FOXBOROUGH, Mass. — The Rams made yet another change to their ever-evolving offensive line ahead of Sunday’s 28-22 win over the New England Patriots, starting rookie Beaux Limmer over free-agent acquisition Jonah Jackson.
Jackson started at center in Week 1 before moving over to left guard following an injury to Steve Avila. Limmer started the next seven games while Jackson went on injured reserve after Week 2 with a shoulder injury.
Jackson returned from IR last week and resumed his duties at center. But the Rams struggled to get the offense going after the change up front, with a stagnant run game and pressure impacting quarterback Matthew Stafford’s ability to move the ball through the air.
So, on Sunday, the Rams went back to Limmer, who had not allowed a sack through 288 pass-blocking snaps entering New England.
“Just what we thought was going to be best,” head coach Sean McVay said of the decision.
The move paid dividends, with the Rams averaging 4.5 yards per carry while not allowing a sack. And the line looked to be playing with the cohesion that McVay was searching for after last week’s dispiriting performance.
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“I feel like a lot of the stuff we struggled at last week, we did a really good job of fixing those mistakes,” Avila said.
He then went on to talk about the run game.
“I feel like our double-teams were a lot more solid,” Avila said. “The way their backers played, they played very downhill and we were aware of that, and also we had a very good game plan for what they were doing. We ended up being efficient, we didn’t have as many mistakes as we did last week.”
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Sunday marked the first time that Avila played next to Limmer in a game setting, and he came away impressed with the rookie sixth-round pick’s demeanor on the field.
“I feel like he’s very calm when it comes to the game,” Avila said. “He has a lot of grit to him. It’s cool to see the command that he has, being young. So, it was cool being by him today.”