[Music] hello everyone welcome to orchestrated Rams with the in and we'll be breaking down today the most impactful plays of the game from Rams Lions week one Sunday Night Football what a great game it was the NFL slate is always fantastic seems on that first weekend of football back in September and there's a lot to break down here big plays missed opportunities and this game ended up not being the shootout that many of people including myself thought it could possibly be but a lot of great defensive battles were on displayed on the field there so let's get into it here on this first impactful play of the game second quarter 6 minutes 37 seconds left in the first half the game is tied 3 to3 at this point both defenses have been making plays making critical stops and the Rams are pushing to try and score a touchdown here they're saying forget the field goal we need to score touchdowns to win the game so instead of kicking they're going for it here and they decide to pass the ball and what do they decide to do well we'll start at the top Tyler Johnson in for the injured nakua is running an in route Parkinson the tight end is running a corner Williams the running back is chipping meaning he's going to help block The Edge Defender and help the tackle out for a quick second and then he's going to release and do a swing route inside slot receiver in this play Demarcus Robinson is running a short drag Cooper cup is going to have a quick little motion to help him and quarterback Matthew Stafford see if the defense is playing man coverage or Zone if that corner follows him wherever Cooper cup goes then it is likely man coverage everywhere if he kind of stays put to where he is then is likely Zone coverage so Cooper cup has a quick little motion to the outside and then once he gets further out he runs a comeback route or a Stop Route however you want to call it now what is that Line's defense running on this play well they are ironically in manto man coverage but they're in cover one man and what does that one stand for well it means that there's one Defender responsible to cover the Deep area of the field which is this safety up top there he is playing deep Zone you have man on cup there man here linebacker man on the running back man on the tight end there and then man on this other receiver up top with the Mike linebacker the inside linebacker playing zone for everything underneath and if we let this play go here you'll see that Matthew Stafford had a nice little pass it was a tough throw based on the coverage being pretty sticky but Cooper cup just could not hang on to the pass absolutely brutal drop there by Cooper cup the Rams would have definitely converted cup would have probably gotten some extra yardage there and absolutely a killer there to not convert on Fourth and four when you could have picked a field goal and got three points but instead you get nothing being that close to the end zone and Cooper cut makes that play probably nine times out of 10 10 out of 10 times I'm sure him and Stafford would say and Cooper cut based on his body language after dropping in knows that that was a critical drop there and that is the first impactful play of the game a Cooper cup drop on a fourth and four situation against M coverage so here is the second most impactful play of the game in my eyes second quarter 21 seconds left before halftime and the Rams are in the Red Zone second and goal trying to punch it in and tie this game before half and feel good about themselves with multiple injuries to important players on the o line and nakua a pro bowl All Pro of a receiver who's still out at this moment in the game so what did the Rams decide to do they decide to pass in the situation what they do is they have Cooper cup yet again do another motion to help the Rams offense see if it's man coverage of the corner follows cup or if it's Zone coverage if the corner stays in his area and does not follow Cooper cup so once cup gets to his area he runs a corner route Johnson runs an in route or a dig route some people like to call it Parkinson runs a drag or a Crossing route if you like to call it that Williams does a quick check to see if anybody's rushing immediately and then he'll release into the flats of the left field there and then you have Demarcus Robinson running what I like to call a whip route that is the terminology I'm used to where he's going to whip on the outside and then whip back in to the inside kind of looks like a slant so what is the Lan defense doing on that play while they are in manto man coverage where it's man here linebacker man with a running back other linebacker man with a tight end man here and then this defensive back will follow Cooper cup across the field and this man is cover two man man and the two stands for two people responsible deep which will be this safety here and this safety here so if we let the play go a couple big things things happen here Matthew Stafford gets enormous pressure immediately where he's got to throw the football and he throws an interception man oh man incredibly bad timing for that to happen but if we replay it real fast here you see that Stafford has no choice to get rid of the football right when pressure's in his face as you can see right here he's either going to get hit or sacked if he holds on to it any longer people are coming at him immediately and he makes a decision hey I'm going to throw that inout to Johnson but the problem is he does not see the safety defending that area right there my theory is is that the safety because the lions are wearing all blue uniforms he Blends in with the end zone that happens to be all blue and then also this background wall coverage that is in Lion's blue as as well that's