The Los Angeles Rams offense looked completely outmatched in the Week 4 against the San Francisco 49ers.
The shuffling of the offensive line is partly to blame, but the Rams and Matthew Stafford have been largely dependent on Cooper Kupp to keep the chains moving. Allen Robinson was the team’s marquee free agent signing, and so far he has made little impact through four weeks.
When asked about Robinson’s lack of involvement, head coach Sean McVay explained it’s been a by-product of the offense’s struggles as a whole.
“Yeah, like I mentioned, it’s just kind of been a struggle overall. There’s been a lot of different things. Being able to get receivers the ball is such a product of the offense as a whole. We’re at our best when everybody’s getting involved. You look at the two games that we’ve been able to kind of stay on schedule, it’s been getting different guys involved. Obviously (WR) Cooper’s (Kupp) a huge part of it, but whether it be Allen or any of the other eligibles, those are things that we’re continuing to work towards. We’ve got a lot of work to do. We still have a lot of time, but we’ve got to be better for sure.”
McVay reiterated that he and the staff need to be better about spreading the ball around despite what kind of defensive coverages they’re seeing.
“There’re certain different things coverage based and what the defense is playing that dictates and determines where a lot of the balls end up going. (TE) Tyler (Higbee) and (WR) Cooper (Kupp) ended up getting a large amount of targets and you know, Cooper’s always going to be a guy that you want to make sure that you’re cognizant of getting him involved while also spreading it around. So, I think it’s more a product of some of the things that they were doing, but like we said, we’ve got to do a better job of spreading it around and I think it’s a lot easier when we’re able to stay kind of efficient and in some better down and distances or better situations collectively throughout the game for that to be able to unfold in a way that’s reflective of what we ideally want to be.”
Robinson is a better receiver than what he has shown so far, and perhaps Week 5 will provide him with more opportunities to contribute. Kupp is more than capable of carrying the offensive load, but McVay and the Rams would be wise to utilize Robinson more.
