How the LA Rams punched up traditional speed schemes with power

The LA Rams rolled out what appeared to be a new offense in their 20-17 win over the Dallas Cowboys on Sunday Night Football.

For the first time since 2015, the LA Rams rolled out an offense on opening day without star running back Todd Gurley, This time the offense played well enough for the 20-17 win over the Dallas Cowboys on Sunday Night Football. And this time, the running backs were the veteran Malcolm Brown, the speedster Darrell Henderson Jr, and the rookie Cam Akers. The rookie struggled all night, as Akers averaged just 2.8 yards per attempt and seemed to really struggle to see the field. However, the real star in the backfield ended up being Brown, the veteran.

Brown ran for 79 yards on 18 carries and 2 touchdowns. He added 3 catches for 31 yards as well. The thing that popped off of the screen to me is that the schemes that were implemented with Brown as the running back aren’t normally used with his style or skillset. It’s impressive when looking back.

Custom-built offense

The Rams knew that they couldn’t come into the game and try a lot of deep, complex schemes against a terrific pass rush like the ones the Cowboys have out together.  As a result, Head Coach Sean McVay put together a terrific game plan that utilized a lot of misdirection and power schemes. The ball was out of quarterback Jared Goff’s hands quickly almost every play.

That’s a key and fundamental component of the Rams offense this year. The Rams are going to work against that week’s defense, not waste their time trying to entangle themselves in plays that take too much time to develop.  With that in mind, I wanted to take a couple of these plays and talk about what the Rams are doing a little bit differently.