Rams Are Not The Offensive Powerhouse People Think They Are

The Eagles are set to take on the Rams this Sunday at 3 pm. Once the matchup was set, we heard a lot about how the Rams dynamic offense would test the Eagles' defense. They have a future Hall Of Fame QB, two great WRs, and a solid run game. Surely they are a dangerous offensive team worthy of fear... but are they really?

Yes on paper the talent is all there. But we had a 17-game season. We don't need to go off paper anymore. There are real results we can judge a team by. Those results show the Rams are not an elite offense. The Rams are 20th in the league in points per game with 21.6.

Now I know what your response is, they had injuries, Puka Nacua was out for several games, and so was Cooper Kupp. Fine, let's just go off the games Puka Nacua and Cooper Kupp played in. In the 10 games they both played, the Rams averaged 22.8 points per game. From the 20th most points per game to the 17th.

Even that is inflated. They had 1 great game on offense where they scored 44 against the Bills. So are they capable of putting up big points? Sure. But how often do we see it?

Their median score is 20.5. We have very rarely seen this Rams offense put up big points.

On The Best Show Ever this week, Ricky Bo responded to the claims that the Rams have some dangerous offense. Here is what he had to say.

"I think there's a misconception here. I think when people look at the Rams, they think, wow, a high-powered offense. They did not score a lot of points.

If you think about when they got good, they were 5-6. When they met the Eagles, they lost that game. They were 5-7. Then they scored 21 against the Saints. Terrible team at that point. They scored 44 against the Bills. That will be the only game that would impress. 12, 19, 13 against the Cardinals. This is not a team that is scoring a lot of points.

If you're not turning it up a notch offensively against an Eagles team you're in deep trouble, and it's going to show... The Rams may score 14 at best. I don't see a path especially them coming in from warm weather coming into cold weather, on a short week, and a long flight... They cannot come in here and conquer a game against the Eagles. They just can't."

Those were not world-beater defenses containing this Rams offense down the stretch. The Saints, Jets, Niners, Cardinals. So where is this high-powered offense teams are supposed to fear? Will it show up any time this year?

Even in the win over the Vikings, the Rams offense had under 300 yards and were 2 for 10 on 3rd down. The team scored 27, but the offense scored 20.

Could they have a big game? Sure. The talent is there. But The Eagles have even more talent. And while the Eagles offense has also had some inconsistencies, and they have had just as many injuries at WR, with both Brown and Smith missing time.

But they were way more productive than the Rams. The Eagles average over 30 points per game in games that AJ Brown plays. The Eagles' low score since the Bye Week is what the Rams average. The Eagles, with all their issues, are the offense you should fear.

So no, the Rams offense, while talented on paper, is not something to fear. The results just aren't there. The results are there however for the Eagles defense, who already handled this exact Rams offense this season, as well as the Ravens offense, and the Packers offense. The Eagles defense should scare the Rams offense, not the other way around.

The Eagles beat the Packers by 12 points to advance to the 2nd round of the playoffs. You would think the city would be celebrating today, or at least happy about the win. But while that is the case for some, there is also a lot of negativity floating around. Some people are more upset about how it looked than they are happy about the final result.

Related: Eagles Win 22-10 Despite Some Early Struggles From Offense

To be fair, it was not the prettiest of games. The offense was less than ideal in the 1st half. Only 10 points going into halftime, with four 3 and outs. After starting 6-6, Hurts missed the next 7 passes in the 1st half. If you were to say the offense needs to play better going forward, that would be fair.

But there is far too much negativity. They won a playoff game by double digits. The team they beat went 11-6. The Eagles survived to fight for another week. They never even trailed, or let the game get closer than 6 points. Those are all reasons to celebrate the win.

Why be miserable before you need to be? If they do repeat this performance, and it eventually costs them, be upset then. I will be upset with you. But it didn't hurt them this time. They live to see another day. Be happy about that.

So instead of dwelling on the bad, let's celebrate the good. Because there was a lot of good. They are in fact a very good team, hence why they went 14-3 and are the 2-seed in the NFC. People might not act like it, but this is a great team who have a great chance to win it all.

Josh Jacobs had a 31 yard run that might have measured on the Richter Scale with how many tackles he ran through. It eventually led to the Packers lone TD of the game. Jacobs finished with 81 yards on 18 carries, for a quality 4.5 yards per carry.

