The Los Angeles Rams took on the Los Angeles Chargers on Sunday, defeating them in a 24-9 victory. The win gets the team back to .500 this season, as they look to make a holiday push towards the postseason.
Here are five takeaways from the contest.
The Rams have no real solution for their kickoff issues
The team trotted out Joshua Karty for kickoffs, using his "knuckleball" approach to great success early. The good news is that Karty's kicks did freeze returners long enough for the coverage team to get past their blockers, making a play on the ball carrier. The issue is that Karty missed the landing zone twice later in the game.
Even though the team didn't give up a big return, the short kickoffs put the Chargers at their own 40 to start two drives, so Karty needs to get better. Until he does, the team is
still losing the battle for field position.
McVay refuses to play bully ball
While he did change up his tactics in the second half to tremendous effect, head coach Sean McVay refused to run the ball in the first half of the game, and the offense suffered for it. The Rams relied on their 11 personnel offense too much, as Colby Parkinson was inactive with a rib injury, lessening the team's available tight ends.
McVay chose to go with his trusted wide receivers instead of relying on Max Klare to toe the line, and the team could not generate any offense. It's good that McVay changed his tactics, but a better team would've put the Rams in a bigger hole than the Chargers put them in.
Chris Shula and the defense were sublime
We all expected the Rams' defense to come out and dominate, but they haven't exactly met expectations this season. Shula and the defense did not waver, even when put in predicaments by the offense, surrendering only three field goals and no touchdowns on the day.
The entire roster showed up, but what really surprised was that when Trent McDuffie and Jaylen Watson went out with injuries, Josh Wallace and Emmanuel Forbes Jr. stood tall. It was a great day from the whole defense.
The pistol is not it
Several years ago, the Rams used the pistol formation to great success, but when they tried to use it on Sunday, the run game got no real push, the passing concepts were ineffective, and the overall timing of the offense was off. That's likely due to Matthew Stafford's lack of overall agility, a crucial element that makes the pistol formation effective.
Either have Stafford in shotgun or under center. The Rams do not have the personnel to be successful with the pistol.
Stafford finds his tempo
Despite about 28 minutes of awful play in the first half, the Rams put together a two-minute drive to end the first half with a touchdown, using a faster tempo offense to get Stafford into rhythm. We have witnessed it time and time again. When Stafford is forced to go faster, he enters a zone that turns him into one of the most clutch quarterbacks in the league.
If Stafford struggles to find his rhythm to open a ball game, the Rams have the ultimate fix by accelerating their offense. Once Stafford finds his touch, the tempo won't matter, meaning the team can slow things down in consideration of the clock.
This article originally appeared on Rams Wire: 5 takeaways from Rams' win vs. Chargers on Sunday
