[Film Study] How The Rams Scored At Will Against The Vikings
Sept 29, 2018 17:07:35 GMT -6
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Post by Purple Pain on Sept 29, 2018 17:07:35 GMT -6
[Film Study] How Sean McVay And The Rams Scored At Will Against The Vikings by Matt Fries
On Thursday, the Vikings and Rams faced off in a heavily anticipated matchup of two expected Super Bowl contenders. The matchup didn't disappoint, and both teams were explosive on offense, combining for over 1000 yards in a 38-31 Rams victory.
There are a number of potential storylines to this game, with 5 receivers going for over 100 yards, both QBs passing for over 400, Aaron Donald, and more. That would be a lot to cover in one post. For the Rams, Sean McVay is the key. This can be seen in the results of the game for Cooper Kupp, who led all recievers with 162 yards and 2 TDs, and Anthony Barr, who was in coverage on 3 Rams' TDs and is the player who Vikings fans seem most annoyed with after the game. Sean McVay's schematic brilliance allowed Kupp to succeed, while it set up Barr for failure. Let's get into the action:
Q1 6:29 1-10 RAM 36 Jared Goff pass complete short right to Cooper Kupp for 10 yards (tackle by Anthony Barr)
If you read my post two weeks ago after the 49ers game, this play should look familiar. There is a difference here, as in the first play the Vikings lined up with a 2-high safety look, while this time they are initially aligned single high but Sendejo drops deep before the snap. Barr bites on the outside zone action, and that allow Kupp to run to open space across the formation. Sendejo doesn't have as much of a chance to drive on the play (like Smith did in the first gif) because he was backpedalling at the snap.
Ultimately, this play is difficult to defend because the outside zone action is enticing. Especially early in the game and especially against Todd Gurley, the LBs are going to read run in this situation. That allows Kupp a free 10 yards.
Q1 2:01 2-7 MIN 8 Jared Goff pass complete short left to Todd Gurley for 8 yards, touchdown
Former NFL QB Dan Orlovsky broke this play down on Twitter. He does a better job than I can, so watch that.
Essentially, the result of the play boils down to McVay playing on the defense's expectations. In that scenario, the RB typically has a choice route, but Gurley runs vertical. Given the setup, Barr plays this correctly. The reason Gurley wins is because the route he is running is not the one Barr expected (or should have expected, based on the coaching he would have received). McVay deserves credit for playing on those expectations.
Q2 9:40 2-5 RAM 30 Jared Goff pass complete deep right to Cooper Kupp for 70 yards, touchdown
The play above shows once again how McVay's play calling led to the Rams success. Like the first play, this play uses outside zone action. Because they successfully ran PA off of this earlier, the Vikings are more prepared to defend it. The LBs, as well as slot corner Mike Hughes and deep safety Andrew Sendejo, recognize the PA early and start moving to their right, preparing for a bootleg by Goff with a flood concept to that side.
The things that sucks is this is exactly what McVay wants the Vikings to do. Kupp is leaking across the formation, and turns his route vertical. This is called "leak", and here is the Shanahan play for this concept.
This is a difficult play to defend, because it essentially has two fakes: the play action outside zone and then not doing the most common thing after that, a bootleg. The problem I have is that I still feel as though the Vikings should have been prepared for this. They saw it in week 1, as you can see in my post two weeks ago. As mentioned in a tweet above, the Rams ran it against the Raiders.
Honestly, I think Barr played this about as well as you can expect. He diagnoses that the play is a passing play quickly. As soon as he sees that, he follows what should be the flow of the play, and immediately recognizes Kupp crossing the formation. He starts to turn before Kupp passes him. However, Kupp has a running head start. Barr may be one of the fastest LBs in the league, but you can't expect him to catch up to a WR in this instance. There's a saying for WRs on deep routes: "If he's even, he's leaving." That applies doubly when a WR is matched up on an LB.
Ultimately, what needed to happen is Sendejo needed to stay disciplined and stick to the middle of the field, rather than following Goff's eyes. This is a difficult ask because the expectation on this play once it's clear it's play action is a flood to the opposite side of the field, so cheating in that direction makes sense, but it ended up being costly.
Q2 4:57 2-5 RAM 34 Jared Goff pass complete short left to Cooper Kupp for 11 yards (tackle by Harrison Smith)
One of the things Kupp was most praised for coming out of school was his route-running ability. That is on full display here as he runs a whip route. This is once again a bootleg off of outside zone play action.
