Obviously, the primary storyline in Sunday’s wild-card game between the Los Angeles Rams and the Detroit Lions is the Matthew Stafford-Jared Goff former team thing, and justifiably so. But when you dig deeper into both of these offenses, their run games are exceptional, and Sean McVay’s Rams run game isn’t just great — it’s very different with Kyren Williams as the lead back.
McVay used to be one of the primary purveyors of outside zone runs, but that’s changed exponentially in recent years. In 2023, they’ve run behind gap blocking schemes on 42% of their snaps, which ranks fifth in the league. In 2022, the Rams ran gap on 29% of their attempts, which ranked 20th. In 2021, they ran gap on 20% of their snaps, which ranked 28th. In 2020, it was 17%, which ranked 28th.
