Rams' Sean McVay reveals what went wrong versus Saquon Barkley

Heading into Week 12, the Los Angeles Rams knew the assignment: slow down Philadelphia Eagles running back Saquon Barkley.

Yes, the Eagles have the best defense in the NFL, yes, Jalen Hurts can air it out, and yes, the Philadelphia was without their WR2, DeVonta Smith, but come on, Nick Sirianni's team lives and dies based on the production of their MVP candidate out of PSU, and if he isn't going, everything else kind of falls apart.

*sigh* unfortunately, things didn't work out quite like they should have.

Running for a new career-high 255 yards on the way to a dominant win on Sunday Night Football, Barkley understandably earned his flowers for an incredible effort under those bright SoFi lights, but how did the Rams feel about this? Did their strategy not work out, or did they expect Barkley to be a force for the Eagles and instead blame their own shortcomings on not matching Philly's firepower blow-for-blow?

Discussing the Rams' expectations for Week 12 after the loss, McVay told reporters that he knew Barkley had the potential to have a huge game, even if he didn't necessarily think it could be a top-10 rushing yards of all-time sort of a game.

“Same as what we said before. Those are the things… he's getting tough, hard-earned yards, and then you give him a vertical seam, like he got a couple times,” McVay told reporters. “He's got the explosiveness and the long speed and the ability to be able to finish. That was really what opened up and really blew the game open for them. He was outstanding tonight.”

So what went from for the Rams versus Barkley? Were they out-gunned at the line of scrimmage? Or did their very young front seven simply not have the discipline to prevent Barkley's big runs? Well, McVay reflected on that, too, and had some interesting insight into his own front's Week 12 strategy.

Saquon Barkley took advantage of the Rams' defensive aggressiveness

Discussing the Rams' defensive strategy against the Eagles, McVay admitted that the Rams' defensive front was probably a bit too aggressive for their own good, as their attacking front opened up seams for Barkley to slash for big yards.

“Yeah, you know the thing that's hard is you get into some of these aggressive looks, and you give him a vertical seam to the second level, and he's got the ability to be able to erase angles and work edges and make people miss. The last one, you're in a really aggressive defense trying to be able to get a stop on a third and five. Somebody doesn't follow a puller back and that's where he's got the ability to finish those plays,” McVay noted.

“The one coming out of the second half, I'll have to go back and look at it, but it's the thing that makes him so dangerous is that you get him the ability to get to the second level unabated, and he gets enough speed, and he's excellent. He's as good as there is as a slash runner to be able to work edges and then be able to erase angles and be able to finish. That's why he had the production that he had, and that's why he's had arguably an MVP type of season so far.”

On one hand, the decision to put pressure on Hurts was a smart one, as he has a tendency to make mistakes when he's under pressure, but when you consider QB1 only attempted 22 passes versus 45 rushing attempts by Barkley, Kenneth Gainwell, and company, step one in Shula's decisionmaking process should have been stopping the run at all costs no matter what Philadelphia threw at them.