Los Angeles Rams at Detroit Lions: Film review shows run game adjustments

The Los Angeles Rams and Detroit Lions faced off in week 13 as two teams headed on opposite ends of the spectrum.

The Rams are currently in first place in the league and looking to secure a first-round playoff bye week as well as home field advantage for as long as they are in the playoffs. The Lions are sitting at 4-8 and simply trying to muster together any positives in Head Coach Matt Patricia’s first year as the HC.

Let’s take a look at the film of the Rams’ run game:

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This is what majority of the Rams’ run game thus far into the season has looked like. It’s a concept called a split zone which is a variation of the zone running scheme. Essentially what this means is that the entire offensive line will block in unison in one direction with a backside player (in this instance its TE Tyler Higbee) pulling across the formation and blocking the playside defensive end (DE Ziggy Ansah).

The Rams run a ton of split zone and nothing was different this week, other than the behemoth known as DT Damon “Snacks” Harrison. Snacks was a tough load to handle for the Rams’ OL, and was the main culprit and reason the running game faltered early in the game. With that being the case, the Rams adjusted. They went to more of a man blocking scheme along the OL and started to run trap concepts, like these:

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This first instance had both LG Rodger Saffold and C John Sullivan climbing to the second level, playside RG Austin Blythe pulling to block the backside DT, and TE Tyler Higbee wham blocking Snacks.

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This second instance had the LT (Andrew Whitworth) and the C (John Sullivan) climb immediately to the second level, both guards (LG Rodger Saffold and RG Austin Blyhte) pulling, and TE Tyler Higbee wham blocking Snacks.

As you can see, these adjustments no longer featured Higbee pulling all the way across the formation or the offensive line blocking in one direction in unison. These are now known as man blocking schemes — and in particular — trap plays.

The adjustment was highly successful as RB Todd Gurley eventually finished the day with 23 carries for 132 yards and two touchdowns. He averaged 5.7 yards-per-carry.

These plays show valuable the offensive lineman are, and how important Run Game Coordinator/Offensive Line Coach Aaron Kromer is.