Game Thread: Week 1, Chicago Bears @ Los Angeles Rams, Sunday Night Football, SoFi Stadium, Sunday, 09/12/2021, 5:20 PM PDT

[Chilipepper]

Rams have 34 points, a mark they reached twice in 16 games last season and only once in their last 13 games. A major part of that problem is in Detroit.

With very little possession time. 26 times passing whole game

 

[DJ]

Good trade for both teams.

Goff played well today.

He did @Chilipepper

Goff completed 38 of 57 passes (66.7%) for 338 yards, 3 TD's, 1 INT with a 92.6 PR.

 

[DJ]

Wasn’t that the story on Stafford too?

pretty sure a lot of his stats were when his team was down big in the 4th.

how quickly people forget.

Yep. He was down big a lot in Detroit, had a lot of 4th quarter comebacks vs the prevent.....

And people would have been ripping Goff if he didn't tear apart a prevent defense.....but he almost brought the Lions all the way back vs the 49ers.

 

[UnrealTerm04]

Stafford looked really good! He has no problem seeing the field and is not afraid to stretch the field. I'm concerned about the running game and after seeing Arizona shutdown the Titans, has me worried that the Rams will become one dimensional.

 

[Battlelyon]

8 crazy stats from Rams' Week 1 win vs. Bears

Coming out of Sunday’s win, we take a look at eight crazy stats for the Rams – including Matthew Stafford’s record-setting performance.

theramswire.usatoday.com

 

[Retroram52]

In that Arizona game, their D shut-down the Tennessee running game who themselves are one dimensional because they have no passing game. So the result will be the same for the Rams when we play teams like Arizona and the Niners.

 

[Rambunctious]

 

[shopson67]

He did @Chilipepper

Goff completed 38 of 57 passes (66.7%) for 338 yards, 3 TD's, 1 INT with a 92.6 PR.

Less than 6 yards per attempt, dink and dunk. Garbage time stats helped him too.

 

[shopson67]

Yep. He was down big a lot in Detroit, had a lot of 4th quarter comebacks vs the prevent.....

And people would have been ripping Goff if he didn't tear apart a prevent defense.....but he almost brought the Lions all the way back vs the 49ers.

Goff was basically Andy Dalton late in that game. Taking the underneath throw that the defense was almost begging him to take.

 

[shopson67]

Defensive line for most of the game, got worked today

Is that really on the defensive line? The scheme seemed to be 6 in the box on most plays. The Rams were basically playing prevent defense once they got a two score lead. It worked ultimately, but man was it frustrating to watch, just handing the Bears running lanes and easy underneath throws. Dalton only attempted one pass of over 10 yards all game.

 

[Battlelyon]

 

[Battlelyon]

Sean McVay and Matthew Stafford​

Three plays. That’s all Matthew Stafford needed to justify the steep price the Rams paid to get him from the Lions this offseason. On the third play of Los Angeles’s opening drive, Sean McVay dialed up a call that only a handful of quarterbacks can execute. After a quick play-fake, Stafford rolled to his left, planted his feet, and launched the ball 53 yards to an open Van Jefferson for a score.

McVay had been waiting all offseason to call that play. But dialing up deep shots has never been a problem for the Rams coach—not even with Jared Goff under center. The benefit of having Stafford, though, became more apparent as the game progressed. Without having to worry about holding his quarterback’s hand, McVay could call plays without fear of falling behind the chains and getting stuck in obvious passing situations. Those situations always gave Goff problems; on Sunday night, they elevated Stafford. The Rams’ new signal-caller averaged 0.76 expected points added on third down with a 60 percent first-down rate, per RBSDM.com. Both of those marks would have led the NFL last season.

Stafford wasn’t just good on third downs, though. He made it look easy throughout the game, completing 20 of his 26 attempts for 321 yards and three scores in the 34-14 win. It’s fitting that Stafford’s first game came against the Bears, the team that provided the NFL with a blueprint for how to slow the Goff-led Rams late in the 2018 season. That defense was coordinated by Vic Fangio, who’s now in Denver, but Chicago still runs the same scheme. And, as it had in past meetings, the Bears defense was able to slow the Rams’ run game on first and second down. That used to be enough to derail McVay’s offense. Not anymore.

McVay was able to call more dropback passes on early downs, knowing that Stafford would, at the very least, avoid disastrous mistakes—something the previous Rams quarterback couldn’t always be counted on to do. And Stafford did much more than that. His second deep touchdown of the night came on a play we rarely saw during the Goff era in Los Angeles. On a first-and-10 early in the third quarter, the Bears were playing a variation of the Cover 6 that had given Goff issues whenever he went up against Chicago. It’s a pattern-matching coverage that adapts based on the routes run by the receivers. Goff always had trouble figuring out what exactly he was looking at. But it didn’t trouble Stafford.