In terms of technique, this is great. Kupp is able to angle inside on what looks like a slant, then immediately plant one foot hard in the ground and explode towards the sideline. He adds a bonus of good balance to break through the tackle and get the first down instead of leaving his offense with a 3rd and 1.
Q2 3:55 1-10 MIN 19 Jared Goff pass complete deep right to Cooper Kupp for 19 yards, touchdown
While this is not a traditional bootleg run from under center, it functions the same way. The jet sweep motion is designed to pull the defense that way. The Vikings are running a modified Cover 3, with Sendejo in the deep middle and Waynes responsible for the deep third to the play side.
The Vikings actually cover this play very well. They do not bite on the fake, and even if the ball was handed off Danielle Hunter blows Andrew Whitworth back into Todd Gurley's lap and probably would have made the play. On the near side, Harrison Smith quickly closes on Brandin Cooks crossing the formation. Mike Hughes stays stride for stride with Kupp and eventually undercuts.
Waynes, who has a deep third, fails to get enough depth, and that leaves just barely enough room for Goff to fit the ball over the top to Kupp. This is a very difficult throw, and I would consider this play well-defended, it's just that Goff made a great throw and Kupp is able to catch the ball and keep both of his feet in bounds.
Q3 13:54 1-10 RAM 37 Jared Goff pass complete short middle to Cooper Kupp for 27 yards (tackle by Eric Kendricks)
On this play the Vikings are running a modified Cover 2, with Xavier Rhodes following Brandin Cooks in man coverage. Eric Kendricks take a 10-yard zone drop, reading the QB's eyes. Kupp has a curl route over the middle at the sticks. On this play, he shows great spatial awareness and works away from Kendricks, which allows an easy completion for Goff.
The key to this play for the Rams was the pass protection. The Vikings can't get anyone near Goff, and with enough time any QB is going to pick a zone defense apart. Kendricks doesn't have a chance with the receiver moving away from his zone, and Kupp gets a nice gain after the catch as well.
Q3 1:15 1-10 MIN 31 Jared Goff pass complete deep middle to Robert Woods for 31 yards, touchdown
The above play is yet another example of McVay winning the game on the chalkboard. The Rams come out in 12 personnel, with 1 RB and 2 TEs. This keeps the Vikings in their base 4-3 personnel. The Rams motion to empty, and the Vikings check to Cover 3, which is common against this move.
In this case, the Vikings have responded as they should have so far, but McVay has set them up for failure. The reason is that when he motioned, he put Todd Gurley as the #1 receiver to the left. This kept Woods in the slot on the weak side of the formation. On the Cover 3 shift, the strong (and field) side safety, Harrison Smith, comes down to cover the TE in the slot to the strong side, which leaves LB Barr on Woods.
The space between the deep thirds is a hole in Cover 3, and it's pretty easy to see how four verticals can beat it. The Rams run four verts. Goff knows he has Woods matched up on an LB, so he starts looking to his right at the snap. This pulls the deep safety, Sendejo, over to the TE running the seam to the right of the offense.
This means that all Woods has to do is beat an LB one-on-one in coverage. This is not a fair matchup. Anthony Barr cannot be expected to make this play. He doesn't, and the Rams get a TD. The Rams had a TD on this play before the ball was even snapped, and it was because of their personnel and pre-snap motion.
In the game, Cooper Kupp had success not only because of Sean McVay, but because he is a polished receiver who runs routes well and understands how to exploit holes in the defense.
Still, re-watching the game, it was hard to come away with anything other than awe at what Sean McVay is doing on offense. He is taking defensive expectations and coverage rules and exploiting them for favorable matchups. On the Gurley TD, he made sure that the way the LB was supposed to defend the route was the wrong way to do so. On the first Kupp TD, he essentially faked two different plays to get Kupp wide open. On the Woods TD, he used motion and an understanding of how the defense would respond to get an LB lined up on a WR. To me, that's not Anthony Barr's fault, that's being outcoached. Obviously you can't say Barr played well, but trashing him for what happened in this game is misguided at best.
