How the Rams Used Motion and Great Play-Design to Pick Apart the Saints

The Rams beat the Saints 30-22 on Thursday night and significantly increased their chances of reaching the postseason. They’ve now won five of their last six, but it’s during their last five games that the offense has really gelled. L.A. has scored an average of more than 32 points per game and Matthew Stafford has been red hot during that stretch. He’s completed almost 67% of his passes for 277.6 yards per game with 14 TDs, 1 INT, and a 114.2 passer rating.

Not only has Stafford been slinging it, but Sean McVay has done a great job of putting the offense in position to succeed. On Thursday night against the Saints, the Rams generated several big plays by using tons of motion and taking advantage of all the attention Cooper Kupp draws from the defense.

This first example was a 3rd-and-6 on their opening drive. The Rams came out in a 2x2 formation and would then use 3 different shifts and motions. First, Kupp would motion across the formation, creating a trips-bunch to the left. Cornerback Paulson Adebo followed. This was an indicator of man coverage:

After running back Kyren Williams shifted from the backfield to just off the right tackle, Puka Nacua motioned from the inside #3 position in the bunch to the outside:

That did a couple of things. First, when cornerback Isaac Yiadom went with him, it confirmed how the Saints would be playing man coverage against the bunch. They wouldn’t be “banjoing” it, or playing the receivers’ releases. Instead, it would be man-to-man with each defender responsible for a specific receiver:

Second, the motion changed the leverage of Nacua’s defender (Yiadom). He was initially aligned inside of Nacua. After the motion, he was outside of him:

This was important because Nacua would be running a shallow crossing route. Having leverage to the inside would be critical:

The other route to focus on here was Kupp’s. He would run a deep over, and the Saints were prepared to take him away. The safety on the other side of the field, Tyrann Mathieu, would drop down to the middle and provide help on Kupp inside:

Kupp’s route would clear out Mathieu, leaving no one to provide help to Yiadom on Nacua underneath.

With the coverage defined pre-snap, Stafford got his eyes on Mathieu almost immediately. Once he saw that he was going deep with Kupp, Stafford got the ball to Nacua, who had one step and about 20 pounds on his defender. And that allowed him to break the tackle and race 17 yards for the first down:

Remember, great play-design doesn’t always lead to wide-open receivers. Sometimes it creates favorable 1-on-1’s or just puts receivers in a better position to succeed, as it did here.

That said, this next example from the 2nd quarter yielded an absolutely wide-open receiver. Once again, the Rams would use multiple shifts and motions.

First, they aligned in a 3x1 before having Kupp and Nacua shift. Nacua would cross the center, creating a 2x2 formation. The Saints held their 1-safety shell look, likely in anticipation of more motion to come: