Coming off a rough loss to the Arizona Cardinals, the Los Angeles Rams did not have much time to sulk as they had a quick turnaround for their Week 5 game against the Seattle Seahawks on Thursday Night Football.
Playing in Seattle is never easy, especially on a short week, but the Rams went in and took care of business in a tough division game, winning 26-17 to improve to 4-1 on the season.
Now, it wasn’t an easy win for the Rams as they started out slow offensively and went into the halftime locker room trailing 7-3. The offense really got going into the second half though, scoring touchdowns on three of their first four drives in the second half to secure the win.
For this week’s observations and analysis, I’ll start with what the root of those first-half struggles was.
Stafford’s roller coaster performance
It feels like Rams fans have been enjoying this season more than the last two because of the team’s quarterback play, and rightfully so as Matthew Stafford is a clear upgrade over Jared Goff.
Too many times this season though, Stafford has come out of the gates slow and has needed a few drives to warm up before getting into a rhythm. That was again the case in this one, perhaps the most glaring case as Stafford was way off in the first half.
Stafford missed an open Cooper Kupp and Van Jefferson on key third-down plays and then threw an egregious interception in the end zone. Some of these mistakes gave Rams fans PTSD as it was very Goff-esque.
I’ll cut Stafford a little slack because it was later revealed that he dislocated his finger and played through it after popping it back into place and taping it up on the sidelines. So that is likely the reason he was missing so many throws in the first half.
Stafford got it going into the second half though, leading the aforementioned touchdown drives and finishing 25-of-37 for 365 yards and a touchdown. It was a gutsy performance for a guy dealing with an injury on his throwing hand, and I think Stafford deserves a ton of credit for doing it on the road in a hostile environment.
But, it feels like the Rams offense hasn’t truly been firing on all cylinders in any game this season so I would love to see a complete, all-around performance from start to finish when they take the field next.
Hello, Robert Woods
Part of what made Stafford so successful once he got going was that he was continuously looking for Robert Woods…finally.
Sean McVay stated going into the game that they would look to get Woods going after a slow start to the season, and the wide receiver even revealed after that he spoke with his head coach about it.
How does 14 targets, 12 receptions and 150 yards sound?
An absolutely dominant performance for the man they call Bobby Trees.
The best part about it was that to me at least, it didn’t feel like Stafford was force-feeding Woods. He was just constantly getting open and his quarterback found him.
Everyone knows how talented of a receiver Woods is, so hopefully this game unlocked a newfound connection between him and Stafford that wasn’t there the first four weeks.
With Woods, Cooper Kupp, Van Jefferson, DeSean Jackson, Tyler Higbee, etc., the Rams have a ton of weapons at their disposal and if they’re all going well, that will open up the passing game even more for Stafford.
Good to see run game get going
You know what else will open up the passing game? Running the ball!
It seems that Sean McVay forgot that last week, but he got back to it in Week 5 as the tandem of Darrell Henderson and Sony Michel was running all over the poor Seahawks defense.
L.A. ran for a total of 118 yards and two touchdowns on 29 carries, and while that doesn’t seem like a whole lot, it was necessary to create sustained, long drives.
As Brandon Staley broke down so eloquently this past week, playing complementary football has to be done to create some physicality and wear down your opponents. It was good to see the Rams commit to getting back to the run and I hope they stick with it moving forward because they certainly reaped the benefits in the second half when the Seahawks defense looked tired
Defense/secondary still an issue
Even though the Rams only gave up 17 points in this game, it was far from a dominant defensive performance.
The issues to me seem to be in the secondary, and it may only get worse moving forward as Darious Williams went down with an ankle injury and could be forced to miss some time.
Everyone knows how great Jalen Ramsey is, and that was again the case in this one with his biggest highlight being a tipped ball that went right to Troy Reeder for an interception.
Outside of Ramsey though, the Rams’ other cornerbacks, if Williams is forced to miss time, will be Robert Rochell and David Long Jr., both of which lack experience and have been picked on by opposing quarterbacks when they’ve been on the field this season.
Someone else who has gotten picked on is safety Taylor Rapp. So it will be interesting to see what Raheem Morris schemes up to make up for those deficiencies in the secondary. I wouldn’t be surprised to see them play more zone moving forward, and perhaps dial up some pressure to get to the quarterback.
Something else I would like to see is Terrell Burgess get some playing time in Rapp’s spot. Burgess impressed in his rookie season before going down with a season-ended injury but has hardly seen the field this year. Let’s see what he’s got!
Rocky night for Matt Gay
For a while it felt like the Rams solidified the kicking position after bringing in Matt Gay, but he had his worst game on Thursday night. Gay missed an extra point and had two kickoffs that went out of bounds, which simply cannot happen.
He did redeem himself by sealing the game with a field goal to put the Rams up by two scores late, so hopefully he can put the rough night behind him and be better moving forward.
Up next…
The Rams now go into their mini-bye at 4-1 and have the light part of their schedule coming up. Getting to 7-1 should be the expectation at this point as their next three opponents, the New York Giants, Detroit Lions and Houston Texans, are a combined 2-10.
