New York Giants Week 4 | Los Angeles Rams First Look
The Giants are off to a rocky start, to say the least. New York dropped to 0-3 against a team that was missing their starting quarterback, two starting running backs, their star tight end, a starting wide receiver, three pass rushers (one of them being a top 5 pass rusher in the league), a starting linebacker, and their two starting cornerbacks - did I miss anyone?
Week 4 doesn’t look much better in terms of the matchup as the Giants travel to Los Angeles to battle the Rams.
The Rams almost pulled off a come-from-behind victory against the Buffalo Bills, and an argument could be made that the controversial defensive pass interference call on 4th-and-8 is one of the only reasons why the Rams are 2-1, and not 3-0.
Now, with a week to plan against the Giants, head coach Sean McVay gets to scheme against a team that gave up 36 points, and Rams’ defensive coordinator Brandon Staley gets to face an offense that didn’t score a touchdown against the 49ers' "B team" (B is being generous).
Rams on Offense
The Rams rank 10th in the league in offensive plays run with 63.3, they’re sixth in the league in total points scored per game with 29.7, and they’re third in the league in yards per game with 449.7 YPG.
Conversely, the Giants defense is 17th in the league in points allowed per game with 26.3 PPH, and they’re 12th in the league with yardage allowed per game with 357.7 YPG.
Good football teams tend to use a lot of pre-snap motion to give the offense brief indicators on what type of defense they’re playing against and confuse the defense with their own assignments.
The Rams are top 5 in the league with utilizing pre-snap motion, as they were in 2019. The Rams also ended 2019 with a transition to a lot more 12 personnel, but that hasn’t necessarily carried over to 2020.
While tight end Tyler Higbee abused the Eagles in week two to a tune of three scores, Gerald Everett has only played 82 of the 211 offensive snaps for the Rams.
They use 12, but 11 personnel is still their predominant offense with star wide receivers Robert Woods, Cooper Kupp, and a mixture of Josh Reynolds or Van Jefferson as the other outside receivers.
The offensive line has played much better than they did to close the 2019 season, albeit they took advantage of a Cowboys defensive front that looked lost in week one under the new defense installed by Mike Nolan.
In that game, Malcolm Brown rushed for 79 yards and two touchdowns. Brown is currently nursing a broken finger but is active, and rookie running back Cam Akers is dealing with bruised ribs, so he may not be available for this contest.
The running back of concern is Darrell Henderson, a 2nd year back out of Memphis, who is currently the highest-ranked running back according to Pro Football Focus.
He’s turned 35 carries into 201 yards (5.7 YPC) and two scores this season. With the injuries to Brown and Akers, look for Henderson to dominate touches behind an offensive line anchored by the veteran Andrew Whitworth.
Another interesting wrinkle that McVay incorporates into his offense is the jet-sweep and end-arounds that he runs to Cooper Kupp and Robert Woods.
The Rams will use the pre-snap motion heavily and run different plays off of similar looks. Woods will come in motion behind Goff in a single back or front of Goff in shotgun, and on some plays, Woods is removing a defender from a target area.
On other plays, Woods will receive the end around, or will be available for a backside screen; or the Rams will just run the football from that look, then hit the defense with a play-action rollout stretch with horizontal crossers working against the grain.
McVay and Goff will exploit the horizontal cross-game of Kupp, Woods, and Higbee. Woods has 13 catches for 193 yards and a touchdown on the season, and Kupp has 18 for 228 yards and a touchdown.
The offense will be based on the rushing attack and play-action, with the pre-snap motion used to confuse the Giants’ defense. It could be a long day for defensive coordinator Patrick Graham who has to adjust to outside stretch/zone runs.
Graham has to find a way to get pressure on Goff. When under pressure, Goff’s adjusted completion percentage is 50% versus 96.6% when he’s not under pressure.
Graham also has to be creative with his rushes because Goff has been good this season when blitzed and provided time. Anything can happen on Sundays, but it’s difficult to think that this Giants’ defense can slow down this Rams offense right now.
