Los Angeles Rams vs. Arizona Cardinals Preview & Prediction | PFF

The PFF Plus holiday sale is going on right now. Use the promo code holiday30 to get yourself 30% off a PFF Plus subscription. That means that you get everything. The grades, the premium stats, all of the fantasy tools, all the betting tools, all the draft tools. It’s everything a football fan could want year round. Holiday 30. That’s what gets you 30% off that year-long PFF plus subscription at subscribe.pff.com. [Music] the Rams um trying to bounce back from that loss that they had in Carolina this past weekend. Uh traveling to Arizona to take on the Arizona Cardinals in that divisional matchup there. Uh how do the Rams bounce back? What’s the Rams outlook on the offensive side of things for this game? Do the Rams need to do I mean they do a lot of things best. Matthew Stafford despite last week I think you could still argue is the MVP favorite and much has been made the last couple years about the run schemes. Cash Sean McVey known as a Shanahan tree guy who was always a fan of those outside zone schemes. But the last couple years they’ve gotten in there and they run duo. They get downhill. They put multiple tight ends on the field. They get double teams going up front and they just mash you up front offensive line versus your defensive line. I think they have an opportunity to do that against the Cardinals here. When you look at the Rams, they run man and duo schemes at the highest rate in the NFL. They’re eighth in rushing grade. They’re second in run blocking grade on those schemes. Kevin Dodson and those guys up front just maul you. And when you look at the Cardinals, even when they’ve had extra defensive linemen on the field, their interior defenders, aside from Kus Campbell and the little bit that we’ve seen of a healthy a healthy Walter Nolan, they really have not been very good on the inside defending against these downhill runs. They’re 27th in run defense grade against man and duo concepts and they’re 24th in yards per carry allowed. If it’s me, if you want to get Matthew Stafford back in a little bit of a rhythm after an off week last week, start with running the football with Kairen Williams with Blake Corm. Dominate this Arizona Cardinals team in the trenches, then get to the play action, get back to the foundation of your offense. And honestly, when you’re going against a team that you’re better than and you can just run your foundational concepts, you should have a good day. See, the Rams getting or the Cardinals getting seven and a half, I just I I can’t get over the line of of the Bears getting six and a half. I just think that’s that’s too much in that game against the Packers. That’s too much. That’s too much in my opinion. Anyways, in this one, I think this is obviously much more about the Los Angeles Rams than it is the Arizona Cardinals. When you look at the Cardinals over the last two weeks, though, very much had a chance right there to beat the Jaguars, and they only lost by those three points. I think that they had a chance to beat the Tampa Bay Buccaneers as well, and they lost by three points. I think some uh uh field position really is is the reason why Tampa had a little bit better field position on a couple of their drives that ended in points and and Arizona just didn’t have that similar sort of favor when it come came to field position and being able to put themselves in a position to score. So I think that Arizona does things well. Obviously the run game is is not what it needs to be. It’s not nearly as dynamic as what it could have been with Trey Benson and James Connor being healthy for this team. Uh the run game has just struggled overall this year and without it they’ve put a lot on Jacobe Brousett’s plate. Um he has delivered in ways. I mean he’s had some massive uh passing outputs over the last month I should say not just over the last couple of weeks. So to be honest with you man like Arizona’s been right there. They have they’ve just not been able to close out games that they’ve been there in in the fourth quarter. Uh they’re they’re they’re just not a closing team. They don’t have a winning identity. They don’t know how to close. They don’t know how to win. and that’s just where this team is right now. So, I think this is much much much more about the Los Angeles Rams and how they look coming after a loss. But, uh I I I just I don’t really have a lot to say about the Cardinals right now. It’s it’s a team that um they’re three and eight. Their offensive line’s not very good. They can’t run the football. They’re putting too much on Jacobe Brassett’s plate and they’re still trying to figure things out on the defensive side of things. Although they are very talented, they’ve had guys in and out of the lineup due to injury and it’s just it’s not their year. I don’t think there’s any other way to say it. So, I think they’ll be decently competitive in this game. What was the final score I had? Uh, Rams 28, Cardinals 23. Cuz again, I think the Cardinals have been decent. They’ve just really shot themselves in the foot in key areas and that’s why they have a lot more losses than they do wins. But ultimately, I do think that this is the Rams game to lose. Yeah, I have it. Rams 31, Cardinals 21. A big difference is when you look at especially two of the three losses for the Rams, the Panthers and the 49ers. They were able to at least find a way to control the pace of the game. the Niners with their quick passing game, the Panthers with their run game, the Cardinals inability to run the football I think is a real problem here. And you can’t be onedimensional against this Rams team. I think that’s the biggest issue. But I do think the Rams, and look, even for the three turnovers and the seemingly bad day that Matthew Stafford had, they still went out to Carolina and scored 28 points last week. I think the Rams are going to be just fine.

PFF’s Dalton Wasserman and Trevor Sikkema preview the matchup between The Los Angeles Rams and The Arizona Cardinals.

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