It is no secret that the Los Angeles Rams missed Cooper Kupp after he went down with a torn ACL in 2018, and that has become even more apparent this season as he has developed into one of the league’s top receivers.
Through the first eight games of the year before the bye week, Kupp led the Rams with 58 receptions for 792 yards and five touchdowns. If you spread that production over a 16-game pace, he would have 116 receptions for 1,584 yards and 10 touchdowns, which is elite statistics for a wide receiver.
That production came crashing down in the Rams’ Week 10 loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers though as quarterback Jared Goff targeted Kupp a season-low four times and he failed to record a catch for the first time since Week 6 of last year.
Rams head coach Sean McVay knows how valuable Kupp is to the team’s offense, so he knows he needs to make an effort to get him more involved next week, via Gary Klein of Mike DiGiovanna of the L.A. Times:
“We all need to figure out how to be collectively better, and part of that is getting Cooper more involved,” coach Sean McVay said.
Kupp has been Goff’s favorite target this season, particularly on third down where he has 21 catches for 366 yards and three touchdowns on the year.
Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin was well-aware of that though and game-planned to keep the ball out of Kupp’s hands, resulting in the Rams going 1-for-14 on third down:
“We doubled him a lot,” Steelers coach Mike Tomlin said, adding, “All our third-down discussions started there.
“Minimizing his ability to impact the game in that way and then working out from there.”
It is hard to put all of the blame for Los Angeles’ poor offensive showing on Kupp or Goff when the fact of the matter is that the offensive line struggled greatly. Goff is not a mobile quarterback, so he needs an offensive line that can give him time to allow Kupp to get open, which he does more often than not.
Things don’t get easier moving forward though as the Rams will take on Khalil Mack and the Bears in Week 11 in what is essentially a must-win game for both teams if they want to keep their playoff hopes alive.
