3 quick fixes to help the LA Rams win in Week 13

I – Start RB Sony Michel

If you sit down to describe veteran running back Sony Michel, I’d be willing to bet that ‘soft’ does not get used once. The LA Rams traded a 2022 sixth-round and a 2023 fourth-round draft pick for the guy because he is not soft. He runs into the line of scrimmage, head down and legs pumping. He runs north to south, downhill, straight lines into the pile and out the other side.

And when the LA Rams are searching for an identity, he sits on the bench. Really? The guy is the NFL rusher version of a four-wheel-drive Jeep. He is built for off-road rough going. He is the guy who gets stronger as the game goes on. So why are the Rams failing to start the guy in games where a bit of big ole badass punishment could go a long way.

Don’t tell me that the Rams don’t have the football long enough to establish the running game. Don’t use that excuse that the Rams fall too far behind. In Week 3 of the 2020 NFL Season, the Rams miscues dropped the team to trail at halftime by the score of 21-3. The Buffalo Bills even put up another touchdown after halftime to take a 25 point lead.

Stick to the plan, man

But the LA Rams stuck with the running game and scored 29 second-half points. Despite the loss, that game proves that the Rams need a running game or at least the threat of one, to be effective. The Rams doubled down on that strategy when the team faced the New England Patriots. In that game, the team rushed 36 times and only passed the ball 25 times.

Why was it so very effective? Nobody saw it coming. The Rams changed their pattern and forced defenses to face something that they didn’t expect.

Isn’t that what the LA Rams have begun to do on offense now? The team has fallen into that lazy pattern of trying the same old stuff and have discovered that the plays are getting the same old results.

It may be a difficult thing to reinvent the team at virtually every game. That’s why getting to the Super Bowl is so very difficult. We can talk all we want about how talented the LA Rams are, but talent needs the right system, the right coaches, the right teammates, and the right opportunities. Rushing leaders need stellar blockers. Passing leaders need stellar receivers. Receiving leaders need stellar passers. And the entire offense needs a stellar offensive line.

The LA Rams offense simply needs a tune-up, one that should have happened during the BYE week. But here we are now, and there is no time like the present.