#345 Packers Unscripted: Rams rundown

Rams right now in the way that they're built. Everybody knew what Sean McVeigh brings the table as an offensive mind, and they found their quarterback of the future a number of years ago, and Jared Goff Todd Gurley one of the prime premier unning backs in this league, no question. But what's impressed me the most about the Mike is

they found ways to complement all those pieces. They found some receivers, uh and I think some interesting spots and being able to have them come up and make big production, big gains in this Andrew Whitworth ends up coming over from Cincinnati. All the years he played They're still playing at a credibly high all Pro level, even at thirty seven years old at left tackle. Defensively, Wade Phillips, that big defensive line, it's very difficult to find holes in

this Los Angeles Rams offense, defense, special teams. They're very complete team. Yeah. I think with this offensive system that McVeigh is running, it sounds cliche in a sense, but but really what they've got in this running back in Todd Gurley, you know, to take to steal the old Reggie Jackson New York Yankees line. He's kind of the

straw that stirs the drink, isn't he? Because I tell you what, when when it comes to the receivers they have and Goff and the tremendous year that he is having, teams have to focus their attention on Todd Girly because, as Mark as Mike McCarthy said on Tuesday, this is a guy who can take over a game. And there's nothing defenses fear more than getting the ball just run down their throats. So you have to find a way

to contain Girly. But then that does put the ball in Goff's hands, and and he's got quite an array of weapons. At wide receiver. And we were talking to Kenny Clark about this too on Tuesday, and he said that the dangerous thing about Girly is he sets everything up for them, as you said, sort of the straw that stirs the drink. If you start, you know, creeping safeties into the box, if you start playing your linebackers too far up, well, that's where they make the play

action game go. They can really threaten you downfield with the weapons that they have. Robert Woods has been a revelation since he got there a couple of years ago. We know what Brandon Cooks does. Cooper Cup coming out of Eastern Washington, I believe with the red field out there, and if I remember correct, you're three guys that can all stretch the field on the perimeter. But at the same time, if you dedicate too many resources out there, start going too much, too high, well and Gurley burns

you underneath. So it's a it's a really dangerous game you have to play when you're playing the Rams. Some have done it better than others to the point of this season, but you look at a game like San Francisco last week with them, I actually think the fort defense, you know, it isn't as star powered as it's been in the past, but I thought they put together some respectable performances this year. The Rams really made them look bad.

So you know, the the challenge for Mike Patton and these defensive coaches defense defensive players is going to be trying to find that perfect balance between dedicating enough bodies enough resources to Todd Gurley without allowing Jared Goff in that passing game to stretch you vertically. Yeah, here's an interesting thing statistically about Girlely that I looked up this week. He does lead the NFL and rushing yards. I believe

he's that six eighty six through seven games. But the interesting thing about that is in seven games, he actually only has a hundred plus yards in three out of seven games, which seems kind of odd for a guy who's leading the league. But one of those hundred yard games was actually a two hundred yard game, And I think it's a sign that defenses have, at least some

defenses have figured out how to contain Girly. But when you look at the fact that the Rams overall on offense, they're averaging thirty three and a half points a game, you look at these wide receivers West You you mentioned Woods and Cup and Cooks. Um Cooks has the highest yards per catch of the three, He's the most explosive, the big play guy. Cup has the most touchdowns. Woods has the most yards and receptions out of the bunch.

So if if there's a classic pick your poison when it comes to defending an offense, this is this really is one of those. This is what I really respect about the Rams two is that they have their personnel, They have their three receivers, They have a tight end in Higbee. They have Girly Malcolm Brown. You see a little bit of him, but realistically, man, they're not disguising anything. I mean, yeah, they're gonna some of their concepts will be,

but you know what personnel you're gonna see. You know what kind of packages you're gonna see. The Rams are daring you to stop them. To make one more note on Girly, what I find really impressive six yards. He doesn't have a carry over thirty this year. It just shows you that a lot of this production it isn't just one big, huge carry And then that's what you know. No Pontenda carries the day for him it's just consistent production, getting in favorable second and third down situations in allowing

your playmakers to make plays from there. You bring up a great stat about the receivers. I wasn't even aware of that. I did know that Cooks is among the league leaders in yards per catch in obviously Woods with six d two yards receiving. That jumps off the page. But to have three different guys leading in three different areas, that's how you draw it up. When you go back to the Packers in two thousand eleven, that's usually the comparison I usually draw with a lot of these teams.

