Behind Enemy Lines: Rams Scouting Report

The Arizona Cardinals are preparing to play the Las Angeles Rams. Let’s look at what the Rams like to do on offense.

Well well, ever since the Bruce Arians Era, the Rams have been a thorn on our side.  Even when the perennial 8-8 Rams led by head coach Jeff Fisher had the less talented team, they seem to have had our number at home.  The streak started in 2015 and if the Cardinals did their job that year we would’ve been 14-2.  The dominance went to another level when Sean McVay took over as head coach.  He’s 10-1 on us, the lone win being last year.  How do we beat them?

So the Cardinals have had a tough match up with our defense vs their offense.  We often think about it as Kliff vs McVay, but the match ups are Kliff vs Rahim Morris and McVay vs Vance.  The Cardinals offense has fared better than its defense thus far against the McVay era Rams.

Cardinals offensive average:

19 points per game and 309 yards per game.

Rams offensive average:

27 points per game and 408 yards per game.

The Cardinals defense has also struggled to create turnovers, with the Cardinals throwing eight interceptions and fumbling one time, while the Rams have thrown three interceptions and fumbled four times.

Sean McVay’s Favorite Plays

Sean McVay changed his offensive philosophy a few times and seems to have adapted his offense every year.  First was the Cooper Kupp jet sweep motion heavy offense, that eventually got neutralized in the Super Bowl against the Patriots.  Now their bread and butter is using a lot of flood concepts.

Flood concepts are just passing plays that attack all three levels of the defense.  They can execute flood concepts from any formation and personnel.

Remember that play, I broke it down. Notice the three routes attacking all three levels: a post, an out and a flat.

One thing they love to do is run flood concepts from a 3 by 1 look with the X receiver running a back side dig.

The play above illustrates a flood concept.  But pay attention to Odell Beckham.  He’s the X receiver on this play being covered by Alford.  He runs the dig route attacking the middle of the field.  Because the Cardinals are defending the sail concept on the field side (top side of this video) there is a void and Stafford likes to attack that.

The best way to defend the dig route is to have a safety come down on the vacant space or have a Linebacker (ahem Simmons!) Sit on that route to rob it.

As for the top side of the formation with the three receivers, there will need to be crucial communication between all three defenders. The deepest route will be bracketed to the safety on that side of the field, while the corner DB who passed that on will rob the route underneath him.

The corner doesn’t end up passing the receiver to the safety, which ends up leaving the out route open.

Knowing how to defend these concepts takes away the intermediate out and dig routes. That’s a huge advantage taking away so much of the Rams playbook.  Communication is the key to executing these coverages.

Last thing to note, the league is moving away from the blitz. For example the Bills only blitzed the Rams four times in Week 1. The Bills dominance against the Rams happened because of two factors: downgraded offensive line and Stafford holding the ball a little longer then usual. That’s because the Bills dropped seven in coverage all game, moving them around right before the snap. It’s a copycat league so let’s hope the man who’s never met a blitz he doesn’t like gets creative in the back end.

As for the offense, I’m not worried about them. They have proven they can move the ball. Regardless, the defense has a chance to show game one wasn’t a fluke.

Here’s to a good game with our vaunted rivals.