STRATEGY AND PERSONNEL
NFL Team Report - Los Angeles Rams
PLAYER NOTES --LB Mark Barron will play his 100th game Sunday. He has started 88 of his first 99 games played. Barron has played 62 games with 51 starts for the Rams. --QB Jared Goff needs 133 yards to pass Bill Wade (8,572) for 10th place on the Rams all-time passing list. Goff needs 156 yards to pass Sam Bradford (3,702) for the 10th-best single-season passing output in franchise history. He needs 258 yards to pass his previous single-season best (3,804), which currently ranks ninth among franchise single-season passing leaders. Goff needs one touchdown to pass Sam Bradford (59) for eighth place on the Rams all-time passing touchdown leaders list. --Running back Todd Gurley II needs four carries to reach 1,000 for his career. He would become the sixth running back in franchise history to reach the 1,000-carry mark. Gurley needs two rushing touchdowns to tie Dan Towler (44) for fourth place on the Rams all-time rushing touchdown leaders list. Gurley needs 22 points to tie David Ray (130, 1973) and 23 points to tie Jeff Wilkins (131, 2006) for fifth and fourth place, respectively in franchise history for single-season points. Gurley needs three touchdowns to match Eric Dickerson (20, 1993) for the third-most touchdowns in a single season. Marshall Faulk scored 21 touchdowns in 2000 and Faulk also holds the franchise record for single-season touchdowns with 26 in 2000. --WR Brandin Cooks needs 36 receiving yards to reach 1,000 for the fourth consecutive season and 93 yards to hit 5,000 career receiving yards. --WR Robert Woods needs 96 receiving yards to reach 1,000 for the first time in his career. If Woods and Brandin Cooks each post 1,000 yards, they will be the first duo to hit 1,000 receiving yards in the same season since Torry Holt and Isaac Bruce in 2006. --DT Aaron Donald needs 1.0 sack to tie Chris Long (54.5) for fifth place on the Rams all-time sack leaders list. --LB Cory Littleton needs nine tackles to reach 100 total tackles for the season. It would mark the first time Littleton has achieved the feat in his career. The Rams have had at least one linebacker total 100 tackles in eight of the last nine seasons. --K Greg Zuerlein needs five PATs to pass Bruce Gossett (211) for the fourth most successful PAT conversions in franchise history. With Zuerlein's next made 50-yard field goal, he will pass Jeff Wilkins (26) for sole possession of the most made 50-yard field goals in franchise history. PLAYER SPOTLIGHT: DT Aaron Donald leads the league in sacks (14.5), sack yards (130.5) and is tied for the most tackles for loss (16) through Week 12 of the 2018 season. His 130.5 sack yards are 48.5 more yards than Texans DE J.J. Watt, who has the second-best sack yard total through 11 games. Since Wade Phillips took over the defense in 2017, Donald leads the league in forced fumbles (eight) and ranks second in sacks with 25.5. L.A. is 15-0 under head coach Sean McVay when Donald records at least 1.0 sack. GAME PLAN: The Rams have big goals in mind, which make the possibility of this being a trap game remote. There are plenty of areas the Rams offense can exploit, beginning with their potent offensive line attacking the Lions interior and creating running room for Todd Gurley II. By establishing the run game, the Rams can go about making the Lions secondary pay through the play-action pass. Considering the potency of the Rams offense, it's hard to see the Lions defense putting up much resistance. Defensively, the Rams will try to take Matthew Stafford off his game by attacking him with pass-rush pressure. In doing so, they hope to create turnovers to set their offense up with short fields.MATCHUPS TO WATCH --Rams WR Brandin Cooks has been a consistent pass catcher since he entered the league in 2014 as a first-round draft pick by the New Orleans Saints and has 59 catches for 964 yards and three touchdowns this year. He will be a handful vs. Lions CB Darius Slay, who has 30 tackles, two interceptions and nine passes defended this year. Rams RT Rob Havenstein has been a steadying force on the offensive line and, in his fourth year, has emerged as one of the top right tackles in the game. He will have a tough matchup vs. Lions DE Ezekiel Ansah, who has four sacks this year and consistently creates pressure on the quarterback.
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