Sean McVay has been mixing up different player combinations due to the Los Angeles Rams dealing with injuries all season.
On Monday night, McVay got back a couple of offensive linemen, but the lack of consistency became a big issue in their 23-15 loss to the Miami Dolphins.
The Rams could only manage five field goals by Joshua Karty, which marked the eighth time in McVay’s eight years as head coach that the team failed to score an offensive touchdown. This was also only the second time it happened in Matthew Stafford’s 50 starts as the Rams’ quarterback. Interestingly, both times occurred in Monday night games.
“There wasn’t any sort of semblance of complementary football,” McVay said. “Defensively, I was pleased with the way that we played. I thought we were able to limit them, create a bunch of negative plays, get some turnovers and give short fields to the offense. Then, we weren’t able to capitalize.”
Left guard Steve Avila and center Jonah Jackson were both activated from injured reserve before the game.
Avila hurt his knee in the season opener at Detroit, and Jackson hurt his shoulder the next week at Arizona. Joe Noteboom started at right tackle because Rob Havenstein hurt his ankle last week at Seattle.
Avila began training camp at center, and Jackson was a guard before the Rams moved them to different positions before the regular season started.
“I thought we had a comfortable feel this week. They brought a lot of things and just some things we have to work on together,” Avila said. Stafford was sacked three times in the first half and four times in total before the offensive line was able to improve.
According to the NFL’s Next Gen Stats, Stafford was under pressure on 15 out of 49 passing attempts, which is a pressure rate of 30.6%. This is very close to the 30.7% average pressure rate he’s faced throughout the season.
“I felt like it was a little bit loose early on, but as the game went on, I thought we were able to protect better, which gave us a chance to be able to sustain some drives,” McVay said. “Ultimately, we were not able to finish in the red area. It felt like there was a bunch of bodies at the point of attack, specifically on some of those early third downs.”
What frustrated McVay the most was that the Rams were 3 of 12 on third downs.
After two turnovers and two three-and-outs on the first five drives, the Rams had some scoring chances on their remaining six drives, including three trips to the red zone. However, Karty missed a 57-yard field goal attempt after it was moved back due to a false start by Beaux Limmer.
“It was just negative plays at the wrong time. Whether it was a turnover, sack, inefficient play on first down, whatever it was we shot ourselves in the foot a little bit in that strike zone area near the 30-yard line. And that was the difference in the game,” Stafford said. Stafford finished the game with 32 completions on 46 attempts for 293 yards and an interception.
Things won’t get easier for the Rams, as they have a short week to prepare for a cross-country trip to face the New England Patriots on Sunday before hosting the Philadelphia Eagles in a Sunday night game on November 24.
McVay said that everything is on the table as far as making adjustments, especially after the chance to stay competitive with Arizona and San Francisco in the NFC West slipped away.
When asked to describe his offense after nine games, McVay used one word—“inconsistent.”
After three straight wins following the return of wide receivers Cooper Kupp and Puka Nacua, the Rams are now back at square one and need to figure out their best offensive line combination.
“There’s been a lot of instances where we haven’t been consistent enough. Sloppy? Yeah,” McVay said. “Execution has to be better. I want to be able to go back and look at the tape, but there were things we have to be able to clean up if we want to be that type of team, especially from an offensive perspective.”
