Three things the Los Angeles Rams must do in order to beat the Falcons

Here’s what the Los Angeles Rams need to do win over Atlanta this weekend.

The NFL playoffs are finally upon us, and for the first time since 2004, the Rams have made it to the postseason. This accomplishment alone would be reason to celebrate for any of the previous Ram’s teams this decade, but these Rams are far different.

This Los Angeles team has the capability of winning at all. If they want to go on the deep playoff run they have the potential to embark on, it all starts with beating the Atlanta Falcons this week.

This will be no easy task, as last year’s NFC champions have an offense that is still a force to be reckoned with. While it will indeed be difficult, this Rams team is more than capable of coming out of this weekend with a win.

Here are a few of the things they must do to ensure that this possibility becomes the reality.

Don’t let Julio Jones beat you

I almost didn’t want to include this one, as it’s pretty obvious. Regardless of how obvious it may be, stopping Julio Jones really should be the team’s main priority on defense.

Jones is the wild card in this matchup as he can take over a game on any given week. Dealing with a player of his caliber is no easy task, but with a defensive coordinator as great as Wade Phillips, it is a task as feasible as it is challenging.

The secondary should be healthy coming into this week’s game, which is important as the injuries to the team’s defensive backs have shown to be a major weakness for the team in the latter half of the season.

Because of this, the team has had a hard time dealing with top tier wide receivers at points during the season, but have often times been able to get away with it due to the virtue of having the league’s best offense.

This is an area the team can not afford to struggle in while facing the Falcons, making it imperative that Wade Phillips install the necessary measures required to keep Julio Jones under control.

Get Todd Gurley going

Todd Gurley’s spectacular play is a big reason for why the Rams offense has been so unstoppable this season. With this in mind, it is key that the team gets Gurley as many touches as possible this week.

There have been six games this season in which he played that Todd Gurley had less than 20 touches. Out of these six games, four of them were losses, which accounted for the only four losses the team had all season—besides the final game of the season, in which the team rested all of their starters.

It is clear that the formula for stopping the Rams’ high-powered offense begins with stopping Todd Gurley. It is even more clear that the Rams must do everything in their power to prevent the Atlanta Falcons from succeeding in this regard. A strong game from Todd Gurley will play an integral part in securing the Rams their first post season win in 14 years.

Success despite lack of experience

This young Rams team has all the talent and coaching in the world, but they are still just that, a young team. This youth is a virtue, but also their biggest curse. In the playoffs, experience can go a long way as playing in a regular season is difficult, but a playoff game is an entirely different endeavor.

To this point, the only players on this team with real playoff experience are Andrew Whitworth and Connor Barwin, and even they don’t have that much experience. They even have a first year head coach, which is as little experience as you can possible have.

The Falcons on the other hand are fresh off of a super bowl run. This super bowl run was capped by a devastating loss in the big game that showed the Falcons lose because of their own inexperience at the time.

Surely this made a lasting impression with the team, and now gives them an edge over a team with as little experience as the Rams. If the Falcons are to win this game, it will be because of this. There isn’t much the Rams can do about this other than staying focused and playing their game. If they can do this, they should win, if they have a meltdown, we will all know why.

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On paper, the Rams should be able to beat this team with relative ease, but they must do all three of the things outlined above if that is to happen. Regardless of if they do, we are in for a great game and likely a great playoff run by the Los Angeles Rams.