The Cowboys got plenty of good news in their pregame warm-ups prior to the NFC divisional round game at the L.A. Coliseum. Dallas pass targets Cole Beasley and Blake Jarwin both suffered ankle injuries in the wild-card win over Seattle and both missed each and every practice this week leading up to the Rams game. And both Beasley and Jarwin will be a part of the 46-man gameday roster, as nether was one of the seven inactives announced prior to the game. Left guard Xavier Su’a-Filo, who was limited all week with his own ankle injury, will give it a go. Either he or rookie Connor Williams will be responsible for containing Aaron Donald. Here’s a list of Dallas’ inactives, with the biggest surprise being Daniel Ross, a rotational interior player. DT David Irving QB Mike White LB Chris Covington S Darian Thompson RB Darius Jackson DE Dorance Armstrong DT Daniel Ross Cowboys inactives: Mike White, Darian Thompson, Darius Jackson, Chris Covington, Dorance Armstrong, Daniel Ross, David Irving. Cole Beasley and Blake Jarwin are both ACTIVE #cowboyswire — David Helman (@HelmanDC) January 12, 2019 As for the Los Angeles Rams, here’s a look at the seven men they will sit down.<doc-sep>Related Everything You Need to Know About the 2019 Divisional Round Sun Tzu wrote that “every battle is won or lost before it’s ever fought.” The Rams proved that against the Cowboys on Saturday by out-preparing them last week. L.A. beat Dallas 30-22 on Saturday with an unstoppable ground game. The Rams ran the ball 48 times for 273 yards (5.7 yards per carry), earning the fourth-most rushing yards in a game this season and the most the franchise has had in a game since 2001. Seventeen of L.A.’s 30 first downs came on the ground, which is the most rushing first downs in a playoff game since the number started being tracked in 1999. C.J. Anderson and Todd Gurley each ran for more than 100 yards, the first time two running backs on the same team both crossed that mark in the same playoff game in more than 20 years. How did L.A. put together such a dominant performance against a run defense that ranked fourth best in rush yards allowed per attempt (3.8) and fifth best in run defense DVOA this season? Anderson and Gurley deserve credit for the romp, but so too does L.A.’s underappreciated offensive line, which submitted one of the best blocking performances by any team this year. The Rams run-blocking has been great all year, and in this game they had a secret weapon: They knew what the Cowboys defense was going to do before the ball was snapped. “They’re a defensive line that really likes to move a lot,” right guard Austin Blythe told The Ringer. “We had a pretty good tell when they were going to do that.” The Cowboys don’t blitz often under defensive coordinator Rod Marinelli, so they rely on stunts with their four defensive linemen to disrupt the backfield. A stunt is when a defensive lineman (or usually multiple defensive linemen) attacks a different gap than the one he is lined up across from. The goal is to confuse opposing offensive linemen by having multiple defenders crash to a different spot than expected and then use the chaos to disrupt the backfield. But stunts depend on the element of surprise, and during Los Angeles’s film study in the week leading up to the game against Dallas, the Rams discovered that the Cowboys defensive line was tipping whether they were going to stunt based on how they aligned before the snap. Depending on the alignment of the Cowboys defensive tackles, particularly whether Maliek Collins was shaded closer to the tackle instead of the guard, the Rams figured a stunt may be coming. If the Rams saw Collins lined up slightly wider than usual, they looked for a second tell. If a certain Cowboys lineman had a specific hand on the ground—right or left—or if a player was tilted one way or the other, it confirmed what the Cowboys defensive line was going to do. “They have good players, but we just felt scheme-wise we were able to—we had a lot of tips and tells on what they were going to do in front of us,” said Rams center John Sullivan. Blythe elaborated: “Usually they like to play a 3-technique but if he got a little wider, and looked like he was going to play the [left or right] tackle, he was going to slant out and we were going to get another movement from the other side too,” Blythe said. “If [the defensive tackle] is going to come in, the tell is going to come in from the other side.” I asked Blythe how often the tells accurately predicted the Cowboys play call. “Plus-90 percent” Blythe said. With the knowledge in hand, all the Rams had to do was execute, and they played almost flawlessly. Quarterback Jared Goff wasn’t sacked, and he was pressured on just one of his 28 dropbacks. That pressure rate (3.4 percent) was the second lowest for any quarterback who had 20 or more dropbacks in a game this season, according to the NFL. After Cowboys defensive end Demarcus Lawrence said last week