{"id":98894,"date":"2025-01-18T10:39:58","date_gmt":"2025-01-18T15:39:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sharpfootballanalysis.com\/?p=98894"},"modified":"2025-01-18T10:39:58","modified_gmt":"2025-01-18T15:39:58","slug":"rams-eagles-analysis-divisional-round-2024","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sharpfootballanalysis.com\/analysis\/rams-eagles-analysis-divisional-round-2024\/","title":{"rendered":"Sean McVay Needs to Adjust His Game Plan Against the Eagles"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Over the last eight years, we\u2019ve witnessed the meteoric rise of <strong>Sean<\/strong> <strong>McVay<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>He\u2019s brought 4 NFC West titles, a pair of NFC Championships, and a Lombardi Trophy back to Inglewood so far, and his legacy is still being written today.<\/p>\n<p>McVay\u2019s most recent playoff victory came just this week when his Rams put the backsliding Minnesota Vikings' season to rest.<\/p>\n<p>This particular win, however, looked a little different than what we typically see from McVay.<\/p>\n<div class=\"video-shortcode\"><iframe title=\"Pressuring Matthew Stafford | Rams at Eagles | NFL Divisional Playoffs\" width=\"1100\" height=\"619\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/tVUkzKMMgPA?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<h3>Subscribe to the <em>Sharp Football Email Newsletter<\/em> to receive <span style=\"background-color: #ccffcc;\">FREE BETS<\/span>\u00a0from NFL expert Warren Sharp this weekend:<\/h3>\n<script>(function() {\n\twindow.mc4wp = window.mc4wp || {\n\t\tlisteners: [],\n\t\tforms: {\n\t\t\ton: function(evt, cb) {\n\t\t\t\twindow.mc4wp.listeners.push(\n\t\t\t\t\t{\n\t\t\t\t\t\tevent   : evt,\n\t\t\t\t\t\tcallback: cb\n\t\t\t\t\t}\n\t\t\t\t);\n\t\t\t}\n\t\t}\n\t}\n})();\n<\/script><!-- Mailchimp for WordPress v4.12.1 - https:\/\/wordpress.org\/plugins\/mailchimp-for-wp\/ --><form id=\"mc4wp-form-1\" class=\"mc4wp-form mc4wp-form-90106 mc4wp-ajax\" method=\"post\" data-id=\"90106\" data-name=\"Free NFL Pick\" ><div class=\"mc4wp-form-fields\"><div id=\"sharp-newsletter\">\r\n<p class=\"sharp-newsletter-email\">\r\n\t<label>Join our newsletter & receive a free NFL bet this week: \r\n\t\t<input type=\"email\" name=\"EMAIL\" placeholder=\"Your email address\" required \/>\r\n<\/label>\r\n<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p class=\"sharp-newsletter-submit\">\r\n\t<input type=\"submit\" value=\"Subscribe\" \/>\r\n<\/p>\r\n<\/div><\/div><label style=\"display: none !important;\">Leave this field empty if you're human: <input type=\"text\" name=\"_mc4wp_honeypot\" value=\"\" tabindex=\"-1\" autocomplete=\"off\" \/><\/label><input type=\"hidden\" name=\"_mc4wp_timestamp\" value=\"1776661499\" \/><input type=\"hidden\" name=\"_mc4wp_form_id\" value=\"90106\" \/><input type=\"hidden\" name=\"_mc4wp_form_element_id\" value=\"mc4wp-form-1\" \/><div class=\"mc4wp-response\"><\/div><\/form><!-- \/ Mailchimp for WordPress Plugin -->\n<hr \/>\n<p>The Rams came out of the gate flying on Monday night thanks to a flip of McVay\u2019s pre-determined first drive script.<\/p>\n<p>Many of the Rams\u2019 initial drives this season have featured a run-heavy offense, leaning on <strong>Kyren<\/strong> <strong>Williams<\/strong> to do most of the heavy lifting.<\/p>\n<p>Sunday\u2019s game opened instead with <strong>Matthew<\/strong> <strong>Stafford<\/strong> taking multiple deep shots downfield, moving 54 yards in just 5 plays, and putting <strong>Kevin<\/strong> <strong>O\u2019Connell<\/strong> and company on their heels quickly.<\/p>\n<p>Much of this early-drive success can be attributed to an increase in the usage of tight ends as receiving threats, namely <strong>Tyler<\/strong> <strong>Higbee<\/strong>, whose final stat line of 5 catches for 58 yards led Los Angeles despite him leaving the game early.<\/p>\n<p>His long of 23, which came on the game\u2019s third play, was a major factor in the success of LA\u2019s opening drive.<\/p>\n<p>Williams secured a five-yard reception over the middle to give the Rams the opening score, and Los Angeles controlled momentum from there.<\/p>\n<p>As the game went final with a score of 27-9, the eyes of Rams Nation turned from their multiple-score rout of one of the league's top defenses to the looming threat of what lies ahead in the Divisional Round.