Sean McVay did a phenomenal job of calling plays; the Rams have the personnel on the OL, at QB, at WR, and at RB to do whatever he wants, and the Rams were able to tear apart what most expected to be a top 3 defense this season. That's how the Rams beat the Vikings 38-31.
On Thursday, the Vikings and Rams faced off in a heavily anticipated matchup of two expected Super Bowl contenders. The matchup didn't disappoint, and both teams were explosive on offense, combining for over 1000 yards in a 38-31 Rams victory.
There are a number of potential storylines to this game, with 5 receivers going for over 100 yards, both QBs passing for over 400, Aaron Donald, and more. That would be a lot to cover in one post. For the Rams, Sean McVay is the key. This can be seen in the results of the game for Cooper Kupp, who led all recievers with 162 yards and 2 TDs, and Anthony Barr, who was in coverage on 3 Rams' TDs and is the player who Vikings fans seem most annoyed with after the game. Sean McVay's schematic brilliance allowed Kupp to succeed, while it set up Barr for failure. Let's get into the action:
Q1 6:29 1-10 RAM 36 Jared Goff pass complete short right to Cooper Kupp for 10 yards (tackle by Anthony Barr)
If you read my post two weeks ago after the 49ers game, this play should look familiar. There is a difference here, as in the first play the Vikings lined up with a 2-high safety look, while this time they are initially aligned single high but Sendejo drops deep before the snap. Barr bites on the outside zone action, and that allow Kupp to run to open space across the formation. Sendejo doesn't have as much of a chance to drive on the play (like Smith did in the first gif) because he was backpedalling at the snap.
Ultimately, this play is difficult to defend because the outside zone action is enticing. Especially early in the game and especially against Todd Gurley, the LBs are going to read run in this situation. That allows Kupp a free 10 yards.
Q1 2:01 2-7 MIN 8 Jared Goff pass complete short left to Todd Gurley for 8 yards, touchdown
Former NFL QB Dan Orlovsky broke this play down on Twitter. He does a better job than I can, so watch that.
Essentially, the result of the play boils down to McVay playing on the defense's expectations. In that scenario, the RB typically has a choice route, but Gurley runs vertical. Given the setup, Barr plays this correctly. The reason Gurley wins is because the route he is running is not the one Barr expected (or should have expected, based on the coaching he would have received). McVay deserves credit for playing on those expectations.
Q2 9:40 2-5 RAM 30 Jared Goff pass complete deep right to Cooper Kupp for 70 yards, touchdown
The play above shows once again how McVay's play calling led to the Rams success. Like the first play, this play uses outside zone action. Because they successfully ran PA off of this earlier, the Vikings are more prepared to defend it. The LBs, as well as slot corner Mike Hughes and deep safety Andrew Sendejo, recognize the PA early and start moving to their right, preparing for a bootleg by Goff with a flood concept to that side.
The things that sucks is this is exactly what McVay wants the Vikings to do. Kupp is leaking across the formation, and turns his route vertical. This is called "leak", and here is the Shanahan play for this concept.
This is a difficult play to defend, because it essentially has two fakes: the play action outside zone and then not doing the most common thing after that, a bootleg. The problem I have is that I still feel as though the Vikings should have been prepared for this. They saw it in week 1, as you can see in my post two weeks ago. As mentioned in a tweet above, the Rams ran it against the Raiders.
Honestly, I think Barr played this about as well as you can expect. He diagnoses that the play is a passing play quickly. As soon as he sees that, he follows what should be the flow of the play, and immediately recognizes Kupp crossing the formation. He starts to turn before Kupp passes him. However, Kupp has a running head start. Barr may be one of the fastest LBs in the league, but you can't expect him to catch up to a WR in this instance. There's a saying for WRs on deep routes: "If he's even, he's leaving." That applies doubly when a WR is matched up on an LB.
Ultimately, what needed to happen is Sendejo needed to stay disciplined and stick to the middle of the field, rather than following Goff's eyes. This is a difficult ask because the expectation on this play once it's clear it's play action is a flood to the opposite side of the field, so cheating in that direction makes sense, but it ended up being costly.
Q2 4:57 2-5 RAM 34 Jared Goff pass complete short left to Cooper Kupp for 11 yards (tackle by Harrison Smith)
One of the things Kupp was most praised for coming out of school was his route-running ability. That is on full display here as he runs a whip route. This is once again a bootleg off of outside zone play action.
