Welcome one, welcome all (Rams fans, that is). While last year I kept my focus with this site on betting advice for player props across every NFL game during the regular season, I’ve decided to switch it up this year.
I’ve been a huge LA Rams fan for more years than I can count, and this year, I’ve decided to shift my attention to film breakdowns for every LA Rams game across the year. Each week, I’ll spend several hours reviewing and taking notes from the All-22 film for each game, picking out 5 notable performances/storylines to share with everyone for the low cost of absolutely nothing.
I’ll still be providing some player matchup analysis for every Sunday NFL game that can be used for fantasy football and/or betting on my X page (https://x.com/PlusMoneyPost), but the main focus of this site will be all #RamsHouse.
So, without further ado, let’s get to the tape.
5 Observations from Week 1 vs Houston Texans
1. What Was Perceived as a Weakness at Cornerback – May Actually be a Strength
That’s right – me, along with many other fans/analysts/talking heads in the industry – might’ve been wrong when it came to disrespecting this Rams CB/DB room over the offseason.
All I heard prior to Week One was reference to the 3 glaring holes this team had going into the season: Linebacker (which we’ll get to), Offensive Line, and Cornerback.
It’s an understatement to say that many fans were left scratching their heads over the decision to not even consider any DB in this year’s Draft, or in Free Agency for that matter. I mean sure, we brought back Akhello Witherspoon on a one year deal, but that’s not an upgrade over a CB room that graded out as below average through all of 2024:
Well, it’s clear that Defensive Coordinator Chris Schula knew something we all didn’t: he had the guys he needed to make plays in his system.
We’ll start with the aforementioned Akhello Witherspoon. This guy dominated coverage on the outside from the jump Week One, often matching up with All-World WR Nico Collins and promptly shutting the door on any kind of notable production.
One play that stood out on tape happened pretty early in the game, where the Texans were 2nd and long and Akhello was in press-man coverage on the outside with Nico. The Rams D-Line got good pressure on a stunt, forcing Stroud to release the ball early to Nico on a go/fade route. It was a well-thrown, high-point ball to the lanky WR Collins, but Akhello was right in his back pocket, contesting at the catch-point to cause an incompletion.
Things didn’t change much throughout the game, as Akhello was only targeted 3 times, allowing 2 receptions for a measly 5 yards. Talk about some stellar play.
But that wasn’t even the highlight of this game when it came to the Cornerbacks – that honour has to go to Emmanuel Forbes. Forbes was claimed off waivers by the Rams in December of last year, and we didn’t really get to see much of him through the year as he learnt the system and worked with the B team. It’s important to note why Forbes was put on waivers: he is probably one of the biggest outliers when it comes to size at the position (weighing in at a whopping 166 lbs), and he never quite lived up to expectations in Washington. So, to say expectations from Rams fans were minimal would be a bit of an understatement.
Well boy, did he prove everyone wrong throughout this game. Everyone and their mother would’ve had CB Darious Williams starting over Forbes coming into this game (ESPN actually still has Williams listed ahead of Forbes on the depth chart). But Schula and McVay must’ve seen something everyone didn’t, as Forbes was clearly the starting CB opposite Witherspoon in this one.
And I’ll tell you one thing – Forbes definitely didn’t look 166 lbs out there. PFF had him missing 2 tackles through the game, but I didn’t see any significant “misses” through watching all the tape. The guy looked agile and slick in coverage, and when he had to make a tackle, he was as reliable as anyone.
One play on tape really stood out, where pressure off the edge forced Stroud to get the ball out to his TE Stover on a quick out in the flat. Stover is a pretty big boy (6’4”, 251 lbs), but Forbes steps up and hits him with a great form tackle to limit the gain to only one yard.
All told, that was the only catch that Forbes gave up through the whole game, cementing his place as a starting CB on this ascending defence.
While those two performances were notable, the highlight play came from slot CB Cobie Durant in the 2nd half. Stroud takes the snap from shotgun and actually gets some time before Kobie Turner gets through the interior and causes a pressure. The Rams are clearly in zone coverage, but Stroud sees a gap on the right side of the field between Kinchens and Durant. He throws a pretty great ball to the WR on the sidelines, but Durant breaks hard on the ball with a sick high-point contest and an unbelievable interception. Check this out – he practically takes this ball away from the Houston WR like he’s stealing his lunch money.
