Clash of the Titans: Eagles at Rams in Week 12 hinges on line of scrimmage

It's the heart of football season. That time of year when the LA Rams make their move. The Rams have won four of their last five games. And this is a team that has beaten some good teams along the way. But you could make a sound argument that the Philadelphia Eagles are the best of the bunch so far.

The Philadelphia Eagles are not just riding the wave of a six-game winning streak into SoFi Stadium. They boast the top rushing offense in the NFL, a top-five overall offense, and the top defense in the league. They even have a +2 in net turnovers, so they create more mistakes than they make.

And somehow, the LA Rams young and hungry team must find a way to overcome the juggernaut that is flying across the country to do battle on the gridiron. After all, it's time to separate the studs from the duds. If the Rams needed a time to be healthy, now is the time. And they face their greatest teat of the 2024 NFL season in Week 12.

And it is that football time of year when the teams that hope to compete in the postseason begin to assert themselves.

While the Rams' offensive line may not be the best in the NFL, there are solid reasons for that. For starters, the Rams have fielded eight different versions of the offensive line in ten games. Their most frequent starting offensive line included IOL Logan Bruss at left guard, and he is no longer on the team. But the team is beginning to embrace the constant upheaval and mayhem. The starting offensive line in Week 11 had never started before, yet they managed to keep Matthew Stafford protected well throughout the game.

Just take note of the post-game PFF grades handed out. three offensive linemen show up in the top five players for the Rams:

It was a passionate performance from a talented group of players who simply haven't had the repetitive nature of hammering out communication over the past 10 games. In many cases, the starters have had just one game with their teammate, and that may have been at a different position.

Even now, the team must choose who to start in place of starting RT Rob Havenstein. Backup RT Warren McClendon Jr. played well in Week 11. But OT Joe Noteboom is healthy, and he has more NFL experience.

Rams OL recap

The LA Rams offensive line is tough to grade effectively, if for no other reason than the team's numerous iterations of the five starters that can change in any given week. And with eight versions over 10 games, it's crystal clear that regardless of how the team played in one week, that performance may not be duplicated the following week.

So Pro Football Focus, in a mid-season article grading all 32 offensive lines in 2024, had a difficult task ahead of them when weighing in on where to rank the LA Rams offensive line, and what to say about them to justify their ranking. Fortunately, PFF author Zoltan Buday did a fairly good and objective assessment of the Rams offensive line this year:

Keep in mind that despite handing out a collective grade through Week 11, Buday leaned heavily into the Rams Week 11 performance in his writeup. Here is what he mentioned about the Rams as he ranked them at 21 among 32 NFL teams.

"The Rams offensive line played one of its best games this season in Week 11. The unit surrendered three pressures and no sacks on 27 pass plays, leading to a 94.4 PFF pass-blocking efficiency rating that ranked second in the NFL.

Right guard Kevin Dotson was among the top performers of Week 11. Dotson did not allow a single
pressure against the Patriots and earned a 90.3 PFF run-blocking grade. As a result, his 90.1 PFF overall grade ranked fourth among guards in Week 11.

Best player: Jackson’s 87.9 PFF overall grade ranked second among left tackles in the NFL in Week 11."

Zoltan Buday, PFF

While you could argue that this offensive line is better than 21, it's a hard position to defend. Warren McClendon at right tackle and Steve Avila at left guard have at or less than 200 offensive snaps respectively. And that is only a portion of the 653 offensive snaps that this offensive line has played in 2024.

The gold standard of the Rams offensive line in 2024 is veteran RG Kevin Dotson. And he continues to play at the top of his game. If you don't recall, Dotson was a veteran acquired via a 2023 trade with the Pittsburgh Steelers, and had been an incredible addition to this offensive line. He originally joined the team to take over for a not-yet-ready IOL Logan Bruss in 2023. Now, he is the hands down starter at right guard.

And like so many players, Kevin Dotson has learned how to love football once more with the Rams. The results of restoring a passion for football remains obvious and consistent:

Dotson is just one of the players who has claimed a starting role on this Rams offense. The team has discovered that Alaric Jackson at left tackle, Steve Avila at left guard, and Beaux Limmer at center have established themselves well in 2024 as well. The biggest question mark going forward is the future right tackle successor for Rob Havenstein. But if backup OT Warren McClendon Jr. starts and plays well in Week 12, that question could be answered.

Eagles DL vs. Rams OL

The Philadelphia Eagles have a very well-respected defensive front, and a defense overall that tops all defenses in yards allowed per game, and comes in at sixth-place in terms of points allowed. But to be fair, they have only faced two of the top 10 offenses this season, while beating the snot out of four of the bottom 10 NFL offenses. While the LA Rams enter the game no better than the 21st ranked offense, this game is not as easy as an automatic W for the visiting Eagles.