<\/p>\n<p>Enter the Philadelphia Eagles, who have strung together an impressive season of their own under <strong>Nick<\/strong> <strong>Sirianni<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>Questions surrounded Sirianni\u2019s job security following last year\u2019s postseason loss to the Buccaneers, Philly\u2019s sixth loss in their last seven games at the time.<\/p>\n<p>The ship has turned around dramatically since then.<\/p>\n<p>The City of Brotherly Love finished the 2024 regular season with a 14-3 record, in great part thanks to the offseason acquisition of star running back <strong>Saquon<\/strong> <strong>Barkley<\/strong> and a suffocating secondary bolstered by a talented draft class.<\/p>\n<p>So the question is simple. What is McVay\u2019s plan for surviving this nigh-unbeatable Eagles team?<\/p>\n<p>We can expect McVay\u2019s strategy in the Divisional Round to look vastly different from what we saw in the Wild Card.<\/p>\n<p>This is largely due to the disparities between the way the Eagles play defense compared to the Vikings.<\/p>\n<p>Minnesota led the league with a blitz rate of 38.6%.<\/p>\n<p>The Rams countered this with an aggressive passing attack. Stafford went 14 of 18 for 178 yards and a pair of scores on plays against the blitz Monday night.<\/p>\n<p>The Eagles, however, will not be blitzing at nearly as high of a rate considering they come into this game with the lowest blitz rate of any playoff team (16.2%), ahead of only the Jacksonville Jaguars for the league-low overall.<\/p>\n<p>One would think this wouldn\u2019t be very conducive to putting the heat on opposing quarterbacks, but Philly actually boasts a higher rate of pressure than the Vikings, even without resorting to the blitz.<\/p>\n<p>The Eagles pressured quarterbacks on 36.8% of dropbacks compared to Minnesota\u2019s 35.7% rate despite a 22.4% lower blitz rate, which means this pressure is coming naturally.<\/p>\n<p>The Rams will have to account for this heading into Sunday\u2019s game.<\/p>\n<p>McVay's strategy of beating the pass rush with a high frequency of passing plays could prove risky. The Eagles have allowed the fewest passing yards per game across the entire NFL.<\/p>\n<p>It seems that if McVay hopes to lead his team back to the promised land, he may need to pull a few more rabbits out of his hat on the way there.<\/p>\n\t<div class='sfa-image-adds' style=\"margin-bottom: 20px;\">\n\t\t<a href='https:\/\/www.sharpfootballanalysis.com\/newsletter\/'>\n\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"683\" src=\"https:\/\/www.sharpfootballanalysis.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/Sharp-Football-Analysis-Newsletter-Ad.jpg\" class=\"attachment-size-full size-size-full\" alt=\"Sharp Football Analysis Newsletter\" \/>\t\t<\/a>\n\t<\/div>\n\n\t\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Over the last eight years, we\u2019ve witnessed the meteoric rise  [&#8230;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":52671,"featured_media":55833,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"none","_seopress_titles_title":"Sean McVay Needs to Adjust His Game Plan Against the Eagles","_seopress_titles_desc":"How will Sean McVay's approach need to change against the Eagles? How can the Rams beat the Eagles? Rams vs. Eagles analysis, Divisional Round.","_seopress_robots_index":"","mc4wp_mailchimp_campaign":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-98894","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-analysis"],"acf":[],"featured_image_urls":{"medium":"https:\/\/www.sharpfootballanalysis.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/Stafford-Worksheet-Week-1-2022-300x200.jpg","large":"https:\/\/www.sharpfootballanalysis.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/Stafford-Worksheet-Week-1-2022-1024x683.jpg","thumbnail":"https:\/\/www.sharpfootballanalysis.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/Stafford-Worksheet-Week-1-2022-150x150.jpg","medium_large":"https:\/\/www.sharpfootballanalysis.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/Stafford-Worksheet-Week-1-2022-768x512.jpg","1536x1536":"https:\/\/www.sharpfootballanalysis.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/Stafford-Worksheet-Week-1-2022-1536x1024.jpg","2048x2048":"https:\/\/www.sharpfootballanalysis.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/Stafford-Worksheet-Week-1-2022-2048x1365.jpg","custom-size":"https:\/\/www.sharpfootballanalysis.