Aside from the opportunity to bring the whole family together, Los Angeles Rams offensive coordinator Mike LaFleur isn’t worried about his brother, Green Bay Packers coach Matt LaFleur, being on the opposing sideline this Sunday.
Mike LaFleur’s main focus this week is fixing the Rams’ struggling red zone offense after their problems inside the 20-yard line hurt them in a 24-18 loss to Chicago.
“We’re all in this thing together,” LaFleur said Thursday. “There’s no panic from it. It’s been a small sample size.”
Scoring touchdowns in the red zone has been a major issue for the Rams during their 1-3 start. They have a success rate of 41.2%, with seven touchdowns on 17 opportunities.
The optimistic side of LaFleur points out that the Rams have had a good number of trips inside the 20, tied for second in the NFL with Washington and Philadelphia, only behind Detroit (18).
However, the realistic side understands that the points missed in those situations were the reason for their losses to the Lions and Bears.
“Of course, in this league when you kick field goals like we have, you get the results that we got on Sunday,” LaFleur said. “We have to be better down there, and we will be.”
There isn’t one clear reason for the Rams’ struggles, which makes it more frustrating after a 1 for 4 performance against Chicago. One trip was ruined by a play call that put tight end Colby Parkinson too close to the sideline, allowing the defender to push him out of bounds. Another was stopped by an offensive pass interference penalty.
The third failed because the receivers couldn’t get open on first-and-goal, which threw off the offense and made it hard to recover.
“There’s less grass to defend technically for a defense, so if you want to get granular with it, I feel like windows become smaller,” quarterback Matthew Stafford said.
“There are definitely some things that make it a little bit tougher, but if you execute well down there you can usually find your way into it. We just haven’t done a good enough job of that the last couple of weeks.”
The absence of receivers Cooper Kupp and Puka Nacua seems to hurt the team more in the red zone. Kupp will miss his third game in a row because of an ankle injury, and Nacua is on injured reserve after worsening a knee injury during the season opener at Detroit. Both players are skilled and physical route runners who excel in short and intermediate areas.
The Rams are also dealing with problems on the offensive line, as starters Steve Avila (knee) and Jonah Jackson (shoulder) are both out.
These issues reduce the already slim margin for error inside the 20-yard line. “When you get down there, your execution, everything has to be tighter,” LaFleur said.
This was evident during their only touchdown drive, where the offense made several strong runs by Kyren Williams, leading to a 3-yard touchdown on the first play of the fourth quarter, bringing Los Angeles within two points.
Normally, LaFleur might reach out to his brother, whose Packers are 2-2, for advice on how to improve. However, that’s not the case this week.
“I guess we say a little less to each other on Monday and Tuesday in terms of schematics and all that stuff, but still talked to him yesterday,” LaFleur said.
This change in routine is becoming a regular occurrence. This will be the fifth time the LaFleurs have faced each other since Matt became the Green Bay head coach in 2019.
They split their two games in 2019-2020 when Mike was an assistant with San Francisco. Mike won as the New York Jets’ offensive coordinator in 2022 but lost last year’s matchup in his first season with Los Angeles.
