Ravens vs Rams: Scouting the Rams offensive weapons

The St. Louis Rams, not very known as of late as an offensive powerhouse may now possess enough weapons to punish the Ravens through the air, and on the turf.

The starting depth chart for the Rams consist of:

WR: Kenny Britt, Tavon Austin, Brian Quick, Wes Welker

TE: Jared Cook, Lance Kendricks

RB: Todd Gurley, Tre Mason

Reading through the names, you're not quite terrified of these players, yet we should be. Mainly because we don't have any defenders capable of stopping these players. The wide receiving corps consisting of two lightning fast players (Tavon & Wes) will be damaging a sluggish and embarrassing Ravens secondary. Welker on nine snaps was targeted six times. He made 3 receptions for 32 yards, and was undoubtedly helpful with less than two weeks of playbook under his belt. This can only mean he gets better. Alongside another bolt of lightning Tavon Austin will use all the agile possible to duck, dodge, dip, dive, and dodge Baltimore Raven tacklers, and we all know how badly everybody is at that besides Will Hill. Expect the short passes to become first downs, painfully caused due to bad coverage and worse tackling. Kenny Britt is another threat the Ravens will hope to contain as his route tree is almost complete. His short, intermediate, and deep routes are all available, and his size mixed with speed is adequate in playing. Jimmy Smith can match up well, but don't expect him to be shadowing all game with the Dean Pees defense.

The most impressive rookie back out of the draft so far, Todd Gurley, will be making his first appearance against the Baltimore Ravens, and in my mind the defense has the capabilites to clamp down on the run game. Although Todd Gurley is ranked the 10th best back by PFF, even with his missed games, Baltimore's run defense is still very capable, especially against a middling O-line. Expect C.J. Mosley to have direct orders to stare down TGIII all game, and Brandon Williams to dominate any attempts at the run.

Tight Ends will be the wildcard match-up as the Ravens linebacker depth are nothing special, and the tight end strength for St. Louis is nothing overpowering. Jared Cook is a good tight end, but nothing amazing. Yet, in games I've seen him blow up over 100 and multiple scores. This is a big factor. So far this season Cook has been very mediocre, with 22 catches for 290 yards and not a single touchdown. To compare Crockett Gillmore looks very similar at 24 catches for 284 yards, but 4 touchdowns. Both good, but nothing special.

Another huge factor will be the quarterback situation. Nick Foles has been benched and Case Keenum will be the starting quarterback. This is neither good nor bad for the Ravens as Foles has been mediocre to bad, and Keenum doesn't seem like the player to absolutely devastate the opposition. Yet again, Josh McCown didn't either.

Overall, a big factor will be Keenum attempting to get the ball off quickly and getting Welker, Britt, and Austin room to run, and forcing the Ravens to not load the box against Todd Gurley and the running game.