One Areas The Rams Must Improve This Week
The Los Angeles Rams (5-6) have their backs against the wall and are in need of a win this week to keep their playoff hopes alive. They will need to thrive in one specific area to take down the New Orleans Saints (4-7) and return to .500.
The Rams rank second to last in the NFL in third down converstion rate this season at 31.7% percent. They were 0-8 on third down last week in a crushing loss to the Philadelphia Eagles last week and 3-12 in Week 10 in a disappointing loss to the Miami Dolphins.
The important of achieving positive yards on first and second downs is the key to their success when maintaining longer drives for consistent points. Rams head coach Sean McVay gave his take on being able execute better on the opening two plays to set up much easier third down chances.
“I think there were times… if you look at it early on, even in some instances in the New England
game, when you're really rolling offensively, you're not seeing many third downs," McVay said. "You know that you've had a good game offensively when you look up at the stat sheet and you see about eight attempts on third downs. What you can't do is be inefficient or go backwards on either first or second down via penalty or a negative yardage because now it's really challenging, especially when you go against an opponent like that and really most of the teams that you're playing against. That is
important."
There is a split in importance for the run and pass game that will help this team to remedy their third down issues. Second-year running back Kyren Williams will be integral in earning those hard-earned early yards while quarterback Matthew Stafford is able to throw short routes to his receivers.
"It's kind of the word ‘consistency’ right now.," Offensive coordinator Mike LaFleur said. "There are times where it feels like we go right down the field and put it in and there are other times where it just feels a little bit harder than it should. I think that's the biggest key right now. Third and long for anybody is not easy. It's just been especially hard for us as of late and really this whole year, but even the third 'manageable’s' haven't been to the clip that we're accustomed to. We have to get that fixed and we have to get it fixed fast."
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