LONDON — The last two years, the Rams have entered their bye week in need of soul searching. Both seasons, they have been three games under .500 and coming off losses that left head coach Sean McVay and his staff in need of answers, not rest, during the week off.
After Sunday’s 35-7 win over the Jacksonville Jaguars, the Rams can enjoy their bye this season with a certain level of confidence.
“Obviously we’re in a better spot record-wise,” quarterback Matthew Stafford said with a reflective laugh. “Still a lot to be cleaned up, a lot of things we can be better at. But we’ve done a nice job through the first seven of finding ways to win games most of the time.”
At 5-2, the Rams are tied with the San Francisco 49ers for the NFC West lead. They’ve already played the hardest part of their travel schedule, with four road trips that were never further west than Nashville and, this weekend, reached England. They are the only team to beat the Indianapolis Colts, who own the NFL’s best record.
And instead of searching for answers, they looked as if they are starting to solve some of their deficiencies in the win over the Jaguars.
The red zone issues that have plagued this team dating back to last season were a non-factor against Jacksonville. The Rams went 4-for-4 inside the Jaguars 20, with three of the touchdowns going to Davante Adams.
Adams credited the success to the way the Rams were able to blend their run and pass games to keep the Jaguars off-balance.
“What we were presented with on defense today, we saw a few opportune moments to go and take advantage of some one-on-ones, marry up the run game with the pass game,” Adams said. “The second touchdown in the back of the end zone there, that was a play off of a play that we ran literally right before that. So just keep in mind, let’s figure out a way to punch it in.”
That progress came without star receiver Puka Nacua. And yet without him, the Rams scored a season-high 35 points while getting 10 pass catchers involved. This included all four tight ends, with the Rams rolling out 12- and 13-personnel groupings with a lot of frequency against the Jaguars.
Granted, the Jaguars defense has been one of the worst in the NFL against multi-tight end sets. But McVay did not speak about a matchup-dependent approach when asked about this deployment after the Jaguars game as he did earlier in the season.
“When we’ve got four legitimate NFL tight ends and you got them all up and active, well, let’s take advantage of that,” McVay said. “As the season goes, you might have an idea of what you think you’re going to be but it’s about utilizing all the personnel that you do have, and I think this is an exciting thing to be able to build on.”
The Rams fixed their run defense during the offseason with development and additions like Nate Landman and Poona Ford, to the point that the Jaguars scarcely tried to run the ball Sunday even before the score got out of hand. But one area that had been a struggle was the play of the secondary, especially after losing corner Ahkello Witherspoon to a broken collarbone.
But the last two games have shown a group that is starting to settle into its reshuffled roles. The Rams secondary accounted for seven of the Rams’ nine passes defended on Sunday, with corner Darious Williams alone contributing four. Williams had struggled early in the year, but the last two weeks he has turned a new page and provided the Rams with steady play.
There are still areas to clean up. Third-down execution for the offense was still an issue against the Jaguars.
But the Rams went 16-4 after the bye in the last two seasons combined. If they can put together the type of improvement that characterized 2023 and 2024 after this break, there’s reason to believe this could be a special season for the Rams.
“I want us to see us be able to put it together,” McVay said. “I just really love this team. There’s something about this team, the way that they go to work, the intentionality, it’s about the individuals and you just love each of those individuals and how they make up the collective.”