Three statements for each week one NFL game

Dallas Cowboys @ Los Angeles Rams

Dallas Cowboys v Los Angeles Rams

1. Sean McVay is still an excellent offensive play-caller

While I only had the Rams winning six or seven games when I went through their schedule, I always said I believe in their young head coach and it was more about their roster and other factors around me that had me worried.

McVay’s gameplan for Sunday Night was a beauty, finding a great mixture of zone runs, bootlegs and throwback screens off those, to keep the Cowboys defense guessing. Robert Woods was a major beneficiary of that (6 catches for 105 yards), but I just loved how he utilized his backs. McVay created so many layups for his quarterback Jared Goff and tied everything together like the young genius he was praised as just a couple of years ago.

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2. The Rams O-line is better than expected and their run game is back

One of my big concerns with this L.A. squad was the offensive line, since their two tackles showed some regression last season and they didn’t add any pieces to it this offseason, As Chris Collinsworth pointed out on the broadcast, those big guys started creating some vertical push to go along with the horizontal nature of the zone rushing attack.

Cam Akers looked good in his first action, with the ability to cut off one foot and go North, but Malcolm Brown to me was the star of the show – he stepped out of the grasp of defenders, spun off those tackles and constantly fell forward for extra yardage, This is the type of attack I want to see from the Rams and it sets up everything else they do.

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3. Aldon Smith is back and hungry

When somebody hasn’t play a snap of football in five years and had to leave the NFL because of drug problems, it’s tough to believe they will resemble the type of player he was before, but I was so impressed with Smith. After he looked like a Hall of Famer early on in his days with San Francisco, Aldon came back for Sunday night and didn’t seem to have lost a step.

While the Rams O-line did show improvement, they had no answers for the guy who now wears number 58. He got free on an up-and-under, you saw the ability to collapse the pocket and slice through to hit the ball-carrier in the backfield. He could be a serious contender for Comeback Player of the Year.