Los Angeles Rams

Three Keys to Rams Victory in Home Opener

Published Jun. 30, 2017 6:28 p.m. ET

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Here’s a look at three major keys for the Los Angeles Rams as they host the Seattle Seahawks in their home opener.

Coming off a brutal Week 1 loss to the San Francisco 49ers in Santa Clara, the Los Angeles Rams look to bounce back in Week 2 while hosting the highly touted Seattle Seahawks on Sunday. The positive thing about losing the way the Rams did in Week 1 is they can only go up from here, but in order for that to happen they will need to take advantage of some major keys.

The first major key to victory includes what the Rams already considered their bread and butter, which is the front seven of the defensive line led by Aaron Donald. The Seattle Seahawks have the lowest combined paid offensive line in the NFL and played like it in Week 1 against the Miami Dolphins.

The Rams will have to absolutely target this weakness for the Seahawks while rushing Russell Wilson, and take advantage of the ankle he seemed to favor after one of the three sacks his offensive lines allowed. Although at the same time, they will need to contain Wilson and not let him run all over them the way Blaine Gabbert did.

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Another major key for the Rams will be the offensive play calling. In Week 1, the play calling was simple, unimaginative, and took the most basic of defensive formations to shut down.

All San Francisco had to do was stack the box in order to shut down the running game, and playing man coverage was easier than expected. In addition to this, the Rams didn’t do themselves any favors by essentially only running quick sweeps, and bubble screens, while only making a downfield pass attempt of 25+ yards one time throughout the night.

They will need to mix it up to give the Seahawks multiple looks and challenge their secondary downfield if there’s going to be any improvement from Week 1, and honestly, it can’t get any worse than Monday’s conservative play-calling results–especially on third down.

Finally, the final major key is mental and emotional discipline as Week 1 was a total mess of penalties and self-inflicted momentum killers.

Whenever the Rams would get anything going offensively, there would be some kind of mental miscue. Be it a taunting penalty by Todd Gurley following a long momentum-building run or a boneheaded ejection for unsportsmanlike conduct by Aaron Donald during a harmless scrum after the whistle.

Case Keenum will also have to make some major leaps in his gameplay following his forgettable performance, and claims of “seeing ghosts” when asked about his poor play.

Ideally with some kind of handle on these keys, Los Angeles should have a chance of making their much-anticipated return to the Los Angeles Coliseum one worth remembering, or at the very least competitive.

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