That's how you really get defensive coordinators scratching their heads because on any given week, you don't know who it could be. Yeah, if there's one thing that you latch onto, maybe as a Packer's defense. In terms of something you can try to take advantage of against this Rams offense, it's that Jared Goff has thrown five interceptions. Now, five interceptions in seven games. Not an alarming number. This is

a guy who's completing about his passes. His passerrating is over a hundred and ten I believe for the season. So we're nitpicking a little bit here when you talk

about him throwing five interceptions. But if the Packers can get Golf to make a mistake or two, now that comes with stopping Todd Gurley or at least or at least containing him and preventing the big plays that we've talked about, because this offense, this offense will make you pay with the big plays, the forty fifty yard explosive gains.

But if the Packers can do those kinds of things, then you know, you get one or two mistakes out of Jared Goff in a crucial situation, then just maybe that's something that turns the turns the tide in your favorite Denver set the blueprint for this, I think yeah, And and the Rams were able to squeak out of victory. I think partly included in that is the fact that Denver has had a lot of issues offensively with case

Keenum and you know the direction that thing's gone. But if you look at that game with Golf, fourteen completions on attempts with an interception was sacked five times, a fifty eight point eight passer rating. That usually isn't good enough to get it done. But what fortunately for the Rams, they have Girly to pick them up from there. They have a defense that's going to keep you in ball games.

So there aren't a lot of ways that you're going to be able to attack them and have everything fall apart. They're gonna be able to counter you in different ways. But to your point, Mike, you do need to remember that Jared Goff is a third year quarterback. At this time, he's still only, let's see, twenty four years old. I mean, there are going to be opportunities there. They aren't going to be plentiful, but if you do get those chances,

you have to be able to execute on it. Yeah. Well, you mentioned this defense the Rams have and I want to get to that in a minute, but quickly, we's some sponsored business. It's time to enter the Cousins Subs Best Seats in the House promotion. You and I guest could win a chance to kick back on the fifty yard line in style. Two pairs of lucky Packers fans will be chosen prior to each home game for this

v I P experience. Enter daily now through to number sixteen by completing the entry form and submitting for complete rules and eligibility go to Packers dot Com slash best seats, cousins subs. We believe in better. Okay, this Rams defense, I tell you what, there's absolutely no question at all that it starts with Aaron Donald on that defensive line. And I tell you I remember back when Aaron Donald was coming out of the University of Pittsburgh, he had

won every college defensive award. I mean, you know, the Bednarik, the butt Kiss, the Lombardi or whatever. All. I don't even know the names of all of them, but all all of those, all those awards for defensive players in college, he won them all. He went to the Senior Bowl. He absolutely dominated everybody at the Senior Bowl. He was the star of the Week in Mobile, Alabama. And yet there were still teams that, based on his height, they did not actually think he was a first round draft pick.

Credit the Rams. They nord all the rest of that noise. They took Aaron Donald in the first round. He's now the reigning defensive player of the Year in the NFL. Should mention Todd Gurley um is the reigning offensive player in the Year in the NFL as well, but Donald is the reigning defensive player of the year. He's coming off a four SAT game against the San Francisco forty Niners. He now leads the NFL with eight sacks through seven games.

He's on pace for a career high. And this is a guy who has an interior defensive lineman has had double digit sacks twice already in his career. This guy is, this guy is amazing. I mean he he is. He is the focal point of any offensive game plan against this Rams defense. And the thing that's impressed about Donald He's done it since day one that he entered the league. There's never been a let up. There's never been a learning curve for him. He's just produced since the very beginning.

It's actually funny that you go back and looking at there four games he didn't start his rookie year in two thousand four sort of reminds you a little bit. I think at Clay Matthews that once he did it in the lineup, the guy was just a natural born star took off. And here's the other thing too, I like questions about his height coming out of of pit.

I wonder what the San Francisco forty Niners think of that, because, unfortunately for them, they've had to see a lot of him over the years, and he's been incredibly productive with another big game last week. Six pounds by any measure, that should not be a combination that makes you think defensive player of the year. And that's not a disrespectful thing to to Donald or anybody at that size. But typically height is one thing, but wait is another, like

even like guys like Mike Daniels. To see Daniels isn't the tallest guy in the world, but he still is over three pounds. Donald just makes it work for him and his ability to be able to to beat these interior offensive guards and centers that are routinely twenty sometimes forty pounds heavier than him just a huge testament to him and his play style. I love I love to

watch him play. It was interesting I wrote a story for on Kenny Clark about him and kind of being able to pick up where he left off from last season. Clark right now is third in the league monkst defensive tackles for snaps played at a little over Donald actually leads the league right now in that category, just under ninety. He does it from beginning to end. His motor does not stop. It's impressive to watch man. Yeah, well, and what the Rams have done on the defensive side of

the ball. Donald was a first round pick the year he came out, and he is the centerpiece of that defense. But the rest of it they've kind of built through free agency. They've signed and Dominican sue to uh to kind of pair with Aaron Donald on the interior of the defensive line, and both of those guys will move around and line up in different spots, but essentially they're that defensive line tandem. Um. They picked up Marcus Peters, a key to leave at cornerback. Now to leave is