Photos via USA Today Sports - IMAGN Image Services
Rams on Defense
Brandon Staley is a first-year defensive coordinator who is a Vic Fangio disciple. He was with Fangio in Chicago and followed him to Denver to be his OLB coach in 2019.
Staley has his 3-4 roots but has been rolling with a lot of big nickel/big dime due to personnel. He’s used a good amount of 2-3-6 fronts, while sometimes being in 4-2-5 with the EDGEs on the line of scrimmage and Micah Kiser, No. 59, and Kenny Young, No. 41 manning the middle.
Despite the unit surrendering 35 points against Josh Allen and the Bills, the Rams are pretty steady on defense.
They held the Eagles, with all their troubles, to 19 points, and Dallas to 17 in week one. They’ve allowed the 18th most yards per game (372). They also finished 18th in rushing yards allowed per game (119).
The Rams have a solid group of safeties to rotate. Rookie 6th round pick out of Ohio State Jordan Fuller has filled in nicely alongside John Johnson III at safety, while Taylor Rapp is the third safety of the bunch. Fuller suffered a shoulder injury against the Bills and is questionable to play against New York.
Two gigantic presences must be focused on when playing the Rams’ defense. One of the best players in football is their defensive tackle Aaron Donald, and they also spent two first-round picks to trade for a very good cornerback in Jalen Ramsey last season.
Donald alone has 20 pressures this season; the most a Giants’ player has is six (Markus Golden and Leonard Williams). As a whole, the Rams defense has 58 pressures compared to the Giants 39.
Donald will constantly be a problem for Nick Gates and the rest of this offensive line, including the tackles. His presence forces more one-on-one blocking situations and more exotic blitzes on the backside of where Donald lines up because he commands so much respect.
Plus, Donald will also line up wide of the tackle or as a 5-technique. According to PFF, he’s lined up 17 times wide on the right side, 25 times tighter to the tackle but still as a right end, and 37 times as a left end.
The fact that Daniel Jones is consistently leading the league in pressure rate is great for Donald, not great for Giants’ nation.
There are two players I want to point out as potential liabilities on the Rams’ defense.
Troy Hill is the starting cornerback opposite of Ramsey; he’s been targeted 22 times this season, surrendering 20 catches for 217 yards.
He’s a former undrafted free agent in 2015, but the Giants will have to use the quick rhythm passing game to maximize their ability to take advantage of Hill.
Another liability in coverage is starting MIKE Micah Kiser. He struggles with athletic ability and spatial awareness in coverage.
Since the Rams’ run a lot of zone, offensive coordinator Jason Garrett has to find ways to put him into conflict and try to win in the middle of the field while using stretch verticals to keep the safeties honest.
Theoretically, Evan Engram should have an edge, and he should play well against Kiser, but little should be expected of this Giants offense and Engram due to the lack of success so far this season.
The Rams like to play zone Cover 3 type of defenses in 2nd/3rd & long situations while running man coverage in 3rd & short.
The Bills did a good job in the man situations by using natural rubs, free releases, misdirections, move the pocket plays, play action, and rollouts that forced underneath defenders to respect Allen’s ability to run the football--the Giants have to do this with Jones as well.
Hopefully, Garrett continues to add RPO elements and zone-read plays to this offense. The utilization of Jones’ athleticism was one of the lone bright spots on Sunday against the 49ers.
If Garrett wants to compete on Sunday, he has to find ways to maximize Jones, not put his quarterback into a situation where he’s telegraphing the quick game, and he has to try and establish drives.
The best way is to run the football and control the clock a bit. This won't be easy.
If the Giants can’t run the ball, the quick passing game may have to act as an extension of the run. However, since the Rams play a lot of cover one robber, the Giants can’t be baited into No. 3/No. 2 receiver slants to the robber.
Perhaps, with a bit more protection in six-man packages, the deep dig and comeback can be open against aggressive robbers who bite down low. I also think gassing plays with double moves on the quick Engram outside curls can work to the Giants' benefit.
Make the Rams pay for being aggressive, and don’t allow the defense to sit on these underneath passes. Challenge the team vertically, and hopefully, the team can establish something offensively. I’m not overly optimistic, but crazier things have happened.
