Rams offense: First and shame

by Ryan Van Bibber on Oct 11, 2009 10:08 AM CDT in Game Planning

I'm going to continue digging into the stats for the St. Louis Rams today, just beat this horse a few more times before we settle in for a solid day of college football and playoff baseball.

The Rams third down follies have been well documented, burned into our minds. Long yardage and mind-boggling decisions to have Gado carry the ball with one yard to go have made it virtually impossible for the Rams to convert third downs, much less sustain a scoring drive.

The real trouble starts further back, on first down. Check out the Rams offensive DVOA for first downs:

-21.6%, 29th

You can read the full explaination of DVOA here, but the short version means that the Rams are 21.6% less likely than this season's average NFL team to get 45% of the yards needed for a first down. Thinking pass or rush makes a difference? Check this out:

1st down, rush: -22.7%, 27th
1st down, pass: -21.6%, 29th

There it is, a statistical representation of the Rams failure to do anything when they have the ball. Their total 3rd down DVOA of -61.1%, a jaw-dropping figure, means nothing when you can't get anything going on first down.

If they can't fix that against the Vikings today, well, you know the rest.

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What is offense?

Rams know what defense is, all the time. Offense though, is a revelation undiscovered since the Rams organization screwed over Mike Martz, certain players and the team unity in general.

by jlcdb70 on Oct 11, 2009 10:42 AM CDT reply actions

How are we not last?

I can’t think of a 1st down play that we ran for a 1st down. Our passing offense is anemic, so you have to get it to 2nd and 5 or 3rd and 5 for us to even have a chance. With such a crap-worthy passing game, we’ve seen teams throwing 8 or more guys in the box to keep Steven Jackson’s runs limited to 2 or 3 yard gains. I don’t see us improving on this number until we can start passing for gains of 7 or more with some kind of consistency.

Your uncle molests collies.

by 3k on Oct 11, 2009 11:18 AM CDT reply actions