The REAL Reason The Rams Keep WINNING Without Puka Nacua

The REAL Reason The Rams Keep WINNING Without Puka Nacua

All right, so those games, the first game we got to watch on Sunday was our Rams, baby. Our Rams rolling in London, 35-7 uh against the Jaguars. That one surprise you at all? I’m going to be honest, I was nervous about it only because the familiarity of of Liam Cohen and Shawn McVey and and what you know, what are you going to ask? And also just how aggressive the Jacksonville Jaguars have been on defense. So it’s like can you get in some of those situations without puka nakua and they’re bringing lots of heat and and you just you’re just off right and and if you’ve played in London, you’ve been over there when you get some of these games where it’s a little wet, the grass is really high, like guys are slipping and falling and and so these games can get kind of muddy and ugly sometimes. And um I think so for me I was a little nervous about it from that standpoint. Um, also thought it was pretty cool around the game fits, which I think is like something that unless you’re really following both organizations, you don’t understand. But like, you know, Stan Kroni, his involvement in the Premier League, Shod Khan, like there’s almost this like uh, you know, soccer football mashup going on over in Europe because you got two guys who are very involved in both spaces. And so, uh, I know with Sean, he has a great relationship uh, with Artetta from Arsenal and and they spent a lot of time together. And so there’s kind of this cool bonding of like both franchises and their owners and how they’re involved they are in the global world of sports which I think also talks to some of the things we talked to Roger Goodell about right is just how big the game has gotten globally. So that was really neat to kind of see that you know come together in that mashup way but also just man I called it last week I said Stafford and Devonte got to find a way to find each other in these moments and boy did they fit. They did. And that’s the thing that we knew about Devonte Adams going to the Rams just in the red zone when it’s one-on-one. He’s so hard to cover. And you don’t see a lot of the red zone fades anymore. Not high percentage, whatever it is, but it becomes a high percentage play with Matthew Stafford and Devonte Adams. Was really cool to see. And then I’ll say too, like I you don’t want to play without your best players. But the challenge of playing without Puka Nakua, you saw all the different ways they got other people involved. the tight end fest creative. It was a tight end fest. It was creative on offense. Um sometimes that can help a little bit because it challenges coaches in a way to where they have to put something together uh that they haven’t thought of yet cuz they lean so much on Puka and what he does in the run game and the pass game. So I was really, you know, happy to see that and the way they did get creative a little bit and include different guys and all the different targets that Matthew was throwing to. And then I I wanted to ask you because I I had only played one game over in London, but traveling out there on a Saturday like the Rams did. They stayed on the East Coast from the week before. They go over there on Saturday. They must have known something that the whole rest of the league doesn’t know cuz I thought that was crazy that they were going to try that. And to come out and score right away and say, “Look, we’re going to be just fine and win that game 357. I guess they know what they’re doing.” Yeah. I mean, I look at it, you know, Sean’s been over three times now. It’s all blowout. So, I think the Rams need to figure out a way to just make sure they schedule a game over in London. That’s that’s the number one thing they need to do. But, yeah, I thought it was interesting what you know, I’ve told you, you know, when we me, you and Sherm sit around and talk football a lot and philosophy of buildings and stuff. Um, I’ve always really respected much less playing there, but just have the opportunity to be around Kevin Demoff and Less and Tony Pastors and Shawn McVey and all their crew that kind of has a part of that decision- making and Reggie Scott obviously from the performance side. I’ve always loved that they’re always willing to not try to be different, but to always kind of push to what’s best for for our players. Like, let’s not just do things because every team does it this way. Let’s make sure that we’re maximizing what we think is best and what falls into our rhythm. And so, what the reason I say that is uh really kind of what one of the changes that happened in my time there is we used to go out, I don’t know how much East Coast, West Coast stuff you did, but used to go out a day early. So, we would go west to east. We would go out a day early on Friday nights. we’d fly out there and land. And then in my career, midway through, Sean was like, I don’t like it. I think that what we ought to do is practice earlier in camp, get used to the 10 a.m. window, and when we get to the season, since we have a ton of East Coast trips, we’re going to just fly out on Saturday and have the guys used to, hey, your rhythm is we get into the hotel, we do very little, we go to sleep, you wake up, and you play. And on your clock, it’s 10:00 a.m. in the morning, just like we practiced at that time in training camp. And we’re just going to roll. And that was our plan. And so what they really did with this trip is try to treat it like that. Like, hey, every week, I think