St.
Louis Rams a hole in the
middle. The same thing that makes a donut a donut can also make an offensive
line into a complete disaster, St. Louis Rams I went back through some old
posts and found one from Week 12, when the Rams’ offense was finally hitting
its stride. St. Louis Rams Zac Stacy had cemented his role as a workhorse back,
Tavon was making electric plays, and a new Ram Tough identity appeared to be
taking shape. We called it “a turning point.” Then, in week 13, St. Louis Rams Scott
Wells’ season-ending injury had a donut effect on the Rams’ interior blocking,
especially in the run game. St. Louis Rams I followed up on the stats from that
“turning point” article and fleshed out the run blocking numbers for the rest
of the season. The results are downright frightening. In these charts, St.
Louis Rams focus on the black bars for a moment. These tell you the average
number of yards, per carry, a Rams RB traveled before meeting a tackler. (The
red bars show you how many more yards that RB gained after contact.) You’ll be
forgiven if you need a microscope to find any evidence of those easy yards
after Wells’ injury. There may be other factors at play, such as quality of
opponent or the collateral damage of Tavon Austin’s missed time, but from a
pure line-play perspective, the drop-off is severe with Tim Barnes at center
rather than Wells. (More disconcerting is that presumptive future center
Barrett Jones couldn’t unseat Barnes, despite being healthy by this time of the
year.) This may be curious to anyone who has looked at Pro Football Focus’
player ratings. They don’t have Wells particularly highly rated in run
blocking, ranking him 30th of 35 starting centers. St. Louis Rams On a per-snap
basis, Wells and Barnes are scored relatively equally in blocking prowess.
Clearly, the numbers say something different. St. Louis Rams Evan Glantz of
Cover32 Rams recently wrote a good piece detailing the Rams veterans that
will need to step up their game in 2014. St. Louis Rams My humble addition
to this list, wrap Wells up in bubble tape. Put him in the witness protection
program until he’s needed on Sundays. Give him one of these. St. Louis
Rams Whatever it takes. While we’re all excited about the possibilities of what
new additions Greg Robinson and Tre Mason can bring to the run game, they can’t
do much to prevent the donut effect if Wells goes down again, St. Louis Rams.
