reporters on the SF GAME

Gurley takes a flying leap forward for the Rams offense

Joe Curley

http://www.vcstar.com/story/sports/nfl/rams/2017/09/17/gurley-takes-flying-leap-forward-rams-offense/675854001/

LOS ANGELES — Southern California had been waiting for a glimpse of the Todd Gurley about which St. Louis raved.

It saw him on billboards and in burger commercials, and waited for him to potentially pick up the mantle from Kobe Bryant as Los Angeles’ premier sports superstar.

While Gurley’s streak of consecutive games without hitting the 100-yard rushing mark was extended to 20 on Sunday, 18 of those since the move to Los Angeles, the third-year running back leapt back into the local consciousness with a vintage afternoon.

Gurley had 136 yards from scrimmage and two touchdowns in the Rams’ 27-20 loss to Washington on Sunday afternoon at the Coliseum.

“It is something we can build on,” Gurley said.

Gurley’s 88 yards rushing on just 16 carries, an average of 5.5 yards per carry, represented his best performance since the team returned to Los Angeles.

“A lot better improvement, as far as running the ball this week,” Gurley said. “We just have to go finish it.”

He was also the team’s second-leading receiver with three catches on four targets for 48 yards.

A talent like Gurley barely averaging 55 yards per game was a symbol of the team’s offensive ineptitude a year ago.

While the former Georgia star has yet to break his streak under first-year coach Sean McVay, the new staff has found a way to make him a productive player again.

With touchdown runs in each of the first two games of the season, Gurley has touchdown runs in consecutive games for the first time since Dec. 2015.

“I thought he did a nice job,” McVay said. “He got some plays out on the perimeter where it was some tight inside zone-type plays and then he bounced it out and was able to create. I thought the line did a nice job.”

On the day the Rams celebrated Los Angeles securing another Olympiad by inviting International Olympic Committee president Thomas Bach to light the Olympic cauldron, Gurley dominated the hurdling competition.

The former high school hurdler leapt over Washington cornerbacks Kendall Fuller and Bashaud Breeland on for a pair of big gains.

“It just happens,” Gurley said about the hurdling.

His quarterback enjoyed the show. Jared Goff said Gurley was “tremendous today.”

“He kept jumping over people and making plays,” Goff said.

The plays were needed, as the Rams spent the afternoon playing catchup after falling behind 13-0.

Gurley’s 1-yard touchdown run pulled the Rams within 13-7 with 9:59 left in the first half. His 18-yard catch and run, which included the leap over Breeland, pulled the Rams within 20-17 with midway through the third quarter.

The touchdown reception was the first of his three-year career.

Gurley did put the ball on the grass twice, losing the first fumble, which set up a 22-yard Washington field goal early in the second quarter.

“That’s one thing I’ve got to fix,” Gurley said, “but it was a good team effort. We fought hard today and we just didn’t get the result that we wanted.”

Over the past few months, McVay has periodically alluded to regrets with the running game during his time in Washington.

Discussing the running game after Sunday’s game, he once again criticized how he handled the running game.

“I’ve got to do a better job of giving us a chance to get that going,” McVay said. “It was hard in the first half, didn’t really have a lot of opportunities, but that’s not really an excuse.

“It starts with me. I thought Todd made a handful of plays today and it was good to see him be able to do that.”

Rams’ offense for real with Jared Goff, but bad D will slow NFC roll

Jared Goff is playing like a franchise QB who has tons of weapons in a new offense, but it’s going to be tough for his unit to outscore teams every week.

Vinnie Iyer

http://www.sportingnews.com/nfl/news/rams-offense-jared-goff-todd-gurley-aaron-donald-are-they-for-real-nfc-contenders/1n6x4tr8n8pud1uljyf5dzjzg2?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter

The Rams are 2-1 and they’ve scored 40-plus points in their two wins with Jared Goff dealing and Todd Gurley popping. After holding off the rival 49ers 41-39 in Thursday night’s thrilling shootout in Santa Clara, the next logical question is: Are the Rams for real? Yes, but to keep it really real, their ceiling is a .500 record.

First, the impressive. They’ve done a complete 180 on offense from the end of the stodgy Jeff Fisher era, thanks to the diverse play-calling of wunderkind new coach Sean McVay. Goff and Gurley are suddenly a dangerous duo looking worthy of being first-round picks.

