Los Angeles Rams: Containing Marshawn Lynch guarantees victory

The Los Angeles Rams will head to Oakland to face a new-look Raiders team that can really only hurt the Rams in one way on offense.

When the NFL schedule was announced, the opening Monday Night Football game between the Los Angeles Rams and Oakland Raiders was highly anticipated.

The young Los Angeles Rams were coming off a season in which they surprised everyone and the Oakland Raiders signed the most sought-after head coach of the last ten years in Jon Gruden.

However, with the game just around the corner, the anticipation for this game outside of the fanbases itself has died. The Rams have gotten exponentially better, the Raiders have gotten worse and this seems like a blowout waiting to happen.

While the added pieces the Rams brought in definitely make an impact, it is the self-destructing nature of the Raiders that turned this game on its head. While that might be a bit unfair to say, many are already questioning what Jon Gruden is doing with this football team.

The Raiders have lost some of their best players from a year ago in Michael Crabtree, Marquette King and most prominently, Khalil Mack. The team traded receiver Cordarrelle Patterson and a sixth-round pick to the New England Patriots for a fifth-round pick. Gruden cut Martavis Bryant after trading a third-round pick for him in April.

Oakland did bring in Jordy Nelson to try and make up for these losses. Too bad Nelson is 33 years old and had just 482 receiving yards last season.

Gruden’s actions are certainly confusing and have left the Raiders in a much worse spot than the team started in. Now, a game that looked to be compelling has turned into a cakewalk, at least on paper, for the Los Angeles Rams.

The Rams treating it as such will only hurt the team, they still have to take the Raiders seriously. However, the Rams can hone in on one aspect of the Raiders offense in order to secure the victory.

The passing game likely will not have a big impact on Monday night’s game. Derek Carr is going to be pressured a ton against this Rams’ defensive line and new-look receiver group is going to struggle against this very talented Rams’ secondary.

Defensively, the Raiders might be able to contain parts of the Rams’ offense but will still let up a fair amount of points. Los Angeles simply has too many weapons to turn to on the offensive side of the ball.

Thus, the only path to victory for the Raiders is to run Marshawn Lynch to the ground and bring him straight into the teeth of the Rams defense. The Rams’ linebacker unit is the worst part of the defense and will determine whether or not Lynch can succeed.

The problem for the Raiders is that Lynch is not the same Lynch of five years ago and father time has had his impact. While Lynch can still give the Raiders some quality snaps, his 32-year-old legs can only do so much for the team.

The Los Angeles Rams are simply too young, too athletic and too fast and will smother any run before it breaks out big. These early stops early in the downs will force the Raiders to try and open up the field and throw the ball, playing right into the Rams’ strengths.

The only way for this game to be close is if Marshawn Lynch can have a vintage Beast Mode performance. The Los Angeles Rams are going to be honing on Lynch and should walk away with an easy win.