How the Los Angeles Rams can beat New England Patriots

How the Los Angeles Rams can beat New England Patriots

By the Times Sports Staff

sports @ thee ven ingtimes .com

What an outstanding job Sean McVay has done of turning this franchise around. He has taken a team without a winning record in 13 seasons to division champions, to playing the mighty New England Patriots in Super Bowl LIII in just two years in charge.

McVay, who has just turned 33, is the youngest head coach to ever play for the Lombardi.

He’s eight years younger than Tom Brady, and half his opposite number Bill Belichick’s age.

Sunday’s game is being billed at a battle between proven greatness and a new wave of football.

The rest of the NFL is already falling over itself to find the next McVay – to hire anyone who’s ever spoken to him or served him a cup of tea, as the memes go. Losing to New England shouldn’t blemish his reputation, but what a statement it would be to get the win.

The Rams go into the game as very slight underdogs. Fair enough, the Patriots have done this all before. A few times, actually. Here’s what Los Angeles need to do to be standing under a cloud of white, blue and gold confetti on Sunday night.

The big question hanging over Los Angeles ever since the NFC Championship game has been what on earth is wrong with Todd Gurley? Gurley claimed he was not injured, but just ‘played sorry’ in the win over the Saints.

Sorry is accurate – Gurley put in the worst performance of his career, rushing for just 10 yards from four carries and dropping two passes, one of which resulted in Demario Davis’ interception.

I do think the concerns over Gurley heading into the Super Bowl are somewhat overblown, though. Sometimes good players just have bad days, and with CJ Anderson playing as well as he has the Rams could afford to take Gurley out of the game.

Number 30 had 16 carries for 115 yards and a touchdown the week before against the Cowboys, remember. That game still raised eyebrows, as he had seven carries fewer than Anderson, but that’s because whatever Gurley may say he's definitely not 100 per cent fit. He will bounce back on Sunday night, though. He has to.

The Patriots’ command of the clock has turned the run into a non-factor against them so far this postseason. Damien Williams had just 30 yards from 10 carries in the AFC title game and the Chargers fell shy of 20 as a team a week prior. Neither of those rushing attacks are as dynamic as the Gurley-Anderson duo, though, and neither of them has Sean McVay drawing up their plan.

Can former Patriot Brandin Cooks hurt his old team? CREDIT: AP The Rams will need to score at least 30 points to win the Super Bowl, and that means Jared Goff will have to go toe-to-toe with Brady. Their success all year has come from their mastery of play action, which they do better than any other team in the league, and the ability of their receivers to run tight crossing routes and create traffic for the defense.

By lining up closer to the line of scrimmage, Brandin Cooks, Robert Woods and Josh Reynolds tend to run deeper, straighter routes rather than looking outside. Not only does that mean they can go for big gains when they get themselves open – Goff was fourth among all quarterbacks in yards per pass attempt through the regular season – but it also makes them more effective run blockers.

If the Rams’ offensive line can ward off Trey Flowers and keep Goff’s pocket relatively clean then he can absolutely hurt a Patriots secondary which relies heavily on number one comer Stephon Gilmore. Gilmore will likely be tasked with keeping former Patriot Brandin Cooks under wraps, which will give Woods opportunities against Jason McCourty and rookie JC Jackson. Expect a fair amount of involvement for Tyler Higbee and Gerald Everett on two tight end sets, too.

“Tom Brady hates it when you pressure him up the middle!” – that’s the line which gets parroted every time the conversation about how to stop New England’s greatest ever under centre. It’s not wrong, but only because no quarterback likes it when you pressure them through the middle.

The Rams just happen to have the best interior pass rusher to grace the NFL in decades – maybe ever – in Aaron Donald, and he will be more important than ever on Sunday. If Donald can win the battle with the Patriots’ offensive line, which is yet to allow a sack in the postseason and played to a phenomenal level, then the Rams have a chance at slowing down an offense which has dominated these play-offs.

The pressure will need to come fast – Brady has got the ball out of his hands rapidly when he’s been at his best this season, and this was particularly noticeable against the Chargers and Chiefs, neither of whom could so much as fluster number 12. That was the biggest disappointment about both of their performances.

Brady has occasionally looked his age and been unwilling to take hits when pressured this year, and the Chargers and Chiefs both had the players to do it. Neither could.

Brady picked apart Kansas City’s defense through the fourth quarter and in overtime by searching out his two favourite weapons, Julian Edelman and Rob Gronkowski. The Rams should put the quick, nimble Nickell Robey-Coleman – remember him, Saints fans? – on Edelman, as Marcus Peters and Aqib Talib do not have the right skill set to stop him. Gronkowski is always a match-up nightmare, even in the twilight of his career.

Talib and Lemarcus Joyner look best equipped to handle him in what may be his last NFL game.

More important than all of this, though, is how Los Angeles deal with the Patriots’ backfield.

Sony Michel has 242 rushing yards and five touchdowns in his first two play-off games, and has been the foundation of New England’s success on offense.

James White, who had an eye-watering 15 receptions for just shy of 100 yards against the Chargers, is also a giant factor.

The Pats have set their intentions out early doors this January, starting each game with seven-minute-plus, run heavy scoring drives. The reason they have been so incredibly successful over the past two decades is because they do the simple things incredibly well. Want to stop the opposing team scoring points? Simply keep their offense off the field as much as possible.

Ndamukong Suh – a free agent in the spring – has been in excellent form against both the run and pass recently. Defensive end Michael Brockers and linebacker Cory Littleton (12 tackles against the Saints) have been playing well too – they completely shut down New Orleans’ rush attack in the NFC title game and held Ezekiel Elliott under 50 yards the week before. Defensive coordinator Wade Phillips has a good record against Belichick (6-7 that counts as good against Bill) and beat him the last time they met in the play-offs, when he was with the Broncos in 2015.

He has to find a way to stop the Pats controlling the game on the ground and dominating time of possession, or Goff will have to go one better than Patrick Mahomes two weekends ago.