Despite their disappointing loss to the Miami Dolphins in Week 8, the Los Angeles Rams still remain in a good spot at 5-3 at the bye.
Regardless, a solid showing is not going to be enough to secure an NFC West that has been the most competitive division in the league by far. It is safe to say that they are still far from a finished product midway through the 2020 NFL season.
Head coach Sean McVay is well-aware of the shortcomings that have plagued the team so far this season. Although he has never passed up on an opportunity to hold himself accountable, the onus remains on his offense to start pulling their weight.
McVay acknowledged the issues on offense while crediting the defense for their stellar performance this year, per Stu Jackson of the team’s website:
“I think offensively it’s been up and down. Yesterday, obviously being as frustrating as it is, it was such a weird game where there’s a lot of positives on some of the early downs and really what it boiled down to was our inability to be able to consistently handle when they were bringing some of their zero-pressures, like I talked about after the game yesterday and that’s what it boiled down to.”
“You give them credit, they did a nice job, but three of our four turnovers came on that and they in essence got 21 of their 28 points off of those turnovers based on the short field where they score a touchdown, one of those drives ends up starting on the 1-yard line and then the other one on the 33 (yard line) which was their longest offensive drive that led to points for the Dolphins offense yesterday, all of which resulted in turnovers from the offense, giving the Dolphins’ offense short fields.”
“We’ve got to be better. It’s something that we’ll look at and we’ll be able to address moving forward, but that’s the beauty of this game – is you’ve got to be able to address it, you’ve got to be able to move forward. But I think we’ve run the football efficiently and then I think there’s been some good and some bad. I’d say overall, not consistent enough for the standards that we have.”
There is no question that the level of play on both sides of the ball have been in stark contrast with each other.
The offense has had no problem moving the ball being ranked No. 8 in total offense with 396.4 yards per game thanks in large part to their strong ground attack. Unfortunately, it has not yielded them many trips to the end zone with just 24.1 points per game.
Meanwhile, the defense has managed to kick things up a notch as one of the stingiest groups in the league. They are allowing the fewest total yards (291.9 yards per game) and have registered the fourth-most sacks (25).
Rookie defensive coordinator Brandon Staley has done a stellar job of maximizing the talent on his side of the ball despite all the turnover this group experienced during the offseason. Of course, questions remain on whether or not McVay’s offense will be able to match their pace.