on injured reserve, but but you've got Peters. Obviously. They signed Sam Shields, who has come back from essentially missing two entire seasons due to his multiple concussions in his career. Great to see Shields back out there playing again. The Packers will Packers will probably see him a fair amount, perhaps on Sunday after But they've they they've built this defense by by sort of plucking different guys from around the league and uh and and plugging them in and

it's working. I mean, obviously, you can't argue with the fact that that they're undefeated. There have been some teams who have racked up some yards and some points. Minnesota had a big offensive game against these guys on a on a Thursday night, we saw both the Seattle and the Denver. Bronco is not known for explosive offense, so to speak, but they scored enough points to stay right in the game with these guys and take them down to the wire as well. So u um an impressive defense.

But yet there are some areas statistically where where they have they have some numbers that don't necessarily look like an undefeated team. Yeah, and I mean it is something to where when you put up the offensive yards that their offense puts up there, your defense is going to give up yards too, because a lot of offenses are gonna be put in you know, two minute situations. So um. But that being said, they have guys who can take

away the ball. They have guys that can pressure your quarterback. Uh, they have different as I'm mentioned earlier, they have different ways to win. If it ends up being a game in the twenties of the teens, they have a defense that can keep them in it, that can get him on the positive side of that. Uh what what it's probably impressed me more than anything. I mean, it's one thing to go get Brandon Cooks or to get Marcus Peters, and and obviously what happened coming out of Kansas City.

I've been probably more impressed over the years and how they've augmented their roster offense and defensive by finding I don't want to call them cast offs, but finding the Robert Woods is finding the Mark Barrens, who sort of appeared to be on the outskirts of his career and then, as it turns out, the Rams were able to use him in a hybrid role. Was sort of on the cutting edge of that. It has been there now for a number of years in making plays. The Sam Shields

one was a little different. I mean, I made my opinion very clear on Shields in the past. I he's a tremendous person. I've enjoyed my time covering on my wish for nothing but the best for him in the future. I would be lying to you if I told you I still didn't watch his games with bated breath. But the fact that he's been able to come back, he always had the legs, dude, I mean, like the Packers when he left Green Bay. It wasn't that he couldn't pluy a on the field. I mean, it's not that

he'd lost his ability. He has gifts that you cannot coach in this league. So I wish nothing but success for him. We'll see how this game plays out, obviously, but the Rams are deep in their deep at number of positions and shields. Insertion at cornerback is is another one of those spots. Yeah, the one thing to look at statistically, maybe a couple of things going into this

game with this Rams defense. You know, as I say, you're trying to nitpick against an undefeated team and trying to find maybe where the chinks in the armor are. A couple of things where they rank in the bottom third of the league defensively. One is actually yards per carry allowed by opposing running games. They don't allow a lot of rushing yards total because teams are throwing the ball like crazy to try to keep up with that offense. But when teams do run the ball, the yards per

carry it's it's rather productive. They aren't great in that statistic. And the other one is third down. Their third down defense does actually rank quite a bit lower than the bulk of the league. So when you look at all these things the pa Kers have been talking about over the last couple of weeks, over the bye week about you know, wanting to find more run pass balance, needing, needing to be better in situational football, particularly third down,

red zone. We know the third downs. For the Packers, it comes down to the down and distance. Because Aaron Rodgers pointed out the other day the Packers have had in in six games, they've had twenty two third downs of eleven plus yards. That's an unbelievable number, it really is. That's an area the Packers need to need to fix, and and getting the running game going is one way to help fix that. Yeah, absolutely have to do it early too. They have to be able to establish that.

They got to stay in with pace with the Rams. They can't fall behind. I think that's gonna be the big thing here because the way that Los Angeles is structured, they don't really allow teams to get back in it once they blow them out. When you're in it with them. They've had a lot of games down to the wire. You mentioned some of their stats. It's reflected in their scores. They've been able to squeak out some two and three

point victories this season. So for the Packers, we talked about it every week, but getting off to a fast start, being able to establish that early on, and honestly, Mike, I'm just excited too to see Aaron Rodgers back to back for yard games offense right now, fourth in the league, Packers have been able to move to football. This will be a nice little challenge to see if they can

do it in the coliseum. Yeah. Well, we've got a couple of more days to talk about the keys to victory here for the Packers, and we'll get to those as the week goes on, but for now, we'll call it a wrap on this edition of Packers on Script, and be sure to follow all of our coverage of the team on Packers dot Com on Twitter. He's at west Hot I'm at Mike Spofford at Packers for the team account. Thanks for tuning in, everybody, We'll see you next time.