Quick All-22 Film Review – St Louis Rams

Rams QB Sam Bradford played mistake free and efficient football vs the 49ers last week.

This week the 3-6 Jets travel to St Louis to take on the 3-5-1 Rams as the Jets face their 2^nd straight NFC West opponent in as many weeks.  Like the Seahawks, the Rams aren’t a GREAT team, they just do some things very well and others NOT so well, unlike the Jets right now who do NOTHING well.  The Rams of course are coming off a game vs the 49ers that ended in a tie (how EXCITING right?), a game in which the Rams O-line managed to handle the 49ers stout and aggressive D-line.  Sam Bradford (and punter Johnny Hekker) passed for 299 yards and two touchdowns on a unit that had given up only six scores through the air leading up to last Sunday’s game. What was even scarier was the 49ers run defense, which Stephen Jackson and Daryl Richardson took to task for 159 yards and a score.

Though the Jets defense played a solid game in Seattle, they did wear down as the game went on, eventually succumbing to the Seahawks offense in the 3^rd quarter and on.  The Jets will look to rebound on both sides of the ball this week when they face the Rams but like the Seahawks, it won’t be an easy task and we’ll analyze the film to discuss why.

Against the 49ers the Rams managed to execute a somewhat impressive 6 play, 66 yard TD drive on their first possession of the game.  It was a drive that saw RB Stephen Jackson carry the ball 4 times for 23 yards, that’s 5.7 yards per carry for Jackson on that drive which undoubtedly made it somewhat easy for Bradford to complete the scoring drive with a TD strike to rookie Brian Quick.

– 2nd and 8 at Seattle 36, after a 2 yard run from Stephen Jackson, the Rams come out in a MODIFIED Spread-LIKE Formation with Tight End Matthew Mulligan (82 on the left) lined up off balanced with tight end Lance Kendricks (88) lined up behind him to the right.

When the ball is snapped, ~~~> the center releases out to block Patrick Willis (upper-right), Mulligan chips Aldon Smith and Kendricks cuts across the line to block Isaac Sopoaga.  Steven Jackson takes the handoff  and has pretty nice hole in front of him, notice Kendricks getting leverage on DT Sopoaga and completely takes him out of the play

Stephen Jackson gains 10 yards on this play, the first play of the Rams possession.  The Rams utilized clever and unique formations with great blocking schemes to essentially take 49ers defenders out of the play.

– 1st and 10 at Seattle 46

The Rams come out in traditional Spread Formation with 4 WIDE OUTS and Stephen Jackson the lone RB in the backfield.  Bradford hands off to Jackson who follows his right tackle for a nice pick up of 4 yards.

-2nd and 6 at 50

The Rams come out in a Pro-set formation with Stephen Jackson and Miller as the 2 backs in the backfield….. 2 WR set ( Amendola and Quick).  Bradford hands off to Jackson and Jackson follows Miller behind the left tackle for 7 yards.  A well executed play as everyone blocked a man and gave Jackson adequate running room.

 -1st and 10 at 49ers 43

The Rams come out in a traditional Shotgun formation with Jackson lined up next to Bradford in the backfield and 2 WR set (Amendola and Quick). Amendola, on this play, utilizes his quickness and shiftiness to separate from Whitner and gave Bradford enough room to complete the 4 yard toss that Amendola turned into 7 yards with his 3 YAC.  The O-line blocking was superb and gave Bradford enough time to stand in and allow his WR to make the necessary moves.

-2nd and 3 and 49ers 36

The Rams comes out in a 2 back Pro-set formation….with 3 WRs (Amendola, Quick and Gibson) ~~>

Bradford snaps the ball and Quick manages to get past Rogers and snatches the long Bradford pass, virtually making it look easy.  Quick catches the pass at the 49ers 13 yard line and ran for 13 more for the TD.  Just LOOK at this pocket Bradford had when throwing the ball.                                                                                                                           ~~~~>

The Rams O-line played a great game against a usually aggressive defensive front in the 49ers D-line.  They managed to keep Bradford clean and gave him time to complete passes for the most part of the game.  The Jets WILL have to find a way to get to Bradford WITHOUT sacrificing coverage on the back end, especially with Kyle Wilson lurking around out there.

How Do The Jets Attack That Rams Defense and Contain Their Offense?

On Offense:

The Jets right now are struggling at pretty much every facet of their offense.  Last game vs the Seahawks the Jets managed only 185 total yards of highly ineffective offense.  The play calling along with the execution were equally horrid.  Jets WRs couldn’t get off the line, couldn’t get open and Sanchez couldn’t consistently find them when they finally got open.  The running game accounted for 84 of the 185 total yards and avg about 3.8 ypc, again….HIGHLY ineffective to say the least.

