The Los Angeles Rams were left with a lasting impression upon their 31-28 loss to the Detroit Lions. As a part of the NFL in London series, the Rams forfeit a home game to travel to Twickenham Stadium to face off against the New York Giants.
The Giants bring forth a notable offense, which has a deadly passing attack, with three top-notch receivers. Against the Lions, the Rams faltered in the passing attack, with the defensive backs having a sub-par performance.
The Rams surrendered 270 passing yards and four touchdowns through the air. Defensive coordinator Gregg Williams understood that football is a game of adjustments, with some defensive players having strong performances.
During his presser on Friday, Williams provided some insight on how the Rams fell apart against the Lions, via TheRams.com:
“I don’t play anymore. I try not to get in the way in the game, I try to help during the game and the fact that they’re so prideful,” Williams said. “There are so many guys who played so doggone good. Had some of their better performance, but when you don’t do well out there on the edges, not very many balls traveled very far in the air. And so they threw the ball very short, intermediary distances and we didn’t tackle in space.”
The fact that the Rams didn’t allow the deep threat is great, but they were unable to adjust to the short routes. Missed tackles in the open field didn’t help either, as the defensive backs fell victim to some moves the Lions receiving core displayed.
Although the defeat has lingered, the Rams have moved onto their matchup against the Giants, with their preparation for a similar, passing-heavy opponent.
Williams stated the areas of improvement moving forward, with his team enraged just as much as he was:
“So our defensive secondary has to play better to give everybody else a chance to play because there is a lot of good football played outside of five, six plays in that ball game,” Williams stated. “It is good to hear them say that they were pissed. I won’t say how pissed I was.”
The NFL in London has started on a strong note, with instructional camps providing lessons to children about American football.
Tight end Lance Kendricks was an ambassador for the Rams and the NFL and stated that the NFL has grown tremendously internationally.
The experiment for Roger Godell has paid off, as multiple games over the past few seasons have drawn a large crowd in attendance.