people forget about the travel for a team like Los Angeles and the Chargers or the Rams or Seattle. Um, is like, hey, every week we’re, you know, those guys where their facility is to the airport. They’re bus riding for two hours, hour and a half. Then they’re getting on a plane for four or five hours um to go play a game on the East Coast every time they have an East Coast trip. So for them, it was like, hey, we’re going to stay east. We’re just going to stay in Baltimore and it’s going to basically be outside of the hour change because we actually play later in London. It’s going to be just like us leaving LA and going to Baltimore to go play in a football game. And so they kind of tried to treat it that way like hey when we get in on Saturday morning you guys just sleep, rest up, get all your energy and back and on Sunday we’ll play a game just like we traveled west coast to East Coast which I thought was a really interesting way to go at it. um you know and and their philosophy is to always keep finding that little edge and and I think it was neat to see that they’re willing to do that cuz there’s just not a lot of franchises that do that. There’s a lot of teams that you know it’s not derogatory them is a lot good but they just do stuff cuz everybody else does it that way. You know what’s your schedule that’s how we’ll do it. I mean Shawn McVey is a trends setter. the way he calls plays, the way he wears capries on the sideline or joggers, whatever we’re calling them. And now, hey Vince, I do want to ask you this because you brought up the red zone and their success down there and a lot of the creativity they had to use using the tight ends really on offense in general. Uh, getting down in there with Damonte. You know, there’s a lot of like conversation all about red zone offense where you see like this day and especially when these teams are playing all this shell stuff nowadays. It’s like you can drive the field, you get the red zone and and then you just stall out with a lot of offensive football. a lot of stats but no scorers in the end zone. Um I always have wondered do you think cuz I think it’s interesting that McVey had this much success in the red zone and it’s something that like Sean is in the past probably been criticized at times for how good they are all over the field and then the red zone not as successful some years. Do you think sometimes creativity like having to come up with plays rather than just all the stuff you normally do is is better for a quarterback in the red zone and like just an offense in general or do you like like just staying in your normal rhythm? Because it feels like to me a lot of times the Rams just kind of run the stuff they do and then in a game like this it felt like there was a lot of plays that were really schemed up for when we get down here this is what we’re going to do. Yeah. I I think part of it when you have a guy like Devonte Adams, the old school way of thinking in the red zone, especially when you get like five, four, three yard line, two yard line, we’re going to put a lot of big people in there and we’re going to have our best receiver over there to the left or over there to the right and we’re going to call a run play. And if we like the look, which means there’s two guys on Devonte, we’re going to hand this thing off and we’re going to try to go two yards in a cloud of dust and try to get in the end zone after a play or two. And if you decide to single Devonte, then we’re going to throw it to Dvonte, whether it’s going to be a one-step slant or a fade. And sometimes the simplicity of that when you have a guy that 80% of the time is going to win on that red zone fade or on a red zone slant, uh, that’s how simple it used to be. But I I think you’re right in that um you know the two fades are one thing but Sean in having to look in different ways having to have a little more creativity and well I think you know the Chiefs like it always feels like they’ve always got all these g like just all this stuff going on down there when you get down there you’re like holy crap like you it just you have to kind of be on all they make a defense have to be in all their P’s and Q’s like who’s where what’s who’s got what in what situation it just feels like they challenge defenses down there do they know all their rules and I just think that you see different teams have a different approach, right? Like not every team’s got Lamar Jackson and Derrick Henry and it’s like Lord, you’re, you know, you’re in trouble no matter what when we get down there. But a great example is like their first touchdown, Katada Mumfield, like young guy that the franchise is really high on, they’re really excited about, and he runs a route that typically we see Dvonte Adams run on some kind of action in the back field, like that little skinny post uh that we’ve seen him try to hit Devonte Adams on. And how about Stafford’s eyes on that one? I mean, what he’s known for, right? I mean, guy running right at him. He’s staring over this way and throws it to a guy who he’s never connected with on a touchdown before. A lot of faith and belief, but also really cool. Devonte loving that guy. Kannata up after the game saying how special he thinks he’s going to be.

Fitz and Whit dive deep into the Rams blowout wins against the Jaguars, how the team’s travel schedule may have given them a leg up, and just how important the development of Stafford’s connection with Davante Adams is going to be for the rest of the season.
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