the only reason why I think Stafford would throw that so wildly and you can tell even after on the replay if you watch any of the game uh Replay YouTube whatever subscriptions you have you see Stafford being like Oh my gosh I did not see him and what happens easy interception for the defensive back there the Lions critical critical interception the Rams get no points and walking away into halftime feeling like man we should have got something on that drive at least an incompletion then we could kick a field goal if we don't convert on third down and we want to do it on fourth or let's just go for it on Fourth but to turn it over there what an incredibly impactful play and man oh man Lions defense makes another big play to stop the Rams from scoring anything close to the end zone there here we are third most impactful player of the game in my eyes third quarter 5 minutes 39 seconds left Lions lead 17-3 and the Rams are yet again in another fourth down situation where they're going for it to keep the drive alive CU they know they have to score a touchdown to keep their chances of winning at all alive so they decide to pass on this play Cooper Cup on the outside running a short in route or a Crossing route Robinson the slot receiver running a deeper in route or dig route people like to call it you have Williams the running back doing a quick check for an immediate block if needed then releasing into the left Flats you have Colby Parkinson being the motion member for the ballsy to help signify to Stafford and the Rams offense if the the lions are in manto man coverage if they follow him or Zone coverage if everyone stays put for the most part so he's going to motion across the field and once he gets to his spot he's going to run a post route meaning he's going to run to the post the goal post of the end zone and then you have wide receiver Tyler Johnson on the outside by himself running a streak or go route right up the field now what are the Lions doing on this play so at the moment right here it looks like they're at least going to have two people covering deep but with that motion that Parkinson does it helps expose that the lions are going to be in manto man so you can see there the safety was following Parkinson and the other safety is rotating to be in the middle of the field so this ends up being cover one Mana man coverage one meaning that there's one person responsible so when the safety gets over he's going to be responsible deep you're going to have man there man here man there linebacker man on Williams the running back man on the outside and then like usual on the cover one man there's some lower field Zone coverage players and that ends up being the linebacker so we're going to let this go here and what ends up happening so safety follows and then they get mixed up as you can see here all the Defenders are kind of eyeing everyone here with things getting bunched up and then you can see Robinson gon to be wide open for an easy throw for Stafford to convert the fourth and three and keep the drive alive critical impactful play and the Rams do end up scoring again on this drive where they're only down by seven going into the half incredibly important that they converted it the Lions defense just screws up in manto man and again I'll replay it for you guys as you can see they just get lost and who's got who once Parkinson goes over and he just gets wide open uh Demarcus Robinson there and great play designed to to show that it is man and the Lions just did not execute on that play there here we are the fourth most impactful play of the game in my eyes fourth quarter here 13 minutes 29 seconds left second and goal Rams are set up after a pass interference call on the Lions defense they are down 10 to 17 trying to punch it in and tie the game in the early parts of the fourth quarter and the Rams want to do a Jet Sweep handoff Run play to rookie wide receiver Jordan Winnington who has shown in Camp and when he's gotten first team reps that he can run pretty fast and is really Elusive and tough when he gets the ball in his hands so they're going to have a quick jet motion meaning jet run as fast as you can take the hand off and then run to the outside or anywhere where you see a crease that is the main play there and with the offensive line in front man blocking to whoever is in front of them because it is a goal line situ you were just trying your best to not cause defensive lineman to penetrate and you know trip up Winnington or get in the backfield or hit Stafford then you have the tie in here blocking the most outside man to make sure that person does not crash up forward and tackles Winnington right when he gets the handoff and this is where things get a little tricky tricky on the offensive line AJR Curry circled here is the third string left tackle elevated from the practice squad having to fill in after the second string note boom was injured earlier in the game with first Stringer alar Json being suspended for this game and the next typically in these Jet Sweep run plays to a receiver or a running back you can either reach block meaning reach you're going to try to reach around the outside shoulder of a Defender and block him to cut him off or you can just leave him alone and leave them unblocked and hope that the person receiving the Jet Sweep run is going to outrun that def Defender so we let this play here you see the jet motion from Winnington he takes the handoff and I think what the plan was here was to leave Hutchinson unblocked and the Hope was that Whittington was going to be able to outrun him and not get tackled but what ends up happening here is that the third string left tackle of Curry gets an absolutely brutal face mask call on Hutchinson