Stafford wanted to hit Cooper Kupp on the deep post, but he knew he had to look off the safety in order to open up a window for the throw. By the time the ball was in the air, the pass looked like one that any NFL starter could make—but Stafford created the easy play for himself. Goff isn’t making that throw, and I’m not sure McVay would’ve trusted him enough to call the play in that situation.
I’m not ready to declare the Rams legitimate Super Bowl contenders just yet. After the departure of defensive coordinator Brandon Staley, it remains to be seen how this defense—which was fourth in DVOA last season—will fare against teams not quarterbacked by Andy Dalton. But the offseason hype surrounding the McVay-Stafford partnership appears to be warranted. And if these two keep producing like this, it might not matter whether the defense takes a step back.

 

[Battlelyon]

 

[Rambunctious]

Stafford sold it by looking at Hendo all the way and it froze the defender and Kupp just ran on by them all. I was amazed to see Stafford look at Kupp and his arm was already moving forward. What a throw.

 

[Chilipepper]

He did @Chilipepper

Goff completed 38 of 57 passes (66.7%) for 338 yards, 3 TD's, 1 INT with a 92.6 PR.

GOFF SUCKS!

 

[Red_Chaos]

nice win but that rushing attack needs to get better sooner than later

 

[Retroram52]

Here are the PFF ratings for the Rams, top three on both offense and defense. No surprises on either side of the ball. Michel gets a pass because he missed camp and I am not so sure about the rating and the reasons for Fuller, Rochelle, and Rapp. But what is surely expected is the play of two notables: Brian Allen and Mr. Overpaid Floyd.

Why do I get the distinct impression that we are going to see little out of Floyd this year because of that ridiculous bullshit contract? Granted he is coming off of an ankle problem but way unlike AD, Floyd looks like he is a confused rookie out there and the PFF rating reflects that.

Also, it is only one game, but we have witnessed this scenario before and I would bet that Chris Garrett, when he returns, is going to make McSnead think long and hard about moving this dude out-the-door for draft assets. Like so many other players who get that Rams albatross big contract, their play takes a precipitous decline from before they got the big money except in one case, AD.

If this continues, then I think this fraud needs to be shown the door. Another lesson NOT learned as long as Kevin eff-up-extraordinaire Demoff remains associated with the Rams.

AS for Allen. We have been down this road before. His run blocking has improved a bit but he is def mistake prone and he, once again, can't handle one-on-one pass rushes and certainly has major problems with blitzes up-the-middle. I have been screamin' from day one to cut this fraud but McNumbnuts likes him to the detriment of a better player in one Colton Shelton.

Rams PFF grades: Best and worst performers in Week 1 vs. Bears

Matthew Stafford wasn't the only standout performer for the Rams on Sunday night against the Bears.

www.yahoo.com

 

[Battlelyon]

Here are the PFF ratings for the Rams, top three on both offense and defense. No surprises on either side of the ball. Michel gets a pass because he missed camp and I am not so sure about the rating and the reasons for Fuller, Rochelle, and Rapp. But what is surely expected is the play of two notables: Brian Allen and Mr. Overpaid Floyd.

Why do I get the distinct impression that we are going to see little out of Floyd this year because of that ridiculous bullshit contract? Granted he is coming off of an ankle problem but way unlike AD, Floyd looks like he is a confused rookie out there and the PFF rating reflects that.

Also, it is only one game, but we have witnessed this scenario before and I would bet that Chris Garrett, when he returns, is going to make McSnead think long and hard about moving this dude out-the-door for draft assets. Like so many other players who get that Rams albatross big contract, their play takes a precipitous decline from before they got the big money except in one case, AD.

If this continues, then I think this fraud needs to be shown the door. Another lesson NOT learned as long as Kevin eff-up-extraordinaire Demoff remains associated with the Rams.

AS for Allen. We have been down this road before. His run blocking has improved a bit but he is def mistake prone and he, once again, can't handle one-on-one pass rushes and certainly has major problems with blitzes up-the-middle. I have been screamin' from day one to cut this fraud but McNumbnuts likes him to the detriment of a better player in one Colton Shelton.

Rams PFF grades: Best and worst performers in Week 1 vs. Bears

Matthew Stafford wasn't the only standout performer for the Rams on Sunday night against the Bears.

www.yahoo.com

Stafford getting a 79 shows utterly stupid their ratings can be. He deserved better. He earned those tds they weren't luck

 

[Battlelyon]

Yeah, Floyd was a missing person Sunday. Can't wait for Garrett to get game action

 

[Battlelyon]