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Sunday's game against the Packers started out with the Rams holding pretty tight to the Packers. Even though the Rams' offense struggled, at halftime it was only 10-6 in what could have been 21-10... if the Rams offense could only move the ball once deep inside Packer territory, instead setting for two long field goals by Greg "The Leg".
Chris Long and Robert Quinn hounded Aaron Rodgers all throughout the first half as the Packers attempted 5 and 7 step drops, playing into the Rams' strengths. Life was good!
In the second half, the Packers made some crucial adjustments, that quite frankly, the Rams couldn't account for. Instead of deep outs and 15-20 yard crossing patterns, the Packers switched to quick dump offs, comeback routes, screens, draws and the like, to take Quinn and Long out of the game.
Yes the Rams defense played admirably, but they had no answer to defend this style. By taking Long and Quinn out of the game, the pressure clearly got placed on the Rams secondary. Rookie Janoris Jenkins once again had on the rookie stripe and gave up some big plays, particularly in the red zone. Bradley Fletcher well... played like Bradley Fletcher.
The Rams bend but don't break defense won some battles, but lost the war as the Packers seemed to methodically drive down the field with Aaron Rodgers carving them up like an early thanksgiving turkey.
The Patriots are up next, and I expect to see the same strategy. The question is, what adjustments can be made? Perhaps scoring some TD's instead of Field Goals would help.