But outside of that 1 run, Jacobs did not do much else on the ground. They held him to just 2.9 yards per carry on his other 17 carries. Jacobs is a very good back. He was going to eventually break one. But the fact they kept him boxed up for most of the game, even after Nakobe Dean went down, is a major win for the Eagles defense.

Jalen Hurts started out 6 for 6, but then went 0 for his next 8. He was a bit of a mess, but he also got no help with Moore continuing to call for long developing routes even while Hurts was under siege from the Packers blitz. But after that 0 for 8 stretch, things did get much better for Hurts. He went 7 for his final 8 passes (87.5%) for 91 yards and a TD.

I am not going to sit here and say Hurts had a good game. He did not.  Hurts needs to be better. All of that said, he eventually found his rhythm and helped keep his team in front. That TD drive was mostly passing. Dallas Goedert's crazy run after the catch was the highlight, but Hurts settled down enough to deliver the ball the rest of the way, keep the clock moving, and close out the win.

The Eagles defense has been great, but for most of the year they were not forcing many turnovers. They had just 16 takeaways in the first 14 games. That has changed in a big way over the last 3 games of the season, and in this 1st playoff game.

They forced 4 turnovers vs the Packers. 3 interceptions, on top of the fumble on the opening kickoff. It brings them up to 14 total takeaways over the last 4 games, and that is including the Giants game where the starters didn't play. In the last 3 games for the starters they have 13 takeaways. Add in the Offense taking care of the ball, and the Eagles are +12 in turnovers in those games. 

The Eagles are not just playing great all around defense, and keeping teams off the board, they are now taking the ball away at a very high clip. That is a combo that can win a Super Bowl, even if the offense doesn't live up to its potential.

Quinyon  Mitchell was targeted 6 times. Only 2 of those targets resulted in a catch, and those 2 catches went for only 10 yards. He also got his first pick. He is a rookie playing in his 1st playoff game, and he didn't blink.

The Packers WR group was beaten up, and got even more beaten up throughout the game. But don't let that discount what Mitchell did. The guy is a superstar, who has managed to shut down several top WRs in the league. By the way Darius Slay gave up just 9 yards, and 1 catch. Cooper DeJean struggled a bit, but still not that much. Isaiah Rogers played well when he filled in for Slay too. The Eagles cornerback group might be young, with the exception of Slay who is old for a corner, but they are probably the best CB group left standing still.

This is not a stat from this game, but rather one from a previous Eagles playoff game. Back in 2018, the Eagles played the Falcons in their first game of the playoffs. They scored just 15 points. There was similar panic that Nick Foles and the Eagles offense were not going to be able to put up the big numbers they would need to keep winning.

They scored 79 points in the next 2 games. Turns out you can have 1 bad game, and then bounce back from it. And this game was no where near as tense or as bad for the offense as that one was. It is just a reminder that you can bounce back from 1 off game. And in this off game they scored 22, and could have scored more had Saquon not taken a knee and scored that final TD.

The Eagles only got to Jordan Love twice (both by Nolan Smith), but they were getting pressure all game long. 18 total pressures. Most of that came from Nolan Smith (5), Jalen Carter (5), and Milton Williams (4). But they were consistently putting heat on Jordan Love, and forcing him  to scramble or make bad decisions.

It is hard to say enough about how much Nolan Smith has come on this season. From barley playing last year, to being their best Edge Rusher. Add him on top of Jalen Carter and Milton Williams, and the Eagles have a formidable pass rushing trio. We did not hear from Josh Sweat in this game, but he has had a great season too.

After the Packers scored their one and only TD, you were hoping the Eagles would respond with a TD of their own. They eventually settled for a FG to make it a 9 point game though. Some fans were disappointed by that. But what they did accomplish on that drive might have been more valuable than the extra 4 points would have been.

They ran 7:23 off the clock on that drive. Took up nearly half the quarter. It is something the Eagles do better than anyone late in games. They just grind the clock down. The Packers were put in a spot where they needed 2 scores in 7 and a half minutes, against a defense that had only given up 10 points in the first 53 minutes of the game. It was such a clutch drive.

Yes you would like it to end in a TD. But do not underestimate their ability to wind down the clock. It has won games for them, and it may continue to win games as they advance further into the playoffs.