JACKSONVILLE vs LOS ANGELES 

RAMS WIN 35 – 7

• Story of the Game – Jaguars fall flat in London while Stafford and company put up a dominant performance 

An up and down season for Jacksonville’s offense continues as they’ve hit another bump in the road with yet again a strong defense out of the NFC West. As Jacksonville struggled to get anything going on early downs, largely due to the inability to win the LOS, they were forced to rely on the quick pass/screen game to help with their failing OL. As soon as they started to find any sort of rhythm in either the run or pass game penalties, drops, and inconsistent accuracy from Trevor Lawrence set this offense back time after time and the Rams took advantage as Jacksonville was left in 3rd & long/obvious passing downs far too often to have any success. As Jacksonville tried to muster any sort of momentum or success out of their offense Los Angeles marched the down the field drive after drive as Stafford was largely untouched throughout this game and was able to pick apart the back end of this Jacksonville defense, who was penalty prone all day as well. All in all it was ugly performance from Jacksonville who really only found success on offense when they were in tempo and defensively looked outmatched up front along with having no answers for Davante and Stafford connection in the red zone. 

• Key Notes for the Rams 

The Rams deserve credit on both sides of the ball as they largely owned the LOS throughout the entire game. While the running game for the Rams wasn’t necessarily dominant they largely were able to pick up 3-5yds at will which set up their play action passing that led to a number of big plays and made their pass protection just that easier on themselves. Pass protection wise the Jaguars were able to find ways through stunts and blitzes to get pressure on Stafford but the OL did just enough along with Stafford making some plays work on his own that while Stafford was hit a number of times Jacksonville wasn’t able to record a sack on the day. 

Defensively the Rams DL absolutely mauled Jacksonville up front and routinely got to Trevor as they wracked up 7 sacks on the day. The Jaguars running game also had no where to go and this ultimately limited Jacksonville’s play calling high just made their well coached secondary that much harder to beat as it felt like the Rams were one step ahead drive after drive and play after play. 

Stafford was absolutely lights out this game as he spread the ball around to 10 separate receivers but when it came to the red zone him and Davante Adams took over and ended the game with 3 TDs (2 Fades + Quick Skinny Post) which capped off well designed and called drives. While Jacksonville didn’t help themselves with a number of penalties in their secondary I’m not sure there was anyone stopping what Stafford and the Rams had going even despite Puka Nacua being out this game. 

The Rams secondary continues to impress as they really don’t have high end talent in either the S or CB room but these guys are incredibly tied together and it shows as they were smothering Jaguars receivers all day which I think showed in the number of drops over the middle for Jacksonville. Quentin Lake and Darious Williams both had phenomenal games and if they continue to play at this level with this pass rush in front of them the league could be in real trouble. 

• Key Notes for the Jaguars 

I really can’t point to any one thing that led to this Jaguars offense failing to the stent that it did as really nothing went well. The OL struggled in pass protection especially as Verse and Fiske ruined a number of snaps from them up front, not just Brian Thomas Jr but almost all of the WRs had drop issues that killed a couple of drives, and HC Liam Coen looked like he had no answer for what LAR was throwing at their offense. The only positive I saw from this group was when they ran tempo offense and forced LAR’s hands at times by forcing them to communicate and adjust in the fly but even then that success was up and down due to all of the issues I just covered. On top of it all they struggled with penalties at times well that just piled on top of everything else that was already going wrong which ultimately came together into nearly being shut out at Travis Hunter not had made the play that he did.

Defensively the secondary had a rough day despite not giving up any huge gains as they had a number of penalties in coverage (Currently ranked 18th in NFL for defensive penalties) and really struggled in the red zone (Jourdan Lewis especially) as they gave up 4 passing TDs near the goal line. 

Along with the struggles in the secondary the pass rush was non existent for a large amount of this game, really up until the late 3rd and early 4th Quarter where Josh Hines-Allen was able to find some success on stunts to get to Stafford but still was unable to bring him down for a sack. Aside from Hines-Allen the pass rush was really non existent and it allowed Stafford to pick apart this defense all game long. Early on in this year before Walker was injured this pass rush was finding a lot of success especially on stunts but in recent weeks even as Walker has come back this group has not looked the same despite having a lot of talent. 

• Standout Performers 

LAR 

Matthew Stafford – 21/33  182yds  5/0 

Davante Adams – 5/35  3TDs 

Quentin Lake – 6 Tackles (4 Solo)  1 Sack  1 TFL  1 FF  2 PBUs

Darious Williams – 2 Tackles (1 Solo)  4 PBUs

Jared Verse – 2 Tackles (1 Solo)  1 Sack  1 TFL 

Brandon Fiske – 1 Tackle  1 PD

• Not a huge box score game but tore apart JAX IOL 

JAX 

Parker Washington – 4/52 

Travis Hunter – 8/104  1 TD rec – 1 PBU on Adams fade route 

Josh Hines-Allen – 1 Tackle 

• Not a big game in box score but was the one consistent threat along DL