Mark Sanchez wont be facing as tough a defense this week vs the Rams as he did last week vs the Seahawks.

–    So here we are with another week and another opportunity for the Jets to take advantage of a team that has some issues on both sides of the ball.  Watching the film, the Jets should be able to have more success vs the CBs of the Rams than they had vs the CBs of the Seahawks considering that Jenkins and Finnegan are much less physical than Sherman and Browner of the Seahawks.  In fact, the film suggests that as fast as Jenkins is, he has problems vs WRs that run crisp/sharp routes.  Jeremey Kerley, who has gotten much better in his route running, would welcome the challenge to face a fast CB like Jenkins, who isn’t a complete CB just yet.  Finnega,n on the other hand, is a veteran CB that will probably get the Kerley assignment because of what I mentioned earlier about Kerley. The Rams won’t want Kerley going crazy in their secondary and will most likely assign the veteran Finnegan to get physical with Kerley to keep him off his game.

–   The Rams seem to have problems covering athletic TEs but doesn’t everyone?  The Jets should probably get Keller in pre-snap motions to get the matchups they want him on so Sanchez can get into a groove early with Keller.  Keller hasn’t had a breakout game thus far into the season and right now, with the way the Jets offense is struggling, it’s a perfect week to get him going.

–  The Rams don’t seem to STOP the run  OR the pass all that GREAT but they have moments in which they do it adequately, and against an struggling offense like the Jets, adequate may just be enough to shut them down.  Sad but true.   Looking at the film, the Jets can have success on the ground and in the air against the Rams.

–  The Jets O-line played well against the Seahawks.  The O-line was blocking well for Sanchez but Sanchez was unable to capitalize on the adequate blocking that he was receiving.  The Jets running game didn’t flourish like they wanted to but the Seahawks D-line is very aggressive and the Jets wont see that type of aggressiveness this week vs the Rams so there are opportunities for Greene and Bell to have a pretty effective day at LEAST.   The Rams have pass rushers that aren’t flashy but they are grinders that will get to the QB.  Chris Long and Michael Brockers have been playing very well this year as both have high motors, I expect the Jets to take a few sacks this game.

On Defense:

– The Rams do have big play ABILITIES but aren’t really known for their big plays.  They seemed to have found a solid receiving corp in Amendola, Quick and TE Kendricks.   Amendola is as good as it gets right now in the NFL and although his stats don’t show it, mainly because he was out for a while with a serious shoulder injury, Amendola is a serious tough cover for any CB as he’s as shifty and hungry as any WR playing right now.  He runs superb routes and utilizes his quickness to get open.  I would assume anyone other than Cromartie on Amendola and the Jets are forfeiting.  Brian Quick on the other hand is a tall/fast WR that can present matchup problems considering after Cromartie, the cover drop off is steeper than the Mariana Trench.  The Jets have a serious problem in their secondary and it goes by the name of Kyle Wilson and trust and believe Rams offensive coordinator and former Jets offensive coordinator Brian Schottenheimer will undoubtedly go after Kyle Wilson ad nauseam.

Antonio Cromartie will be tasked with keeping Rams WR Danny Amendola at bay this week.

–     The Jets D-line played well against the Seahawks up until the point they just couldn’t hold it together anymore and gave up one too many big plays.  They will be tested by Rams RB Stephen Jackson who is quietly notorious for hitting the holes and taking advantage of any and everything that his o-line gives him.  The film shows that Jackson is still the work horse for the Rams as he’s always been and certainly has the ABILITY to opens things up effectively for Sam Bradford and that Rams passing offense.  The film also shows that Jackson has been vastly less effective this season than any season he’s been in St Louis.  Jackson is averaging 3.7 yards per carry and has rushed for 504 yards thus far.  He has only rushed for 2 TDs this season and is averaging about 56 yards per game, which are not exactly eye popping numbers, which is why the Rams have started to implement rookie Daryl Richardson in the running game.  Richardson is averaging about 5.7 yards per carry and is clearly quicker than Stephen Jackson at this point.  Richardson on tape is FAST, very fast and is becoming a home run hitter for them Rams and is clearly becoming the future as Jackson is certainly going to be playing somewhere else next season.  The Jets will see a lot of Jackson and Richardson on Sunday and the D-line will have their hands full with both no doubt.

–   Jets pass rush has been a carousel of who can suck the LEAST and if given time, Sam Bradford has the ability to pick a defense apart and the Jets cant let that happen.  No more Maybin as he’s been released and right now the Jets are looking for anyone to step up…..ANYONE!!!!!!!!