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/Stafford-Worksheet-Week-1-2022-694x694.jpg","custom-size-content":"https:\/\/www.sharpfootballanalysis.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/Stafford-Worksheet-Week-1-2022-300x300.jpg","podcast-custom-size":"https:\/\/www.sharpfootballanalysis.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/Stafford-Worksheet-Week-1-2022-350x350.jpg","homecustom-size-content":"https:\/\/www.sharpfootballanalysis.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/Stafford-Worksheet-Week-1-2022-500x500.jpg","viz-thumb":"https:\/\/www.sharpfootballanalysis.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/Stafford-Worksheet-Week-1-2022-255x140.jpg","amp-wp-small":"https:\/\/www.sharpfootballanalysis.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/Stafford-Worksheet-Week-1-2022-100x100.jpg","amp-wp-large":"https:\/\/www.sharpfootballanalysis.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/Stafford-Worksheet-Week-1-2022-738x430.jpg","amp-wp-normal":"https:\/\/www.sharpfootballanalysis.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/Stafford-Worksheet-Week-1-2022-230x160.jpg","blog-large":"https:\/\/www.sharpfootballanalysis.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/Stafford-Worksheet-Week-1-2022-669x272.jpg","blog-medium":"https:\/\/www.sharpfootballanalysis.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/Stafford-Worksheet-Week-1-2022-320x202.jpg","recent-posts":"https:\/\/www.sharpfootballanalysis.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/Stafford-Worksheet-Week-1-2022-700x441.jpg","recent-works-thumbnail":"https:\/\/www.sharpfootballanalysis.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/Stafford-Worksheet-Week-1-2022-66x66.jpg","fusion-200":"https:\/\/www.sharpfootballanalysis.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/Stafford-Worksheet-Week-1-2022-200x133.jpg","fusion-400":"https:\/\/www.sharpfootballanalysis.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/Stafford-Worksheet-Week-1-2022-400x267.jpg","fusion-600":"https:\/\/www.sharpfootballanalysis.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/Stafford-Worksheet-Week-1-2022-600x400.jpg","fusion-800":"https:\/\/www.sharpfootballanalysis.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/Stafford-Worksheet-Week-1-2022-800x533.jpg","fusion-1200":"https:\/\/www.sharpfootballanalysis.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/Stafford-Worksheet-Week-1-2022-1200x800.jpg","portfolio-full":"https:\/\/www.sharpfootballanalysis.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/Stafford-Worksheet-Week-1-2022-940x400.jpg","portfolio-one":"https:\/\/www.sharpfootballanalysis.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/Stafford-Worksheet-Week-1-2022-540x272.jpg","portfolio-two":"https:\/\/www.sharpfootballanalysis.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/Stafford-Worksheet-Week-1-2022-460x295.jpg","portfolio-three":"https:\/\/www.sharpfootballanalysis.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/Stafford-Worksheet-Week-1-2022-300x214.jpg","portfolio-five":"https:\/\/www.sharpfootballanalysis.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/Stafford-Worksheet-Week-1-2022-177x142.jpg","profile_24":"https:\/\/www.sharpfootballanalysis.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/Stafford-Worksheet-Week-1-2022-24x24.jpg","profile_48":"https:\/\/www.sharpfootballanalysis.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/Stafford-Worksheet-Week-1-2022-48x48.jpg","profile_96":"https:\/\/www.sharpfootballanalysis.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/Stafford-Worksheet-Week-1-2022-96x96.jpg","profile_150":"https:\/\/www.sharpfootballanalysis.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/Stafford-Worksheet-Week-1-2022-150x150.jpg","profile_300":"https:\/\/www.sharpfootballanalysis.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/Stafford-Worksheet-Week-1-2022-300x300.jpg"},"appp_media":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sharpfootballanalysis.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98894","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sharpfootballanalysis.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sharpfootballanalysis.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"htt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