How the Rams improve play-action game in 2020

Rams employed play action NFL-high 32 percent during Sean McVay era

The Los Angeles Rams have been one of the teams in the NFL most reliant on play-action passes during the Sean McVay era.

Since McVay took over as head coach in 2017, the Rams employed play-action passes a league high 32 percent of the time.

Most times they have been successful. According to Pro Football Focus, Jared Goff had a 109.3 passer rating on play-action passes in 2017, averaging 10.6 yards per attempt.

In 2018, during the team’s Super Bowl run, Goff had a 115.0 passer rating on play-action passes, averaging 10.0 yards per attempt.

However, those numbers dipped last year, as Goff posted an 85.9 passer rating on play-action passes, averaging just 8.4 yards per attempt. He threw just four touchdown passes and five interceptions on play-action passes, and the Rams struggled to run the football last season.

During a zoom conference call with reporters over the weekend, new Rams offensive coordinator Kevin O’Connell explained what makes a play-action game effective, It’s something Goff and the rest of the offense will look to improve on this season with Todd Gurley gone, relying on a running back-by-committee approach led by Malcolm Brown, Cam Akers and Darrell Henderson Jr.

“The number one way to develop it is to get the run game going,” O’Connell said. “Being consistent because the whole idea of marrying the run and the pass starts with really being able to run the football and truly make the defense feel that they have to defend the run, first and foremost. Any offense that can do that can really start dictating to the defense on their own terms, and I think that’s when the play action -- some of the different kinds of play action you can do -- can really isolate individual players within their run responsibilities, putting them in conflict to try to also defend the pass.

“I’ve never been a defensive player, but in some of the positions that you hope to get them in, putting them in conflict, it looks like a very difficult position to be in. But, it starts with the run, starts with establishing that run, both with the physicality and the different schemes you want to have, and then tying the play action pass to that and being able to execute both of those with a lot of clarity and high-level execution.”