THOUSAND OAKS, Calif. -- Sean McVay understands his team is going through a rough stretch right now, but the Los Angeles Rams head coach wants to make sure they don’t panic coming off consecutive losses, dropping them to 2-3 on the season.

“The one thing I think is important for our players to contextualize is that let's not allow six hours of football to change the whole sense of who we are, what we've become,” McVay said. “If you're not careful, you can let the outside narrative dictate that.”

While he doesn’t want his team to totally change its identity after last weekend's loss to the Dallas Cowboys, McVay made it clear in his postgame news conference that the Rams “have got to be able to help” quarterback Matthew Stafford. Through five games, according to ESPN Stats & Information, the Rams have the third-worst offensive expected points added in the NFL.

So, heading into Week 6 against the Carolina Panthers, in what areas do the Rams need to improve offensively to help their quarterback?

Protection

The Rams have started nine different offensive linemen. Only two, left tackle Joe Noteboom and right tackle Rob Havenstein, have started every game this season.

The piecemeal offensive line has allowed 21 sacks this season, tied for most in the NFL. Stafford has had only one other season in his career with more sacks through five games. The Rams rank 24th with a team pass block win rate of 54%.

The day after the loss to the Cowboys, Havenstein said the offensive line had a players-only meeting to discuss the problems the line has had this season.

“I think it comes down to a mindset thing,” Havenstein said. “Physical mistakes are going to happen, but our mindset the last couple games hasn’t been right. That’s something we’re going to address at practice."

Not only has the offensive line had to deal with so many moving pieces, but they also had to communicate on a silent cadence at home because of the influx of Cowboys fans.

“Sometimes that's a little bit frustrating,” Rams offensive coordinator Liam Coen said. “But that’s not an excuse. We have to be able to communicate. We have to both visually and non-verbally communicate at a high level.”

Coen said improving communication around protection has been a “big point of emphasis this week” and that hopefully, the offense will be able to play with a verbal cadence this week against Carolina.

Run game

The Rams have struggled to move the ball consistently on the ground, and it has slowed down their offense. Running back Cam Akers, who has 151 yards and a touchdown on 51 carries this season, is averaging just 2.57 yards after contact per attempt, according to Pro Football Focus, and will be out on Sunday. Running back Darrell Henderson is averaging just 2.29 yards after contact per attempt.

And although the run blocking has not been consistent -- the Rams rank 21st with a team run block win rate of 70% -- Coen said he needs to see more “creativity” from his running backs.

“It's not always going to be clean,” Coen said. “It's not always going to be a perfect wide gaping hole. … Sometimes [where the ball is supposed to go has] to go out the window and guys need to go be playmakers and be special with the ball in their hands.”

McVay said this week that there are “so many layers to the run game” to explain why the Rams haven’t had much success, but “ultimately it's about versatility, consistency in terms of our operation [and] everybody doing what they're supposed to do.”

“It has been a challenge because we've never had the same guys up front,” McVay said. “We've had backs that haven't really practiced, we're trying to get a bunch of different things going. … We just got to continue to keep swinging and keep plugging along and figure it out because nobody cares and we’ve got to fix it.”

Pass game

So far, the Rams’ passing game has gone through Cooper Kupp, who led the league in catches, receiving yards and touchdowns in 2021. Kupp has 49 receptions this season -- the most by a player through five games in NFL history.

The Rams haven’t been getting the production they expected from their No. 2 receiver, Allen Robinson, who signed a three-year, $46.5 million contract this offseason. Through five games, he has 12 catches for 107 yards and a touchdown. Coen explained last week that “you always want” Kupp as the first read on plays, so “it’s just really being more creative in terms of the ways that we can get [Robinson] to be the primary.”

But, Coen said, “it’s hard to just say that we’re going to get him the ball when we’re struggling to communicate to pass protect and to get all on the same page. When you can’t get the play started, it’s really difficult to say, ‘Oh, let’s make sure we get Allen [Robinson] five targets.’ Or this guy this amount of targets.

“We’re just trying to function right now at a high level.”

The Rams have also been without wide receiver Van Jefferson, who had knee surgery during training camp. Los Angeles had not put him on injured reserve until they determined they needed his roster spot while they were dealing with a significant number of injuries in the secondary earlier in the season. Jefferson is eligible to come off the IR after the Rams’ Week 7 bye.

Mental errors

But among all these areas, it’s “execution” that McVay said needs to be improved. He wants to see more “urgency on communication” as the Rams get ready to play the Panthers, and he said he believes that is correctable.

“That's where it really starts,” McVay said. “That's one of the things that we've prided ourselves on for the last five years, now this being the sixth year. It hasn't been up to our standards, particularly on the offensive side of the ball.”

The mental errors, Stafford said, are holding this offense back.

“You look around the league, those teams that are doing a great job of everybody being on the same page and communicating well, they're playing good football,” Stafford said. “That's really one of the main things that's probably holding us back. When we do the right thing and we communicate the right way and we do all the things we're supposed to do, it looks pretty good at times. We’ve just got to do that on a more consistent basis.”

Los Angeles, which is averaging 16 points per game (29th in the NFL), has scored a total of just three points in the fourth quarter this season.

“I can't put my finger on [why] for you right now,” Stafford said. “I don't think it's been happening in any quarter enough, to be honest with you.”