5 ways LA Rams DC Brandon Staley attacks Cowboys in season opener

Samson Ebukam over the center

The weakest link in the Cowboys offensive line is center Joe Looney.  That’s not necessarily a slam against Looney. But the fact is that he is responsible for handling the football on each and every offensive play. While he played the role in 2018, he rode the pine in 2019.  He has to somehow hike the ball to quarterback Dak Prescott, play like Travis Frederick after hiking the ball, and fend off rookie Tyler Biadasz throughout the season.  That’s a lot to process.

The Rams can help that along by giving him more things to process. For example, what if the Rams stood up Aaron Donald on the edge and stuck OLB Samson Ebukam over center for just one passing-down play?  The fun of confusing the Cowboys offense so much to force them to call a time out would be priceless.

It only takes once

Knowing that other future teams will play the footage of this one over and over to diagnose the Rams’ defensive tendencies and formations make a play like this ripe not only to confuse the Cowboys but the next week’s opponents in the Philadelphia Eagles and the following week in the Buffalo Bills.

Of course, a play like this needn’t be run more than once in the season opener. Even if it proves to be incredibly successful, the real benefit of this strategy is the compounding impact upon future opponents.  The real strategy takes off when rookie OLB Terrell Lewis returns. When he is on the field, his 6-foot-5 265-pound frame creates a huge tower to throw around in the middle.  Just once every other game is enough to keep offenses guessing.