A staple of the Rams offense the last two years was play-action passes. They were one of the best teams in the NFL in that department in Sean McVay’s first two seasons, but things have changed dramatically this year.
The Rams have tried to utilize play action this season, but Jared Goff has suddenly turned into one of the worst quarterbacks in the league after play fakes. According to ESPN, Goff has a passer rating of 71.0 on play-action passes – the worst mark in the NFL.
For most of the 2018 season, Goff was among the top quarterbacks on play action, posting a passer rating well above 100. That’s a troubling trend and it’s a huge reason Los Angeles’ offense has taken a monumental step backward from last year.
The reasoning is fairly simple, too. It’s not that wide receivers are dropping passes or their routes aren’t good enough. It primarily falls on the shoulders of Goff and the offensive line – with a dash of an ineffective running game mixed in.
Because the Rams aren’t running the ball well right now, defenses aren’t biting on play fakes. They don’t buy the fact that Los Angeles is going to hand the ball off and aren’t exactly threatened by Todd Gurley or the other tailbacks. When you’re 19th in rush attempts and 20th in rushing yards, teams aren’t going to pay much attention to the ground game.
That’s a small part of the problem, but the primary issues are with the offensive line.
Even the most casual football fans know play action doesn’t work without the quarterback getting time in the pocket. If working under center, Goff has to turn his back to the defense to fake the handoff to the running back. The offensive line has to give Goff time to execute the fake and allow the routes to develop down the field.
Currently, the O-line is not getting the job done. To make matters worse, neither is Goff.
Even when he does get time in the pocket, he can’t hit open receivers downfield. His accuracy has regressed this season at every level of the field, which is why his completion percentage is down from 65% in 2018 to 60.3% this season.
Let’s take a look at a few examples of Goff simply making bad decisions and throws.
This was ruled defensive pass interference, but Cooper Kupp was open and Goff underthrew him – badly. If Goff throws the ball when Kupp comes free initially, it has a chance to go for a big gain.
He waits too long and the defender closes the gap with the ball coming up well short.
On this play-action pass, he wisely avoids throwing into double-coverage and decides to check down to Josh Reynolds in the flat. But he throws an embarrassingly bad pass that went backwards for a fumble; if he hits Reynolds, it likely goes for a big play.
Finally, here’s another example of Goff getting enough time after a play-action fake to find someone open. Instead of seeing Cooper Kupp release off his block and come wide open on the weakside, Goff stares down his primary target (Tyler Higbee) and forces the ball into double-coverage.
It was easily intercepted by Joe Haden, ending what could have been a fairly promising drive.
Without the benefit of play action working, the Rams offense is stalling like crazy. Some of it falls on the offensive line playing as poorly as any in the NFL right now, but Goff isn’t doing anything to make up for it – which is something the better QBs in the league can do.
This regression is alarming, and it has to change if the Rams are going to get things back on track. It starts with running the ball consistently, getting better play from the offensive line – which is decimated right now – and finally, some improvement from Goff.