that he wanted to take Jared Goff’s soul, it’s no wonder Rams cornerback Aqib Talib was so enthusiastic about the Rams’ protection of Goff on the postgame interview. Aqib Talib raids Jared Goff’s postgame interview and drops an enthusiastic F bomb on live TV. pic.twitter.com/g9wnI0V32L — Manouk Akopyan (@Manouk_Akopyan) January 13, 2019 But the run game was where the true domination happened. L.A.’s first three drives went for a combined 36 plays for 214 yards, with the majority of that on the ground. Dallas was fortunate two of those drives stalled in the red zone, and the Rams had just a 13-7 lead midway through the second quarter. Anderson, a bowling ball of butcher knives who was a free agent until a month ago, ran for 123 yards and two touchdowns on 23 carries. Anderson is a talented back, and the Rams line was opening up holes in the Cowboys defense bigger than the plot holes in the second season of True Detective. Here’s Anderson, who ran a 4.6 second 40-yard dash at the 2013 combine, on second-and-10 from the Dallas 15 on L.A.’s third drive going up the middle of the field for 14 yards. He doesn’t get touched until he’s already past the first-down marker 10 yards downfield, and it’s not because he’s Barry Sanders. C.J. Anderson is a man on a mission! #DALvsLAR pic.twitter.com/xZ6CbJLSoa — FOX Sports: NFL (@NFLonFOX) January 13, 2019 On the next Rams drive, Gurley ran untouched for a 35-yard touchdown through the heart of the Cowboys defense to push L.A.’s lead to 20-7 with less than four minutes left in the second quarter. Oh boy look at @awhitworth77 here at LT. Blocks a down lineman and then gets to the second level. Double plus for him pic.twitter.com/xp2c9vuHe3 — Geoff Schwartz (@geoffschwartz) January 13, 2019 Gurley wasn’t touched until he got to the goal line. He was sprung by excellent blocking, particularly from veteran left tackle Andrew Whitworth, who blocks two defenders on the play. Andrew Whitworth's 2-for-1 block was key to the Gurley TD run though Heath was a little out of position on his run fill anyways. pic.twitter.com/WPqn0RjEod — Ted Nguyen (@FB_FilmAnalysis) January 13, 2019 “The red sea parted, and I ran, man,” Todd Gurley said at his postgame press conference after he was asked to Talk About the touchdown run. “Those guys did a great job, coach called a great play, everybody did their job. All I had to do was cut one time and just run.” The blocking on Saturday was superb, but that run also succeeded because of how effective play-fakes, like the fake end around to receiver Josh Reynolds in the backfield after Gurley gets the ball on the above play, have been for the Rams. The team had the highest play-action rate in football by a large margin this season and used it on more than a third of their dropbacks, and against the Cowboys, the Rams cranked up play-fakes even by their lofty standards. No qualifying QB used play action more often during the regular season than Jared Goff (34.6 pct of his dropbacks) according to Pro Football Focus The Rams brought that to a new level tonight vs the Cowboys, as Goff used play action on 51.7 pct of his dropbacks (career high) — NFL Research (@NFLResearch) January 13, 2019 Sean McVay, now the youngest head coach to win a playoff game, constructed a masterful game plan that consistently got first downs on first and second down. The Rams gained 30 first downs on Saturday and faced third down just 11 times, converting five of them (45.5 percent, almost exactly their 45 percent third-down conversion rate in the regular season). On Saturday they showed that the best way to convert on third down is to avoid it altogether. While McVay is often lauded for his schemes, Saturday he’ll be remembered for his aggressiveness. The Rams went for it on fourth-and-1 twice, including from their own 45 on their second drive of the game and fourth-and-goal from the Dallas 1 on their second-to-last drive of the game.<doc-sep>Saturday night in at the Los Angeles Coliseum it was a showdown between the Los Angeles Rams and the Dallas Cowboys, with the victor getting the opportunity to advance to the NFC Championship Game against the victor of Sunday’s game between the Philadelphia Eagles and New Orleans Saints. The Rams brought their high powered offense to the game to take on the Cowboys stout defense, a defense that just a week before had stymied the running game of the Seattle Seahawks by consistently beating the Hawks up front. While the Hawks could never get their ground game going, finishing their Wild Card appearance with just 73 rushing yards, the Rams ran wild on the Dallas defense. L.A. put up nearly four times as many rushing yards as the Hawks had in the previous week, tallying up 273 rushing yards against what had been a top five defense against the run. In any case, that brings up the question about what was so different between the two games that led to the stark contrast in performances? Obviously, as in any such explanation, there