There isn’t one single reason the Los Angeles Rams are 1-3 at this point. The defense has a tackling issue, the offense is missing its top two receivers and the O-line has been banged up through four games.
But if there’s one glaring problem for Sean McVay’s team, it’s the red zone struggles – something that’s never been a strength for the Rams under McVay.
This season, the Rams rank 27th in the NFL in red zone touchdown percentage. They’ve found the end zone only 41.2% of the time when reaching the opponent’s 20-yard line, far worse than last year when they scored on 60% of their trips inside the 20, which was eighth-best.
It was a massive problem for the Rams on Sunday against the Chicago Bears, putting together their worst red zone performance of the season. Despite moving the ball almost at will throughout the game, the Rams were only 1-for-4 in the red zone. They settled for two short field goals from 25 and 37 yards out, came away with no points after an offensive pass interference penalty and missed 43-yard field goal and finally scored a touchdown when Kyren Williams ran it in from 3 yards.
A red zone touchdown rate of 25%, as the Rams had in Week 4, would rank 32nd in the NFL on the season by a wide margin, which just goes to show how poorly the offense performed on Sunday.
The question now is what’s caused these struggles. Is it Matthew Stafford? Is it Sean McVay’s play calling? Is it the lack of Cooper Kupp and Puka Nacua at wide receiver?
The answer is D, all of the above.
It’s never one single factor causing problems in the red zone and for the Rams, it’s a combination of several things. For starters, McVay’s play calling hasn’t been great. He’s known for getting a little bit pass-happy in the red zone, which can lead to stalled drives and disappointing results.
Against the Bears, the Rams were hurt by an offensive pass interference penalty on Tutu Atwell, which took it from second-and-5 to second-and-15. The following two plays were incompletions, leading to the missed 43-yard field goal.
When they did finally score a red zone touchdown, it was Kyren Williams rushed for 7 yards, 14 yards, 5 yards and 3 yards on four consecutive plays after Atwell’s 25-yard reception to get Los Angeles to the 29.
It’s easier than just saying “run the ball every time!” because football doesn’t work like that. Defenses load up to stop the run and the field is condensed in the red zone, which is what makes converting so difficult in that area. And for those complaining about Williams not getting enough red zone touches, he ranks second in the NFL with 20 carries inside the 20-yard line and is tied for first with 12 carries inside the 10.
That being said, McVay needs to get more creative in the red zone. End zone fades typically don’t work, especially with receivers like Demarcus Robinson, Jordan Whittington and Tutu Atwell. Screen passes, which McVay loves, are also tough in the red zone because of how close all the defenders are to the line of scrimmage.
McVay knows he needs to be better in the red zone, but he also acknowledged that the execution must improve, too.
“There was some sequence and things like that where you want to put guys in better spots,” McVay said after the game. “I’ll always look at myself first and foremost on that. For us to be able to move the football as well as we did to get into those situations, they tightened up. Some of it was definitely where I’ve got to do a better job of it, and then there’s times where we can execute collectively better in terms of just our overall techniques, fundamentals, and ability to fight through the down based on what the defense presents.”
Beyond the play calling, Stafford simply has to clean up his red zone passes. According to Pro Football Reference, his completion rate of 36.4% in the red zone is the second-worst of any starting quarterback with at least 10 attempts this season. Only Joe Burrow has been worse. Inside the 10-yard line, he’s been even worse, completing only 3 of 11 passes for 10 yards with one touchdown and one interception.
According to ESPN Stats and Info, Stafford is 0-for-7 with one interception and no touchdowns on passes thrown into the end zone this season.
Missing Nacua and his favorite red zone target, Cooper Kupp, has certainly impacted Stafford’s numbers in the red area. He was awesome inside the 10-yard line last season, throwing 15 touchdown passes and no picks on 45 attempts.
Sadly for him, Kupp will most likely miss the Rams’ next game and Nacua may not be back until Week 8, so he has at least another one or two games without both receivers on the field. In the meantime, he’ll have to manage with Robinson, Atwell and Whittington as his primary red zone targets, along with 6-foot-7 Colby Parkinson – a player with a huge catch radius but also someone who hasn’t been on the same page as Stafford in the tight areas of the field.
The Rams aren’t going to go very far if they can’t turn yards into touchdowns because even with scoring down across the NFL, field goals don’t win games.
