The Los Angeles Rams and Green Bay Packers will tango on Sunday at Lambeau Field. Both teams still have dreams of landing the top seed and the only bye in the NFC playoff standings. LA is coming off of their week off, having lost two consecutive games. Green Bay is 8-3 but just lost to the Minnesota Vikings.
Facing the Rams will be one of the Packers’ most significant tests of the year. Here are four things LA does well that Green Bay has to watch out for.
Pressure on the quarterback
The Rams are third in the NFL in sacks per game, averaging 2.9. Given Green Bay’s situation up front on the offensive line, this could be the perfect opportunity for the Rams to try and feast on Sunday.
Green Bay will be without All-Pro caliber lineman Elgton Jenkins, who tore his ACL on Sunday against the Vikings. Their All-Pro left tackle David Bakhtiari still hasn’t played this year and has already been ruled out for this matchup. Rookie starting center Josh Myers remains on injured reserve. Suffice to say, Green Bay is reeling up front and looking for answers.
That’s not great news, with Von Miller and Aaron Donald ready to cause plenty of havoc. LA was elite before they traded for Miller, and now he’s had some time to settle in.
Matt LaFleur and Aaron Rodgers will figure out a game plan that likely features plenty of quick passes and a good dose of the running game to try and slow down the LA front. If they don’t, it could be a big day for the Rams’ defensive front.
Getting Cooper Kupp the ball
It doesn’t matter what sort of coverages defenses have played against Cooper Kupp this year, Matthew Stafford has gotten him the ball early and often. Kupp is second in the NFL in targets with 116, trailing only Tyreek Hill, who has played one more game than the Rams’ dynamic wideout. Kupp averages 11.6 targets per game, tops in the league.
As a whole, the Rams’ passing game is pretty damn good, but they’ll have to go forward without Robert Woods. The good news for them is that the Odell Beckham Jr. signing will hopefully fill that void. Even if it doesn’t, it could just mean more looks for Kupp, who has become fairly unstoppable.
His fewest targets in a game is nine. His lowest yardage total in any one game is 64. Kupp has two touchdowns in four of the 10 games the Rams have played this year. His stats are unreal.
Green Bay’s secondary will be plenty busy trying to diagram different ways to slow down Kupp.
Give Stafford plenty of time
The entire operation for the Rams’ offense has worked in perfect harmony for large parts of the season. While it’s sputtered in the last two games, they’ve now had an entire bye week to shift gears.
An underrated part of this Rams offense has been the big boys up front giving Stafford plenty of time to make decisions in the pocket. According to NextGenStats, the Rams give Stafford the fourth-longest amount of time to throw in the league, trailing only the Kansas City Chiefs, Tampa Bay Buccaneers, and Las Vegas Raiders.
All the flashy plays downfield and the viral clips garner much of the attention for the Rams’ offense. But inside the building, they know how important the offensive line has been this year. Having Kupp, Woods (when healthy), and OBJ already seems unfair. Giving Stafford all the time in the world to make those choices makes it that much more intimidating.
The Packers have had tons of success this year with their pass rush. Kenny Clark has been a bulldozer up the middle, and Preston Smith and Rashan Gary are always threats coming off the edge. They’ll need plenty of that on Sunday, and a return from Gary, to try to make life difficult for Stafford.
They’re disciplined
Did anyone else put forks through their eyes watching all the penalties in the Chicago-Detroit Thanksgiving Day game? Did some choose not to watch it? That may have been the better option. However, there shouldn’t be much laundry on the field between the Packers and Rams on Sunday.
LA is the second-least penalized team in the league, according to footballdb.com. Only the Cincinnati Bengals have been flagged fewer times this year.
The Rams don’t have many weaknesses on the roster. Even when looking at the second level — penalties, turnovers, situational decisions — it turns out that the Rams are flat-out good in all the essential categories.
Green Bay will have their hands full on Sunday trying to juggle it all.
