Rams O-line win trench war against Saints

Inglewood, CA (News 4 Us Online) – The dominance of the of the offensive line for the Los Angeles Rams against the New Orleans Saints can be pointed to a couple of fundamental statistics. The first and the obvious is the first down ratio between both teams. 

The Rams accumulated 30 first downs. On the other hand, the Saints managed just 10 calls to move the markers. 

The second illustration of this point is how well the quarterbacks from each team performed. Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford had a blistering afternoon where he completed 24 of the 32 passes he attempted for 281 yards and four touchdowns.

New Orleans quarterback Tyler Shough had a rough day at the office, completing only 15 of the 24 passes he threw for 176 yards. Stafford finished the game with a rating of 140.8. Shough had a 81.2 quarterback rating. 

The numbers of first downs and the way the two quarterbacks played was just a reflection of the Rams’ 34-10 win against the visiting Saints at SoFi Stadium. That’s not where the numbers’ superiority stops. Running the football is also part of these measurables. 

The Rams rushed the football 43 times for 172 yards net (175 yards total). The Saints could not crack 100 yards, going for 57 yards on 14 carries as a team. The play of the offensive line for the Rams-in the pass and run game-was something that head coach Sean McVay lauded in his postgame press conference comments. 

“I thought they did a great job,” McVay said. “I thought, really, they had control. That’s a good rush. It’s a lot of guys that played physical. They’re a defense that I have a ton of respect for. You look at what they did against a great offense last week in Tampa Bay [Buccaneers], but I thought our offensive line was outstanding.”

The Rams starting offensive line made up of Steve Avila, Kevin Dotson, Alaric Jackson, Coleman Shelton, and Rob Havenstein kept the rush of Chase Young, Cameron Jordan, Carl Granderson, and Demario Davis from going buck wild in their attempts to put Stafford on the ground. 

As it was, the Saints did sack Stafford twice. But outside of that, the Rams offensive line kept the pocket clean for Stafford to do his thing, including connecting with Davante Adams twice for touchdowns and being able to distribute the ball to seven different receivers. 

 “They’ve done a hell of a job keeping me clean,” Stafford remarked. “We’ve done a nice job of getting down in there. When we’ve gotten down close, we’ve done a great job of scoring. Obviously, [Wide Receiver] Davante [Adams] has been great down there. He was great again down there today. [Tight End] ‘Higs’ [Tyler Higbee] had one down there too. It’s a collection of everybody. That’s when we’re at our best.”

In the last two games that the Rams have played, Stafford has thrown for a combined nine touchdowns. He now leads the NFL in passing touchdowns with 21. New Orleans head coach Kellen Moore said the Rams offensive gameplan favored Stafford having a good day throwing the football.  

“Yeah, they had a really good, balanced offense,” Moore said. “I thought they were able to run the football and pass the football and play in those mixed downs. And so when you look at it, they had a lot of control of the game because of that. They were able to run the football, create the play-action opportunities, play in positive third down situations and we weren’t able to get the rush in the obvious passing ones.”

The schematic planning of the Rams caught the defense of the Saints off-balanced and guessing for most of the game. McVay gives kudos to his offensive line coaches for getting those players prepped to execute the team’s strategies.  

“[Offensive line coach] Ryan Wendell, [assistant offensive line coach] Zak Kromer, and [consultant] Brian Allen had those guys ready to go,” McVay said. “I think our tight ends were an extension of the run game and that protection with Colby [Parkinson], Davis [Allen], Tyler Higbee, and Terrance Ferguson. I’m really pleased with them. I think they’re just getting better.”