The Rise of the Rams’ Introduction of a Cloaked Pass Interference Technique Defensive Strategy
The Los Angeles Rams have developed a sophisticated cloaked pass interference technique as a key component of their defensive strategy over the course of at least the past two seasons, that has significantly boosted their interception rates.
This strategy, intentionally incorporates a masked or Cloaked, if you prefer, process of pass interference with their opponents receivers and their abilities to complete their assigned routes, while the defenders counterpart is strategically positioning themselves in a parallel path with the receiver so that when the quarterback attempts to pass the football to his receivers, the two defenders simultaneously move in a well rehearsed that had one defender purposely running interference with the receiver positioning himself to be in sync with his quarterback as a viable target while in the same moments the second defender, has seamlessly positioned himself to intercept the football that the quarterback had deterred to be a viable target only seconds before.
Although this method has proven effective, it clearly incorporates Pass Interference violations through out the course of its execution and no matter how well rehearsed it may be, it must always invite scrutiny by the officials’ who are charged with recognizing and identifying rule infractions and levying penalties and fines when they are warranted.
With the Rams winning a close playoff game verses the Chicago Bears in NFC Playoff
A Counter to Superior Offenses
This defensive adjustment was not specifically designed to thwart star quarterbacks like Sam Darnold, who showcased his talent during a 14-3 season. Instead, the Rams initially aimed to counter strong offenses broadly. However, when Darnold transitioned from the Minnesota Vikings to the Seattle Seahawks, the Rams faced their own challenge. In their first encounter with Darnold as a Seahawk, the Rams executed this interception technique to notable success, exemplified by three of their four interceptions that day—a perfect illustration of strategic football.
Anticipating the Rams’ Strategy
Opponents can combat the Rams’ interception technique by crafting receiver routes that precede their defenders. By throwing passes over the defenders’ heads into the receivers’ paths, the quarterback can outmaneuver Rams’ interference tactics. Such adjustments highlight the cerebral nature of football, where one team’s innovation can spark counter-strategies that may very well determine the game’s outcome.
I have elected to bring this perceived intentional violation of the rules for the purposes of advantaging themselves against their opponents by developing and deploying techniques that other teams are penalized for only because they have not, like the Rams have, rehearsed and perfected the execution of these violations of the rules that carry penalties and consequences.
The Rams will face their division rivals this upcoming Sunday in Seattle in Lumen Stadium where they will take on the Seahawks. A team that has evolved and elevated itself as me of the most complete and difficult challenges in the NFL this season.
The Rams are well aware of the overwhelming task that lies ahead of them. They also know that without deploying their defensive technique, as illegal as it may be that even with it stand little to no chance of emerging NFC Division Champions.
That said coupled with the fact that they have shamelessly deployed these tactics in our recent meetings. By exposing this matter in a publicly accessible social mediia source where it will likely gain some attention and be shared ultimately with other social media sources that enjoy significantly greater traffic and viewership, it may eventually be relayed to sources within the Seahawks facility, Sourced that may already suspect or be aware of what the Rams have been doing and incorporate tactics to counter or neutralize the potentially hurtful impact that they could cause, in fact have caused not only to the Seahawks but to all he other teams in the NFL.
i will close by declaring that this content is largely the accumulation of exploration and collection of information gathered through various resources and in a variety of different formats.
review of numerous film footage of the Rams games with numerous NFL Teams that they have played over the course of the past two seasons. This investigation was prompted by the fact that the Rams were able to dramatically overcome the challenges of playing Sam Darnold first as the starting quarterback of the Middle nnesota Vikings where they experienced success where every other NFL team had experienced defea
Theres an old saying “If It Looks ToGood To Be True, It Usually Is “. I admittedly may be completely wrong and if it is proven that I am, I will be the first to publicly apologize for my mistakes and misinformation. WIU more than fifty years of watching both NFL and College football games, always challenging myself to learn more and develop my understanding of all the intricacies of the game over all of those years .
I am a diehard 12th Man Homer and like an old mother hen, feeling the need to excuse, justify and defend my Seahawks team wherever and whenever possible.
The Seahawks current Head Coach, Mike MacDonald has significantly diminished my need to excuse or defend my Seahawks team because of their evolution and transformation into the most capable and complete team in the NFL under Mike’s tutelage.
it was when I saw the disparity in Sam Darnold’s statistics when facing his former kryptonite from his days with Vikings following him to his current position as the Seahawks starting quarterback, that I became suspicious that the had tapped into something in Sam’s game that other teams had not and I became determined that I was going to get to the bottom of it.
I turned to the YouTube NFL game archives and began to explore and dissect Sam’s quarterback career from his earliest days in the NFL until present, trying to pinpoint and understand what the Rams had spotted in Sam game that they had successfully identified and then exploited to their advantage.
It wasn’t until I began to review the Rams game highlights, first against the Seahawks pre Sam Darnold, when Geno was their starting quarterback and then their opponents in general, that I began to see a pattern and statistical indicators appearing in their annual defensive statistics, that were also significantly attributing to a n increase in their wins and losses over the past few seasons.
That single contributing statistic was the significant number of interceptions that were occurring in their games.
it was when I went back to examine those interceptions that were occurring in many if not all of their games, that I began to see a consistent pattern of well rehearsed and synchronized pass defensive and at the same time, pass interference maneuvers were by design intended to minimize the risk of detection by NFL Officials in their execution and that involved a technique where one of the two defenders assigned to each of the eligible offensive player’s, were positioning themselves between the quarterback and the designated receiver, effectively interfering with their ability to complete their assigned routes, while the second defender was moving in sync with their receiver, anticipating the quarterback’s passing the football to the intended receiver and in with the stage already set, the second defender was positioned to complete the execution of the technique and intercept the football with relative ease and consistency.
The Officials in the moment are then concentrating on the defenders completion of the interception and in almost every instance were oblivious to the defenders pass route interference that had laid the groundwork for their counterpart, in the seconds leading up to the competition of their interception.
I was encouraged in the Rams Wildcard game vs the Panthers, that it appeared that the Panthers Offensive coaching staff had become aware of the Rams interception technique and were successful in countering it by positioning their eligible receivers leading in their routes with the defenders in pursuit and the quarterback targeting their passes over the head of their receivers and into their path, allowing them to have exclusive access to the football with the defenders being denied the opportunity to intercept the football with out blatantly interfering with the targeted receiver.
In that game, the officials also provided indications that they were becoming increasingly aware of the Rams interception techniques, when the called “Pass Interference” on a number of the Rams Secondary Defensive players, citing the Rams defenders had intentionally impeded and interfered with the receiver’s ability to complete their assigned routes by doing so.
It is my hope that by bringing the Rams Pass Interference Technique into the light of day, that it will become increasingly difficult for them to carry it out without consequences.
More importantly that while it’s highly unlikely that the Seahawks offensive coaching staff has not also uncovered the Rams Defensive Pass Interference and Interception Technique and have a plan to neutralize it and perhaps transform the Rams one time asset into a permanent deficit.
I am both hopeful and optimistic that the Seahawks will only continue to improve as a complete and highly complementary football team and in doing so will accomplish in their upcoming matchup with the LA Rams, what they recently accomplished when facing their other NFC West Divisional Rivals, the San Francisco 49ers, where the Seahawks established themselves as a far superior adversary, decimating them with a score of 6 to 41.
Were the Seahawks to repeat their performance against the Rams they will remove any remaining doubts of their evolution into a top NFL contender and a probable Super Bowl Championship Team for many years to come. Go Seahawks!
