Brandon Staley’s LA Rams defense 3 pronged attack

Solid pass defense

The LA Rams have a very good secondary. But they had to face one of the most accomplished NFL offenses in the season opener. Dak Prescott was coming in after a 2019 season where he put up 4,902 passing yards, good enough for second-most in the NFL.  Now combine that with a very effective running offense, and you see why the Cowboys had the highest-rated offense in 2019.  And by all accounts, the offense was projected to be far better in 2020.

The Cowboys added a dynamic rookie WR CeeDee Lamb, and then the media proceeded to anoint him as the obvious NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year. Why? Well, because he’s a Cowboy, of course. That gives the Cowboys three significant receivers to place on the field at all times, while still threatening defenses with a running game. That does not include the tight end, nor running backs used as receivers. In short, the Cowboys offense has a lot of weapons.

Tightened up

It was very difficult to predict what the Dallas Cowboys offensive game plan would be heading into the opener. They decimated the Rams with a running game in 2019, so there was the risk of leaning too much to defending the pass. But if the Rams overloaded to stop the run, the Cowboys had plenty of weapons to chew up a lot of yards. So the Rams had to sit back and see what the Cowboys would throw at them.

Once the Rams had a feel for what the offense planned to do, the Rams shut it down.  Like shut it down and slammed the door.  After allowing Dak Prescott to pass for 15 of 18 passes for 187 yards and one touchdown with only one sack in the first half, the Rams tightened up and held him to 10 of 21 passes in the second half for 79 yards, no touchdowns, and sacked him twice. In the end, the Cowboys aerial assault was grounded.