are a myriad of variables that come into play for analysis, but the simple version is that the Cowboys stacked the box to stop the run more against Seattle than they did against the Rams. I won’t waste too much time explaining the data, as it seems easier to simply lay the data out to be looked at. So, here are the rushing attempts by the Seahawks running backs against Dallas in the Wild Card game with the yards gained and the number of defenders in the box. Seattle rushing attempts against Dallas in Wild Card with box counts Drive and Play Wild Card Offensive Blockers Box Defenders Drive and Play Wild Card Offensive Blockers Box Defenders Drive 1, Play 1 Run (5) 8 8 Drive 1, Play 2 Run (3) 8 9 Drive 2, Play 2 Run (5) 6 7 Drive 3, Play 1 Run (4) 5 6 Drive 3, Play 2 Run (0) 6 7 Drive 4, Play 3 Run (3) 8 9 Drive 4, Play 4 Run (0) 7 8 Drive 5, Play 3 Run (-4) 6 7 Drive 6, Play 3 Run (3) 6 6 Drive 7, Play 1 Run (1) 6 7 Drive 7, Play 2 Run (3) 6 6 Drive 8, Play 2 Run (5) 8 9 Drive 8, Play 3 Run (28) 7 7 Drive 8, Play 4 Run (-7) 7 8 Drive 9, Play 1 Run (3) 6 6 Drive 9, Play 2 Run (0) 7 8 Drive 9, Play 3 Run (2) 6 7 Drive 9, Play 5 Run (3) 6 7 Drive 9, Play 6 Run (2) 6 7 Drive 9, Play 8 Run (1) 7 7 Drive 10, Play 1 Run (-1) 6 7 And then let’s look at the data for the Rams in their triumph over the Cowboys. Rams rushing attempts against Dallas with box counts Rush Attempt Number Runner Box Count Yards Gained Rush Attempt Number Runner Box Count Yards Gained 1 Gurley 8 3 2 Gurley 7 3 3 Gurley 7 4 4 Gurley 7 9 5 Anderson 6 12 6 Anderson 7 3 7 Anderson 8 4 8 Gurley 7 3 9 Gurley 7 3 10 Anderson 6 15 11 Anderson 8 -1 12 Anderson 7 11 13 Anderson 7 4 14 Gurley 7 4 15 Gurley 7 8 16 Anderson 7 2 17 Anderson 7 14 18 Anderson 9 1 19 Anderson 7 6 20 Anderson 7 7 21 Gurley 7 35 22 Gurley 7 8 23 Gurley 7 6 24 Gurley 7 18 25 Anderson 7 6 26 Anderson 7 1 27 Gurley 7 1 28 Gurley 7 8 29 Anderson 7 3 30 Anderson 6 7 31 Anderson 6 9 32 Gurley 7 1 33 Anderson 7 0 34 Anderson 7 5 35 Anderson 7 1 36 Gurley 7 1 37 Anderson 7 2 38 Anderson 7 5 39 Anderson 7 6 In short, let me break it down very quickly and look at how each of the teams performed against different boxes. Rushing stats against box counts for Seahawks and Rams versus Cowboys Box Count Seattle Percentage of Rushing Attempts Seattle YPC LA Percentage of Rushing Attempts LA YPC Box Count Seattle Percentage of Rushing Attempts Seattle YPC LA Percentage of Rushing Attempts LA YPC 6 defenders 19.05% 2.3 10.26% 10.8 7 defenders 47.62% 3.7 76.92% 6 8+ defenders 33.33% 3.3 12.82% 1.6 Basically, as others have shown elsewhere, the best way to generate a consistently good running game is to run into lighter boxes, and that is what the Rams offense does. Sean McVay and company spent the regular season fostering an offense that gets receivers open and creates the threat of scoring from anywhere on the field on any play. That means that defenses have to respect that, because while only barely ten percent of all running plays result in a gain of ten or more yards, when it comes to the passing game, 27.43% (5,199 of 18,953 plays) of all passing plays in the NFL in 2018 went for ten or more yards. In short, the Rams spent the 2018 season establishing the pass, and the Dallas defense was more concerned about stopping the pass than it was about stopping the run.<doc-sep>
There was a lot of prognosticating last week before the Los Angeles Rams-Dallas Cowboys playoff game, per usual. The consensus was that the Achilles heel for the Rams was going to be their weak run defense. Whoops! ESPN’s Booger McFarland received the most dunks from Rams Twitter as he also called out the Rams’ offensive line. And he wasn’t out of left field. If you had to zero in on a weakness, the disappointing play of DT Ndamukong Suh isn’t a reach. Gotta love the @RamsNFL liabilities. Offensive line: 273 rushing, 0 sacks allowed Run defense: 50 yards surrendered Already liked @ESPNBooger before this week. Huge fan now for this bulletin board material. More next week, please! pic.twitter.com/iMqr3Qsn1A — J.B. Long (@JB_Long) January 13, 2019 However, pride is a powerful thing. And while it’s an overreaction to say that fans can expect the Rams’ run defense to shutdown RB Alvin Kamara next week in New Orleans because they played like wild animals this past Sunday, there’s still some truth to the idea. So much of football is mental and it makes sense that a veteran like Ndumokong Suh heard the disrespect all week and his emotions/anger/fury perfectly complimented with his technique resulting in his best game as an LA Ram. How do the Rams keep this up for next week you ask? Let’s all build up the narrative that Suh and company can’t do it again. Or that DT Aaron Donald has been overshadowed and isn’t worth his contract because he can’t deliver in the postseason. If the recipe for success with the run defense is anger, then let’s get some trash talk burning before the Rams take the field in New Orleans.