All told, the Rams limited Stroud to 188 passing yards, 0 TDs, and 1 INT in a masterclass of a performance. Credit should go to the defence and coaching staff as a whole for this – but the DBs really showed up in a big game.
2. Rams Defensive Newcomer Dominates the Game – But Surprisingly it Wasn’t Poona Ford
It was clear when the Rams brought in Poona Ford via Free Agency (3 year deal, just under 30 M’s guaranteed) that their emphasis on stopping the run was a priority. And don’t get me wrong – Poona still had a relatively decent game stuffing the gaps and holding the point of attack. But the man who made all the headlines in this one was (the considerably less flashy FA acquisition) Linebacker Nate Landman.
I always thought Landman had some juice when watching Falcons games in the past, showing speed and pursuit from the LB position that might just be among the elite in the game. That being said, I didn’t expect anything close to the performance we got out of him this Sunday.
This guy popped on tape so many times, it was like I was taking note-after-note of the Landman show throughout my All-22 watch. In this clip, you’ll see a 1st down run from the Texans out of shotgun to the left side of the line. Landman keeps his eyes in the backfield, maintaining patience before engaging with the fullback in the hole, and executing with great pursuit once the RB flashes outside to stop the run for a minimal gain.
Now that was some solid run game ability. Officially, Landman was credited with 3 run stops (plays that are considered a “failure” for the offence in the run game) and zero missed tackles on his way to achieving a 73.3 PFF rush defence grade (15th out of 51 LBs that played 20+ snaps this last Sunday).
But it wasn’t just Landman in the run game that had me excited. He was great in coverage as well. Here, it’s 1st and 10 for the Texans and they’re in 10 personnel attempting to gash the Rams with a short in-breaker/drag to Nico Collins. Landman starts in his zone, but immediately sees Collins screaming across the field and steps up to disrupt a pass coming right to him. The instincts were great, and it resulted in a redzone incompletion that could’ve been detrimental to the squad.
Acknowledging those plays might have been burying the lead, as we all saw what Landman did to effectively end this game when the Texans were marching down the field in the 4th quarter. Landman makes a great break on the ball once Dare Ogunbowale catches it underneath, and with the nastiest of peanut punches, forces the fumble with an amazingly athletic recovery by Fiske to put the Rams in a position to win.
With Landman playing like this every week, and Omar Speights having another year under his belt + a running mate that inspires confidence, I don’t see how the Rams fail to improve in an area they really struggled with in 2024. Now let’s see if they can do this against Saquon in Week 3.
3. The Offensive Line Wasn’t Great – But Do They Really Need to Be With Stafford and this Scheme?
Let’s just get this one out of the way – the Rams OLine (outside of Steve Avila and Kevin Dotson) had some tough PFF grades in either pass-blocking or run-blocking (or both):
It was easy to see this coming for LT Alaric Jackson after he missed basically all of training camp with blood clot issues, but for Havenstein and Shelton? It wasn’t a good day. And once Beaux Limmer had to fill in for Dotson/Avila (as both missed portions of the game with injury), the pass-blocking left a lot to be desired.
However, the Rams only gave up 3 sacks and 2 QB hits over the course of 34 pass blocking snaps. So what gives?
Well, what gives is the unreal scheme of Sean McVay and the poise + anticipation of future HOF QB Matt Stafford in the pocket. The clip below is an example of this, where Shelton gets pushed back right into Stafford’s lap right as the play is developing. Stafford keeps his eyes downfield, anticipates Puka getting open on an in-breaker, and completes a nice pass for a 12 yard gain to pick up the first down.
Here’s another example, where Stafford is operating out of shotgun and the HOU edge defenders come screaming off each side, beating Jackson and Havenstein on their way to a double-pressure. Stafford doesn’t fold, he anticipates Davante being open near the sideline, and lets a beautiful pass rip that probably should’ve been caught for a first down.
This is just how the McVay + Stafford duo operates – diagnose the defensive strengths, build a gameplan to take away these strengths, and trust Stafford to anticipate well enough on his way to easy completions. These two knew that they would have a tough time operating in the pass game with the pressure Will Anderson and Danielle Hunter generate against any Tackle-duo in the League, so they took away this HOU advantage by scheming up quick-hitters that would take pressure off the OLine.
If this is the rusty-version of Stafford (due to him missing all of camp with the back injury), I can’t wait to see him in midseason form. It also doesn’t hurt when QB1 is slinging no-look passes like this on a regular basis.
