6 biggest reasons the Rams came up short this season
Like the other 31 teams in the NFL, the Rams came into the 2020 season with Super Bowl aspirations. There wasn’t a lot of hope externally that they’d be the last team standing in February, but those inside the building never doubted the team’s potential.
Unfortunately, they came up short of their goal, going 10-6 in the regular season and losing to the Packers in the divisional round. While their season ultimately came down to that game in Green Bay, there are a number of reasons the Rams came up short.
Here are the six biggest that caused them to stumble in 2020.
Inconsistent quarterback play
(AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
Above all else, the play of Jared Goff held the Rams back. They had the league’s best defense, the 10th-most rushing yards, a decent offensive line and quality pass catchers all over the field. Yet, it was Goff who disappointed most, throwing only 20 touchdown passes and 13 interceptions in 15 games. Far too often, he committed costly turnovers, missed open receivers and failed to react quickly enough to pressure in the pocket, leading to either inaccurate throws or giveaways. Sean McVay said publicly that Goff had to take better care of the football, pulling no punches about the way his quarterback was playing. Goff was a below-average quarterback this season and if the Rams had gotten above-average play from the position, they may have locked up the NFC West and hosted a playoff game instead of going on the road in the first two rounds.
Too many turnovers
(AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
The Rams committed 25 turnovers this season, eighth-most in the NFL. Goff was responsible for most of those, throwing 13 interceptions and losing four fumbles. To put into perspective just how difficult it is to overcome turnovers the way the Rams did, consider this. They’re the first team since the 2007 Giants to turn the ball over at least once in every game and still make the playoffs. The Rams are fortunate they had a dominant defense that kept opponents out of the end zone after the offense gave up a short field with a turnover, but they were still costly giveaways. In games where the Rams turned it over at least twice, they were 2-3. Twice they gave the ball away four times in a game, and they lost both of them. Here’s a breakdown of what opponents did on the 21 drives following a Rams turnover.
1 fumble
1 safety
1 missed field goal
2 punts
3 interceptions
6 field goals
7 touchdowns allowed
Of those 21 drives, 11 started inside the Rams’ 40-yard line and only four resulted in touchdowns – all of which started inside Los Angeles’ 15. The easiest way to lose a game is to turn the football over. If not for the league’s best defense, the Rams may not have won more than eight games.
Lack of explosive plays
(AP Photo/Mark LoMoglio)
Put simply, the Rams offense was not explosive enough. Far too often, they were forced to sustain long drives with short passes and running plays, which isn't an easy way to operate. Sean McVay said it himself in his end-of-season press conference: “It made it a lot more difficult and your margin for error is much slimmer as an offense when you feel like you’ve got to go 10 and 13 plays to score touchdowns.” The biggest issue was creating explosive plays through the air. The Rams had just six passes of at least 40 yards, which was tied for ninth-fewest in the NFL. three of those plays went for touchdowns, and all of them sparked the offense in ways that a 10-yard pass wouldn’t. On the ground, the Rams had four rushes of at least 40 yards, which was tied for third-most in the NFL. Long rushing plays weren’t lacking. It was deep passes and big plays in the passing game that were. That’s part of the reason the Rams had just 20 touchdown drives of at least 75 yards, which was tied for 13th. The Packers led the league in that department with 33 such drives. Dinking and dunking their way down the field became much too challenging and creating more explosive plays next season has already become a point of emphasis for McVay.
Poor special teams
(AP Photo/Ashley Landis)
In Rick Gosselin’s annual special teams rankings this year, he put the Rams 30th in the NFL. It’s hard to argue with that placement, too. There were issues in all phases of the special teams unit, from punting to kicking to the return game. Johnny Hekker started strong but faded down the stretch and finished 24th in net yards per punt. He did have 28 punts pinned inside the 20, but his five touchbacks were tied for 10th-most in the NFL. In the kicking game, the Rams struggled to find consistency with Samuel Sloman and Kai Forbath. What they did consistently was miss kicks, and although they didn’t necessarily cost the Rams any wins, they also didn’t do enough to help the team score points; combined, they were 1-for-4 from beyond 40 yards. The Rams averaged just 20.6 yards per kickoff return (11th-lowest) with a long of 41 yards. Nsimba Webster and Raymond Calais just didn’t make enough impactful plays in the return game, which was especially apparent on punt returns; the Rams averaged 6.9 yards per return, 10th-worst. Special teams may not have made much of a difference in their loss to the Packers, but it did set them back throughout the season until Matt Gay arrived in Week 11 and righted the ship.
Red zone inefficiency
(AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
The Rams gained the 11th-most yards in the NFL this season, averaging 377 per game. Yet, they only averaged 23.3 points per game, which ranked 21st. One of the reasons for that was their inefficiency in the red zone. The Rams finished 19th in the NFL in red zone scoring, finding the end zone just 57.9% of the time after reaching the opponent’s 20-yard line. The Packers were incredibly good in the red zone, leading the NFL with a touchdown rate of 80% – just to put the Rams’ number into perspective. If the Rams didn’t constantly settle for field goals instead of scoring touchdowns, they would’ve put up far more points than they did. This is an area where the Rams must get better next season if they’re going to compete for a Super Bowl. It’s no surprise that the final four teams remaining all ranked in the top 14 in red zone scoring percentage this year.
Fell behind in first half too often
(AP Photo/Elaine Thompson)
Slow starts often came back to bite the Rams this season, and it wasn’t strictly on the offense. The defense was far better in the second half of games than it was in the first half. The Rams allowed just 7.2 points per game in the second half this season, second-best in the NFL. But they were just 15th in first-half defense by allowing 12.1 points per game. This wasn’t a team built to play from behind, given their reliance on the running game and lack of explosive plays. So when they did fall behind, they struggled to come back. They had zero fourth-quarter comebacks and Goff had just one game-winning drive. In their first loss to the 49ers, the Rams allowed three second-half points. In their loss to the Dolphins, they pitched a shutout in the second half. Against the Jets, they outscored New York 17-10 in the second half but lost by three. And against the Packers on Sunday, they allowed just 13 second-half points after falling behind 19-10 at the break. The Rams needed to avoid second-half deficits but it was a struggle all year long. They were built to play with a lead and control the clock, but that’s tough to do when you’re playing catch-up as often as they were.
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