The Rams offensive line has three games of not allowing a single quarterback sack on veteran QB Matthew Stafford. When that happens, the Rams win. And before you scoff at that statistic, the Rams did not allow a single sack to the Minnesota Vikings defense, That same defense has 35 quarterback sacks this season. The Philadelphia Eagles enter the game with 28 quarterback sacks. Just for comparison, the LA Rams boast 27 quarterback sacks.

Because the Eagles often play from the comforts of a huge lead, their run defense is solid. But they have allowed an average of 4.2 yards per run. Their efficiency is based om the fact that opponents seldom run the football against them. Again, by comparison, the LA Rams defense allows opponents to run on average of 4.3 yards per run. The difference being that opponents have run the football 63 more times against the Rams than Eagles.

But the Rams offensive line is starting to ripen quickly. They may have their hands full in Week 12, but they are up to the task.

The Eagles pass rush is lead by OLB Josh Sweat, who boast 6.0 quarterback sacks so far this season. The rest of the Eagles sacks comes from seven other players who fall between 2.0 and 3.5 quarterback sacks. Sweat will likely face off against Rams left tackle Alaric Jackson. If the Rams sprinkle in some 12 personnel formations to keep Sweat off-balance, the Rams could emerge with another solid performance.

Early teams like the Green Bay Packers, Atlanta Falcons, and Tampa Bay Buccaneers had success at running the football against this Eagles defense. But they have handled rushing offenses better at the season has progressed. Still, even as the Rams offense is not doing well at running the football, this is a perfect opportunity to unleash the one-two punch of Kyren Williams and Blake Corum. The Eagles won't expect it, and therefore won't be prepared to stop it.

Rams DL recap

The LA Rams defense is built a bit similarly to the Eagles defense. After all, the basic premise of this defense began with DC Wade Phillips, but has been modified with the one-hit wonder Brandon Staley as he took over as defensive coordinator in 2020. As such, many of the Vic Fangio defensive principles have remained through both Raheem Morris and now even to new Defensive Coordinator Chris Shula.

With no All-Pro veterans anywhere to be found in the Rams defense, the basic philosophy of this defense has fixated on a swarming defense that creates turnovers. And this ball-hawking secondary has been vital in determining the outcome of several Rams victories. And its that ability to create turnovers (15 in 10 games) that could hold the key to a Rams win.

Even as the Eagles defense has eight players who boast 2.0+ quarterback sacks, the Rams defense boasts five pass rushers with 3.0+ sacks. And the Rams are led by second-year OLB Byron Young, who also has 6.0 quarterback sacks. But he is joined by teammate Kobie Turner (5.0 sacks), rookie DT Braden Fiske (5.0 sacks) and rookie OLB Jared Verse (4.5 sacks). It's that parity among the Rams four pass rushers that makes this defense so dangerous.

While the Rams defense has struggled at shutting down opposing running backs, it has upgraded at run defense by inserting undrafted LSU linebacker Omar Speights. While still learning his role, Speights has added both snarl and bite to the team. And that has rapidly improved the Rams run defense from dead last to 18th-ranked.

Eagles OL vs Rams DL

I don't think that it gets any better than this. The LA Rams young defensive front has been one of the strengths of this team so far in 2024. But if the team is to have any hope of success in the postseason, they will have to face, and overcome, the challenges of facing a talent-filled offensive line. And like it or not, the Eagles offensive line is one of the best assembled in the NFL in 2024.

Still, we have boasted the Rams pass rushers. but have not even touched on the big beefy blocker-gobblers on this defensive front. And those run-stuffing blocker gobblers will have a huge say in whether or not the Rams can corral Eagles running back Saquon Barkley. Anything under 100 yards rushing in this game is a huge win for the Rams.

So who can the Rams count on? Even when they lost in Week 10, the Rams had some impressive performances:

The Rams' defense will need to bring their A-game this week. While the clear threat is running back Saquon Barkley, the Eagles have far more going on offense than that. Even though their passing game is without WR DeVonta Smith, they still boast WR A.J. Brown and TE Dallas Goedert in their aerial assault. And we cannot gloss over the fact that the Eagles deploy Barkley very effectively as a safety valve receiver.

And yet, without the threat of DeVonta Smith in Week 12, I find that my alarming concern has morphed into healthy respect for the Eagles offense. Yes, this is one of the most talented and well-rounded offenses that the Rams defense has faced. But there are better in the NFL. And the Rams did go toe-to-toe with the formidable Detroit Lions offense in Week 1. The Lions offense scores more points than any other team in the league.

Sunday Night Football landed the grandaddy of them all in Week 12. The Philadelphia Eagles and Los Angeles Rams have two of the most exciting rosters in the NFL. And the line of scrimmage will be the epicenter of tremors that could rock the entire NFL Playoff picture.

This will be a pivotal game for both teams. Don't miss out.

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