Turf Show Times
Week 10 brought revenge served cold. The Los Angeles Rams got back at the San Francisco 49ers for stunning them at home. LA took a commanding lead early and never looked back.
The defense did enough to get the job done—forcing two turnovers. There will be tougher days at the office when the offense doesn’t put up six touchdowns and outpace the other team.
The offensive line dominated, kept Matthew Stafford clean, and opened up running lanes for Kyren Williams and Blake Corum. The Pro Football Focus (PFF) grades make this evident.
It was clear during the game that Dotson was back to his normal self after battling an ankle injury in the season’s early going. Dotson was opening holes in the run game and asserting his presence down the field. PFF rewarded the veteran with a glowing 90.5 run blocking grade. Dotson was fine in pass protection at 76.4.
Colby Parkinson was asked to stay in as a pass protector on seven plays, which is part of what facing the Rams difficult as they deploy their heavier personnel. At times you must cover all five eligibles, and on other occasions they are kept into block in order to push the ball downfield. Parkinson earned a 76.7 pass blocking grade and did not allow a pressure.
His more impressive contributions came as a receiver where he drew a mark of 92.2 and caught four of five targets for 41 yards and a touchdown. 27 of these yards came after the catch point.
Noteworthy is the fact Parkinson ran 20 routes, which was significantly more than Tyler Higbee (16), Davis Allen, and Terrance Ferguson (both at 13).
There is not much to dislike about this performance from Stafford, who was excellent overall in two games against San Francisco. This performance is even better analytically than it looked on paper. The veteran finished with a traditional completion percentage of 66.7%; however, after accounting for two drops and three throwaways, this mark improves to 78.8%. There was a time late in the first half and into the early second half that the offense seemed disjointed, but the Rams started out red hot and re-found their spark later in the game.
PFF credited Stafford with two big-time throws and one turnover-worthy play. He found 20 first downs through the air and kept the chains moving.
Avila was the only lineman in the starting five to not allow a pressure in pass protection, though he oddly received the second-lowest pass blocking grade ahead of Alaric Jackson (three pressures).
Both Shelton and Avila earned their paychecks in the run game where they finished with near-elite grades from PFF at 90.3 and 86.9, respectively.
At risk of sounding like a broken...
