Can LA Rams rally around RB Cam Akers with ‘tough love’?

Wasting plays . . .

Sometimes you do something to succeed. Sometimes you do something simply because it is the right thing to do. The challenge with the LA Rams’ decision-making process, at times, is too skewed towards immediate rewards. This team has been incredibly successful, for over five NFL seasons. As such, the willingness to commit to the running game, if for nothing more than to keep defenses honest, is lost on the current offensive play calling.

Here is the latest Coach McVay Show – but pay close attention to how Coach McVay describes the team’s struggles with the running game is quite telling:

That wording is:

"“We’ve got to figure out how to make it a better operation that you don’t feel like you’re wasting plays because, in some instances, that’s what I feel like,” Per Sean McVay during the Coach McVay Show"

So let’s just toss this out there. If the head coach of an NFL team says that running the football feels like ‘wasting plays,’ how much hope does that truly hold for a team desperate to get better?

The Rams’ offense is rather predictable

One of the benefits of hiring defensive coordinator Brandon Staley for the LA Rams’ entire organization was the willingness of not only the defense to custom-build their strategy based on their next opponent, but that mindset bled over to the offense and forced McVay to rethink how he planned his offense. Now? The Rams have planned their offense against the NFL’s stiffest pass defenses by throwing 40+ times a game.

That is an offensive game-planning strategy that simply does not scream success. But it does result in some pretty horrific offensive results. If the team had the same offensive line on the field from one game to the next, those same five players would be able to learn how to work together to improve even in those adverse conditions. But the lessons are lost with a new group reforming the following week.

And too few adjustments are coming each week to make a difference. Inevitably, if the Rams fall behind, they pass almost exclusively. And the battered offensive line must face the best pass rushers in the NFL with their ears pinned back.