In terms of technique, this is great. Kupp is able to angle inside on what looks like a slant, then immediately plant one foot hard in the ground and explode towards the sideline. He adds a bonus of good balance to break through the tackle and get the first down instead of leaving his offense with a 3rd and 1.
Q2 3:55 1-10 MIN 19 Jared Goff pass complete deep right to Cooper Kupp for 19 yards, touchdown
While this is not a traditional bootleg run from under center, it functions the same way. The jet sweep motion is designed to pull the defense that way. The Vikings are running a modified Cover 3, with Sendejo in the deep middle and Waynes responsible for the deep third to the play side.
The Vikings actually cover this play very well. They do not bite on the fake, and even if the ball was handed off Danielle Hunter blows Andrew Whitworth back into Todd Gurley's lap and probably would have made the play. On the near side, Harrison Smith quickly closes on Brandin Cooks crossing the formation. Mike Hughes stays stride for stride with Kupp and eventually undercuts.
Waynes, who has a deep third, fails to get enough depth, and that leaves just barely enough room for Goff to fit the ball over the top to Kupp. This is a very difficult throw, and I would consider this play well-defended, it's just that Goff made a great throw and Kupp is able to catch the ball and keep both of his feet in bounds.
Q3 13:54 1-10 RAM 37 Jared Goff pass complete short middle to Cooper Kupp for 27 yards (tackle by Eric Kendricks)
On this play the Vikings are running a modified Cover 2, with Xavier Rhodes following Brandin Cooks in man coverage. Eric Kendricks take a 10-yard zone drop, reading the QB's eyes. Kupp has a curl route over the middle at the sticks. On this play, he shows great spatial awareness and works away from Kendricks, which allows an easy completion for Goff.
The key to this play for the Rams was the pass protection. The Vikings can't get anyone near Goff, and with enough time any QB is going to pick a zone defense apart. Kendricks doesn't have a chance with the receiver moving away from his zone, and Kupp gets a nice gain after the catch as well.
Q3 1:15 1-10 MIN 31 Jared Goff pass complete deep middle to Robert Woods for 31 yards, touchdown
The above play is yet another example of McVay winning the game on the chalkboard. The Rams come out in 12 personnel, with 1 RB and 2 TEs. This keeps the Vikings in their base 4-3 personnel. The Rams motion to empty, and the Vikings check to Cover 3, which is common against this move.
In this case, the Vikings have responded as they should have so far, but McVay has set them up for failure. The reason is that when he motioned, he put Todd Gurley as the #1 receiver to the left. This kept Woods in the slot on the weak side of the formation. On the Cover 3 shift, the strong (and field) side safety, Harrison Smith, comes down to cover the TE in the slot to the strong side, which leaves LB Barr on Woods.
The space between the deep thirds is a hole in Cover 3, and it's pretty easy to see how four verticals can beat it. The Rams run four verts. Goff knows he has Woods matched up on an LB, so he starts looking to his right at the snap. This pulls the deep safety, Sendejo, over to the TE running the seam to the right of the offense.
This means that all Woods has to do is beat an LB one-on-one in coverage. This is not a fair matchup. Anthony Barr cannot be expected to make this play. He doesn't, and the Rams get a TD. The Rams had a TD on this play before the ball was even snapped, and it was because of their personnel and pre-snap motion.
In the game, Cooper Kupp had success not only because of Sean McVay, but because he is a polished receiver who runs routes well and understands how to exploit holes in the defense.
Still, re-watching the game, it was hard to come away with anything other than awe at what Sean McVay is doing on offense. He is taking defensive expectations and coverage rules and exploiting them for favorable matchups. On the Gurley TD, he made sure that the way the LB was supposed to defend the route was the wrong way to do so. On the first Kupp TD, he essentially faked two different plays to get Kupp wide open. On the Woods TD, he used motion and an understanding of how the defense would respond to get an LB lined up on a WR. To me, that's not Anthony Barr's fault, that's being outcoached. Obviously you can't say Barr played well, but trashing him for what happened in this game is misguided at best.
Sean McVay did a phenomenal job of calling plays; the Rams have the personnel on the OL, at QB, at WR, and at RB to do whatever he wants, and the Rams were able to tear apart what most expected to be a top 3 defense this season. That's how the Rams beat the Vikings 38-31.
... and neither is this Chris guy.