So while the Rams OLine still might look like a work in progress, don’t fret: Stafford and McVay can make up for these deficiencies in many different ways.
We’ll see if Avila, Havenstein, and/or Dotson actually play this week (as they are all dealing with ankle injuries), but if I know one thing, it’s that McVay will be able to mask these deficiencies (if they do miss time) and Stafford will execute the gameplan to perfection.
4. The Tight End Group Had a Bad Day – And the 2nd Round Rookie Needs to Get Some Reps
Oh my lanta – this was a rough day for Rams TEs as a whole. Aside from the great TD catch by Davis Allen on a well-designed 12 personnel play, the tape was anything but encouraging.
We’ll start with the TEs in the pass game, and we’ll stick with Davis Allen here. In the second half, Stafford was dropping back to pass with some pretty intense pressure up the middle due to a missed Kyren Williams blitz pickup. Stafford immediately finds the open man in Allen up the seam, lays a beautiful touch pass over the defender, and Allen …. drops it.
Maybe I’m being a little harsh calling that an outright drop, but in my mind, an NFL-level TE should come down with that ball 95 times out of 100. Tough one for Allen.
But it wasn’t just in the pass game where the TEs had issues. Here’s a run play in the second half where Higbee motions into the middle of the field to hit a backside block on Will Anderson. Instead of squaring up and hitting Anderson straight on to seal him, Higbee turns his body to lead with the shoulder and absolutely whiffs on the block, leaving Anderson to have a free run at Kyren right at the line of scrimmage.
There’s no excuses for that one – just a terrible whiff. A similar display took place only a short time later on a Blake Corum run. Allen and Parkinson are both lined up on the right of the formation in 12 personnel, and Corum is running right down the middle. Allen gets absolutely worked by Anderson to the inside with barely even a hint of a block, and Parkinson isn’t much better on his block meant for Pitre. The result – a 2 yard run (due to Corum’s effort) when it should’ve been a 3 yard loss.
This was a running theme through my tape watch, and it made me more enraged every time I saw it. That’s not even touching on the very costly Colby Parkinson fumble in the redzone near the end of the game.
And I know that the Rams first pick in this last draft, 2nd round TE Terrance Ferguson, may be behind the eight ball a bit because of missing training camp time with an injury. That being said, I don’t think this could get much worse, and lucky for us, it seems as though McVay might be getting ready to let T-Ferg get some reps so we can get on our way to fixing this with time.
5. Jared Verse is Still THAT Guy
There may have been some fans who checked the boxscore and saw Verse with 0 sacks going “How the hell did Verse not get a sack against this cheeks HOU OLine?”. Well, sacks aren’t everything, and PFF had Verse with 4 total pressures (led the team), a 28.1% pass-rush win rate, and an 83.2 pass rush grade (led the team). And honestly, I might have given Verse even more pressures with the way he was bull-rushing off the edge.
Just watch this one here on a 2nd and 7 in the first half. Verse is one-on-one with the LT, hits him with a nasty swim move around the outside shoulder, and gets a quick pressure on Stroud, causing him to throw the checkdown early (resulting in an incompletion).
But Verse doesn’t just have the finesse moves in his bag – he can bullrush with the best of him. Here he is in the second half with Stroud operating out of shotgun. Verse is one-on-one with the RT and pushes him right back into Stroud’s lap without any semblance of resistance, showing amazing power and speeding up Stroud’s internal clock (resulting in Stroud having to check down to his TE).
If you saw the flag there, it’s because that RT also took a facemask penalty when he got his mitts into Verse’s grill. It was also apparent that Verse faced a lot of double-teams (and even a triple team) throughout the game. The guy is a game-wrecker in the pass game.
But it wasn’t just his work in the pass game that made me so impressed. He was also stellar in the run game, as is evidenced by his 81.4 PFF run defence grade (led all Rams players). Here’s an example of his excellence at work, where the Texans are running the ball to the left on 1st and 10. Verse singlehandedly disrupts this play with an amazing push off the line and extreme power, driving the RT into the backfield and right into the RB. This causes the RB to stop all forward momentum and cut inside, where Kam Curl is there to clean things up for a minimal gain.
All told, the guy had an amazing game, as he often does. If you were worried about a sophomore slump from the second coming of Aaron Donald? Don’t be.