gets outsmarted… again!!

Dolphins drop 8 into coverage… with 5 guys stalking at the goal line… and 3 more in the end zone.

The Rams were obviously worried about the blitz… finally… because they dialed up a 7 man protection and a 3 man route. Goff has nowhere to throw the ball… and Rams kick a field goal.

The Rams dominated the majority of that game… except for the 2nd quarter TOs.

image

Goff got eviscerated after that game in the media for his turnovers.
McVay got outcoached all game. Not much criticism flew his way.

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The beauty of that last play is the Rams had 4 guys blocking one defender…brilliant!

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Here is another interesting stat from last year. Goff threw the shortest passes on average of any QB and also had the highest accuracy. Why? Goff was never a dink and dunk QB even going back to college. He did play the spread and that often had short passes but that was not Goff’s MO.

This goes back to McVay’s play calling and lack of trust in the OL/Goff under pressure.

The good news for those praying for a Goff ‘turnaround’, Goff was still accurate as all heck and played pretty well last year minus a couple of games like the Miami game (which we see was not all on him).

I’m pretty sure that a different offense/play caller will do wonders for Goff using the entire field again. Goff can throw it deep with the best of them.

I think he’s gonna do great, man.

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The more I look at the numbers, stats and play calling the more I realize McVay didn’t trust Goff. I think it’s fairly obvious based off his actions.

So that begs the question…… why?

I don’t think it’s the OL that he didn’t trust because he shipped out Goff and made little effort to address the OL…… which suggests he thought the problem was Goff.

I think Goff is a lot like Brees in that he needs a clean pocket to have success. Opponents figured this out and made serious efforts to collapse his pocket. McVay never had an answer for that problem and instead chose to see Goff as the problem. Then he adjusted his play calling to being more conservative to address his concern. This compounded the problem.

I think a solid OL, and a OC who shows confidence in him will do wonders. Personally I think Anthony Lynn’s style of offense might just be what Goff needs to have success …… fingers crossed.

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He did run off the OL/Run Coordinator coach Aaron Kromer, a very respected OL coach. So while he left the OL players in tact (minus the center), he did seem to scapegoat Kromer as well.

Good Point!

There’s a pattern here.

He runs off his young QB. A two time pro bowler and runs off his respected OL coach. Both to shift the blame alway from himself. When it was obvious that he chose to take a more conservative route. When it was obvious he didn’t have an answer for what opponents were doing to stifle his offense.

Stafford will allow him to be more aggressive. So I suspect the Rams offense will look rejuvenated with Stafford at the helm.

I am surprised that the Lions haven’t brought him on board yet.

I still think the “I think your wife is hot and I’d bang her” comments played a point in all this ….

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