there absolutely brutal it wasn't necessary to reach the hand out there and get a hand on Hutchinson again I think the plan was to not touch Hutchinson leave him unblocked cuz Winnington was probably going to outrun him but instead as you can see there in the circled oh man face mask brutal brutal penalty there to not get the touchdown to not get a tie game at this point and the Rams end up having to kick a field goal as they get backed up significantly on that incredibly impactful it was probably an unnecessary you know Reach Out by the third string left tackle there Winnington more than likely outruns Hutchinson and gets in so I think again the goal was to leave Hutchinson unblocked not reach block him and unfortunately a curry sticks the hands out and grabs a face mask penalty Rams don't get any touchdowns they have to settle for three and are still down in this ball game fifth most impactful play of the game in my eyes fourth quarter here 9 minutes 15 seconds left Lions have had a nice drive and they're in this second and eight situation trying to add to their lead 17-13 and the offense for the Lions will start with the top here they're running a passing play Williams is going to run a streak go route leaport is going to run a quick little out and stop Gibbs a running backs have a little motion to see if it's manner Zone and then he's going to run to the flats St Brown is going to be running an in route dig route and then you have this outside man here doing a little stop comeback route with everyone else pass blocking now the Rams defense I believe is running combo coverage and combo coverage meaning one side is running one type of pass coverage the other side is running a different pass coverage combo coverage so at the top here I believe we have man linebacker man on the tight end and then the other side I think is running cover six Now cover six typically is when you have three Defenders deep one Defender is guarding one half of the field right and then you have two other Defenders who are guarding the other half cover six meaning cover four plus cover two equals the six that's where that name comes from but because it is man there man there I think these two safeties up top are splitting one half the field so he's got that quarter of a half and then Johnson has that quarter of a half and then with everyone else running zone underneath so I think they're running combo coverage there one side is man the other side is half cover six so if we let this play go here as you can see Lon snap the ball get the little motion and then as you can see man up top there man up top there and then you also have everyone doing the combo coverage but what ends up happening here I believe is that if you can see Jared gof goes the pump fake like he's going to throw it to the tight end they running the Stop and you can see as he's lifting his arm here we did a quick little pump fake you see Lake the slot corner and reer the linebacker jumping forward it's like oh he's going to throw that short area route there but that doesn't end up happening gof throws the fake and John Johnson does a fantastic job here of recognizing what's happening and jumping to break up the pass that St Brown is running on that in route so as you can see here Goff pump fake but now he's going to try to throw it to St Brown you have the other two Defenders that jumped on the pump fake to the tight end and G thinks he's going to have a completion to St Brown who was pretty held under apps most of this game hasn't had a lot of catches but John Johnson in his zone right there recognizes it and says man I'm going to jump in front of that and intercept the pass fantastic job by him reading and recognizing what was happening and then boom gets in front of St Brown and gets the interception absolutely fantastic job by the veteran John Johnson to see that so we'll let this play out again you can see pump f St Brown says oh I'm going to be open go think's open and then John Johnson just jumps in front of that awesome job of looking at where the quarterback is doing staying disciplined to his area and then immediately recognizing that St Brown is coming into his Zone and makes a fantastic play to jump in front of that incredibly impactful gets the turnover keeps the Rams alive Lions get no points in that and man oh man without that Lions probably out the lead and M never look back back incredibly impactful there by the Rams defense here we are the sixth most impactful play of the game in my eyes fourth quarter 4 minutes 22 seconds left Rams after the turnover that John Johnson got an interception they went down and scored so Rams are up 20 to 17 and the lions are trying to tired or increase the lead and they're slowly driving but here they are in a third and five situation and the Lions decide to pass the blle what do they end up doing here they have Williams at the top running a streak you have the slot receiver here running uh inside bow route or whip route some people like to call it where he's going to stop inside and then Veer to the outside you have the tight end here is going to motion across and then once he gets to his spot he trips but he ends up looking like he was going to be running a post you have Montgomery the running back running a swing check down swing and then you have St Brown also running a streak go route as well so the Rams defense I think yet again runs combo coverage at the bottom it's manto man there man with the running back here they don't follow the port on the motion so it's Zone on the other side and I think it is yet again cover six so it's Zone here Zone there I think Durant Zone there and then you have these these two safeties covering one quarter of that half and then