A switch was flipped by the Los Angeles Rams at halftime on Sunday after falling behind to the Arizona Cardinals, 9-6. The offense was stuck in neutral, failing to convert a single third down and rushing for just 5 yards.
To start the third quarter, the Rams came out looking like a different team. After running it just three times in the first half, they rushed eight straight times to open the second half, gaining 60 yards on those eight plays.
As much as Matthew Stafford loves airing the ball out and throwing it around the field, he was a huge fan of the Rams’ philosophy shift Sunday afternoon. He was excited to relay the play call in the huddle every time it was a run, knowing how well it had been working.
“It’s awesome. I love it. I was so fired up stepping back into the huddle each time with a run play. Those guys were loving it. I was loving it. It was fun,” Stafford said after the 26-9 win. “It wasn’t anything too tricky, just kind of line up and go play ball and I was proud of those guys for the way they played. Both in the pass game and the run game, the guys up front did a really nice job and our backs ran it great and guys on the perimeter blocked. I mean, for us to run the way we did, everybody has to have their hand in it. We asked Puka to block a defensive end a few times today and he was doing it. The more of that kind of stuff we can get, the better we’re going to be.”
Sean McVay told reporters that the Rams had “gotten talked out of some things” in the first half, alluding to the pre-snap looks Arizona was showing to prevent them from running it. But in the second half, the Rams didn’t allow the Cardinals to dictate the game plan, running the ball straight down their throat with some big chunk plays – including a 17-yarder by Williams to get the second half started.
That doesn’t mean the Rams are going to keep leaning heavily on the ground game, but it was encouraging to see they could run it and impose their will if they tried.
“Each game is different. Each defense is different in how you attack it,” Stafford added. “I thought we did a great job at halftime of making the adjustments to go out there and play the second half the way we wanted to play it. It’s not as easy as lining up and just running the ball all the time. The defenses are going to have their hand in it and we have to do a good job staying on the field on third down, all those kinds of things. Our defense is doing a great job of keeping the score down on the other side of the ball, gave us time to go out there and run it in the second half. But it’s definitely something to build on, but you have to go out there and prove it every single week as we know.”
Stafford said he and McVay didn’t talk about the run-pass balance at halftime, but once the ground game got going, they knew they could commit to the running game and let the linemen continue clearing the way for Williams.
“No, like I said, I thought it was great to get three right before the half, kind of get a little bit of momentum going,” Stafford said. “Second half, we were just talking about committing to getting some runs off and letting our guys go and then when you’re getting 15, 12, 10, 6, 5, 15 again, no reason not to keep running it so it was awesome to be a part of that.”
Up next is Pittsburgh, which has allowed the fourth-most rushing yards and the sixth-most yards per carry in the NFL this season. Coming off a game like Sunday’s where the Rams ran it so well, don’t be surprised if they continue to utilize Williams early and often. next week.
