LOS ANGELES — The Los Angeles Rams have a red zone problem.
Through their first four games they have gotten into the red zone 17 times, second most of any team. But they’ve scored just seven touchdowns on those drives, a 41.2 percent rate that ranks No. 28 in the NFL. The offense has 39 total overall drives, which means they are getting to the red zone almost half the time they have the ball — but struggling to end those drives with touchdowns (they have also kicked seven field goals after getting to the red zone). If their seven red zone field goals were instead touchdowns, they would have scored 42 additional points (49 with extra points) instead of 21. That would also bring them into the top 10 in average points per game, instead of their current standing at 10th worst (18.8).
“We’ve been able to move the ball,” coach Sean McVay said this week, “but we haven’t been able to finish drives.”
Neither McVay nor quarterback Matthew Stafford indicated there was a need for a change in overall strategy in that more condensed part of the field. McVay has allowed that there are a couple of different calls he would adjust in hindsight — “Are we putting the players in positions to be able to have success?” McVay said Wednesday — but he and Stafford have also cited the execution of plays as the issue.
“Individually as players and collectively as a group we just need to execute the plays that are called a little bit better,” Stafford said. “You go back and look at the tape and there are opportunities to either get ourselves in more favorable positions on third down in the red zone or put the ball in the end zone with some things that we can do just as players — execution, fundamentals, technique, all those kind of things. That’s what it boils down to. … And then if they cover us and I can extend a play and we can get out and try to find somebody or do those kinds of things (like a quarterback working out of structure), those usually result in good plays as well.”
The Rams have a 54.3/45.7 percent pass-to-run ratio in the red zone; they pass the 14th most in the NFL in the red zone and run the 19th most. They have also been at or inside the 8-yard line 21 times (tied for second most in the NFL), scoring five of their seven red zone touchdowns from there. They have passed on 47.8 percent of those plays, which is on par with about half of NFL teams from that field position.
They’re just not scoring touchdowns.
“There’s less grass to defend, technically, for a defense so if you want to get granular with it I feel like windows become smaller,” Stafford said. “Post safety who caps off on a run in the field at 9 or 10 yards is now capping off at 4 yards. It’s harder to run the football, harder to throw the football. All those kinds of things. There’s definitely some things that make it a little bit tougher, but if you execute well down there you can usually find your way into it. We just haven’t done a good enough job of that the last couple of weeks.”
Stafford often gets two play calls from McVay, depending on the situation and overall game plan, and can check into the second with a “can” call. Against San Francisco, for example, he got the offense into both plays for running back Kyren Williams’ two goal-line touchdowns.
“We had a couple of different plays called,” McVay said the Monday after the Week 3 game when asked what stood out to him about those touchdowns. “I think just the command. He recognizes the looks that we potentially wanted to run the plays (against). He got us in and out of the right looks, and two of them were touchdown runs, and then obviously the touchdown pass that he and Kyren (Williams) connected on. That was kind of just a called play right there, but just the command.”
Stafford said Wednesday the level of autonomy he has on calls varies with the game plan week by week and opponent by opponent.
“Week in and week out it depends on what the defense likes to do, what kind of defenses they want to play. Whether it’s a ‘Hey, here’s a heavy can, change the play’ week, or it’s one of those where it’s ‘Hey, they’re going to Rolodex a bunch of stuff,’” he said. “You never really know, so you just kind of go out there and play. … It depends week to week. There are times where there are a lot of things that can be up in the air (meaning Stafford has more opportunities to change things based on what he sees) and then other times it’s a little bit more straightforward.”
Are defenses — noting a lack of the injured Cooper Kupp, Puka Nacua and Tyler Higbee in the Rams offense — forcing a slight skew toward passing? Stafford said he’s not seeing any real tendencies from defensive plans in the red zone through the first four games.
“Everybody kind of has their own flavor,” Stafford said, “certain teams like to do one thing, other teams like to do other things.”
Though game planning happens through the course of the week, on-field red zone work is usually saved for Fridays.
“You do (work more on those situations), but you can’t let the other stuff fall by the wayside,” McVay said. “Ultimately, we have to do a better job. That will be a big point of emphasis. But figuring out the right spots, that’s something that we get to a little bit later in the week, but that will be something that we’ll have an added emphasis on because it has cost us so far this year.”
(Top photo of Matthew Stafford: Cooper Neill / Getty Images)
