The Los Angeles Rams (4-5) came out and played inconsistent football at night, specifically on the offensive side in their Week 10 loss to the Miami Dolphins (3-6) at home on Monday Night Football. Head coach Sean McVay spoke postgame and the poor offensive line performance.
The Rams were returning a few starting linemen that were sidelined since the first few weeks of the season. Steve Avila and Jonah Jackson came back after extended injuries this week and the entire unit struggled to keep the Dolphins out of the backfield.
Coming into the contest, the Rams had not allowed a sack in their previous two games. They allowed four on Monday night with many more plays of pressure occurring early and often throughout the loss.
"I want to be able to look at the tape, but there were a lot of things that were not in alignment with what we're looking for.," McVay said. "That's why you hear us talk about the importance of the continuity. [I] got a lot of respect for that defense. They did a nice job but there were too many things that it just seemed like we were off and never gave ourselves a chance. And it's not exclusively on the [offensive] line. As a whole collectively, we're all in this thing together and we will look at it and we've got to be able to improve and everything's on the table."
McVay addressed blame to the entire group which is extremely fair considering the Rams did not score a touchdown and were 3-12 on third down conversions. A leading force for those struggles was the lack of time that Stafford had to throw the ball.
At some point during the game, the Rams decided to switch things up and move Jonah Jackson from tackle to center and transferring rookie Beaux Limmer to the tackle position. The switch was not beneficial as Jackson had a high snap that sailed over Stafford's head for a huge loss on a key drive.
"Both Steve [Avila] and Jonah [Jackson] were ready to go," McVay said. "[I] wanted to be able to see what that looked like. You never know exactly but always try to do what we think is best and this will be some good film to be able to look at and see alright, what do we think is the best way to put guys in the right spots to give them a chance to be successful and ultimately our offense."
The Dolphins defense had a field day through all four quarters. Including the four sacks, they recorded seven tackles for loss and six quarterback hits.
Dolphins veteran defensive tackle Calais Campbell was the best player on the field with three tackles, one sack, one tackle for loss, and two pass deflections. There were hands in the air all night for the Dolphins as they forced an interception on a tipped pass early in the game.
"Getting hands down, being able to negotiate some of those throwing lanes," McVay said regarding the Dolphins defensive game plan. "It felt like it was a little bit loose early on. As the game went on, I thought we were able to protect better which gave us a chance to be able to sustain some drives, but ultimately not being able to finish in the red area. But hats off to them. They did a really good job and it felt like there was a bunch of bodies at the point of attack, specifically on some of those early third downs."
The Rams will seek to improve their offensive line this week as they will hit the road to play the New England Patriots (3-7) in Week 11. It will be good for Avila, Jackson, and several other people movers up front to watch this film and make the proper adjustments for next week.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com/nfl/rams/ as Rams' McVay Frustrated with Key Aspect of the Offense.