Johnson doing the quarter of the other half cover one on one side cover six on the other combo coverage so if we let this play out here you can see the porter gets that motion no one follows him but it's man on the bottom Zone everywhere else and I think John Johnson is playing pretty deep just to help out in case Jameson William takes off because he had burned the Rams defense on a long touchdown pass on a go route earlier and he is incredibly fast but if we keep letting this thing go here you see Goff gets a little greedy I believe so we let this kind of slowmo play he wants to throw the go route and fit it in in the sideline here the top receiver Jameson Williams you can see gof is loading up he wants to hit Williams probably somewhere right there and instead if he was just a little more patient the slot receiver for the Lions was going to be pretty open running his you know his bow route where he stops inside and then runs back out I think if gof was just a little more patient he probably converts that third down throw and the Lions keep on moving but he chooses to try to to fit it into Williams and Durant who in that cover six would have more of an underneath Zone where he's currently at he does a good job of recognizing that gof is loading up the throw to Williams and instead of staying in his Zone that I think would be there for that cover six he says oh man I better keep falling Williams and make a play on this ball and he does exactly that fantastic job bailing and oh he should have had interception but can't hang on to it but what a miraculous athletic jump he had there to break it up cuz I know John Johnson the safety was coming in Williams probably catches that and the drive keeps going but great recognition Again by the 30-year Corner Durant for seeing that g is loading up bailing backwards to follow Williams and hopefully make a play and he does and almost has the interception there but nonetheless he makes a critical critical play to cause a fourth down and make the Lions punt again absolutely super impactful Rams would get the ball back and have a chance to ice the game great job there by Young Durant to recognize cause the play to be punted after that but again I still believe if Goff was more patient he would have had right here as you can see he would have had that slot receiver running the ball route pretty dang open I believe to at least get the catch maybe gets tackled immediately but he would be ahead of the sticks and the drive would have continued regardless good play by the Rams defense they made G pay for being aggressive and they get the ball back incredibly incredibly impactful and here it is the final impactful play of the game in my eyes fourth quarter two minutes 26 seconds left third and 10 situation the Rams are trying to get a first down to ice the game they're up by a field goal if they do get it the Lions probably don't get the ball back and if they end up do getting that ball back I mean they're going to have less than 30 seconds to do anything and try to tie the game very unlikely so I picked this camera angle to show Cooper cup the wide receiver and the offensive line on what happens here so Cooper is running a deep Crossing route which has been pretty effective in this game against man coverage and well you guessed it the lions are yet again in man coverage and it's man everywhere else with people covering deep in this cover two man look that the lions like to run a ton so man there lineman are all pass blocking and let's let it play here and you can see what happens so we let it go and Cub gets a little motion to see if it's man the rookie number zero Arnold follows cup stays with them ball is heighted and the problem here is man oh man the pressure is just starting to get there immediately we let it go as you can see pressure pressure pressure Stafford knows he has to get rid of it he doesn't have a good base for his lower body to set up and throw this ball but he's made made incredibly crazy throws this entire game here but he knows man oh man I definitely got to throw this ball early or I'm going to get hit from multiple people and we're going to have no chance at all but he believes in his receiver Cooper cup the best receiver on the team that's currently healthy and someone who had been balling out had multiple Big Time plays and he says I'm going to throw it I've made this throw earlier in the game but if we let it go here you see he can't hit Cup oh just a little too high there and Matthew Stafford after this play had his hands above his helmet holding his helmet and realizing man oh man I missed it that probably could have ended the game so we'll let it replay here you see at the little motion cup is getting pretty open oh man it's not wide open but that's as open as you can possibly hope for in the NFL on most plays and Stafford knows that he missed it as you can see after if you watch any replays that he knew he should have hit cup it wasn't going to be an incredibly tough throw but Stafford had made those incredible plays many of times in this game already but what led to the rush throw the UN platformed throw by Stafford it was the pressure by the defense on multiple backups a third Stringer there I mean tough tough tough to ask for backups practice squad guys to consistently hold up and not allow pressure but in this critical down they couldn't hold up good enough Stafford had to get rid of it earlier than what he wanted to and the pass went incomplete with cup open there and the Rams never got the ball back there and that was it Lions kicked the field with to tie it they got the ball first in overtime and that was a wrap most impactful play of the game I believe right here the incomplete to Cooper cup there