Given Goff was handed three legitimate receivers for speed, possession and slot (Sammy Watkins, Robert Woods and Cooper Kupp) and a stud left tackle (Andrew Whitworth) on top of McVay in the offseason, the leap in his development shouldn’t be too surprising. The improvement has, in turn, created a trickle-down effect in the running game and sparked a big rebound by Gurley. His three first-half TDs vs. the 49ers (two rushing, one receiving) allowed him to match his sophomore-slump TD total (six) of 2016.

Goff, off and winless as a rookie, posted the type of nearly perfect performance that’s associated with the game’s elite QBs (22-of-28 passing, 292 yards, three TDs, 145.8 rating). He’s looking the part of franchise quarterback he was expected to be when LA drafted him No. 1 overall last year.

All that said, neither Goff or Gurley is close to being the Rams’ best player. That’s Aaron Donald, the most dominant defensive player in the league, who finished off the Niners’ furious comeback with a ferocious takedown of 49ers QB Brian Hoyer. Unfortunately for Donald, he hasn’t received the type of newfound support Goff and Gurley got, and that will dash any high hopes LA has for making the NFC playoffs.

Donald’s dominance aside, LA made Hoyer look like he was back with the Patriots and channeling Tom Brady. The 49ers had zero touchdowns in their first two games against Carolina and Seattle, two recent NFC powers with top defenses. They had five TDs against the Rams, and had game flow been different, Carlos Hyde would have gashed their run defense a lot more — similar to how the Redskins powered through it in Week 2.

Everyone is excited to see whether Goff and Gurley can keep things up at Dallas in Week 4, and then to see if the Rams can cause a changing of the guard in the NFC West when Seattle comes to Los Angeles in Week 5.

Neither the Cowboys nor Seahawks are in sync offensively, but everyone knows where Dak Prescott can go and where Russell Wilson has gone. It’s good that Goff was able to find his best self on the field against the Colts and 49ers when he was awful against everyone last season, but doing it in shootouts against much better teams is the next level. The rest of a tough NFC East and an underrated AFC South remain, where the Rams will also face much tougher defenses than will their opponents.

The offensive creativity and explosiveness are here to stay with McVay, but so will the defensive breakdowns under Wade Phillips and around Donald. The Rams aren’t exactly the second coming of The Greatest Show on Turf, so it doesn’t have enough to overcome just having the Fearsome Onesome.

But inconsistent consistency is a big change from absolute cluelessness. Consider if the Rams are able to get from four wins to 8-8 in McVay’s first season — that would still represent a higher floor than any of the five years with Fisher.

Crashing the NFC postseason party is hard when the Cowboys, Seahawks, Falcons, Packers and, yes, the Lions all look like they have staying power. The Rams are learning to walk again, but they are still season away from a run at the playoffs

Five Takeaways from the Rams’ Victory over the 49ers

Myles Simmons

http://www.therams.com/news-and-events/article-fivetakeaways/Five-Takeaways-from-the-Rams-Victory-over-the-49ers/4473c0f1-2a7b-461f-8911-24ef35cfd8cd

Los Angeles won its first divisional matchup of the year on Thursday night, outlasting San Francisco 41-39 on Thursday Night Football. With plenty to go over, here are five takeaways from the victory that made the Rams 2-1.

1) Excellent offense

Despite the short week, Los Angeles looked prepared and confident throughout the game on offense. The Rams racked up 418 total yards — the first time the club has eclipsed 400 yards since 2014. The club has now scored 107 points through the first three games, which is a far cry from the 46 it had at this point last year.

“Credit goes to the players for being able to execute and being able to maintain some drives and put up some points,” head coach Sean McVay said postgame.

“We had a short week so we only had so long to game plan,” quarterback Jared Goff said. “We have so much variety in our offense and so much stuff that we do, that we can mix and match and dress up in different ways.

“So I think that’s the main thing we tried to do, is run stuff that we know we’re good at and run stuff that we know we’re comfortable with, but maybe make it look like something else. But at the same time, if we can run the ball like that, it’s tough to beat.”

Additionally, the Rams hadn’t scored at least 40 points in two games since 2006. Now they’ve done it two of their first three times out.

There’s still improvements to be made, for sure, but L.A. has clearly made significant progress under McVay.

2) Goff looks the part

Within those 418 yards and 41 points were a number of strong individual offensive performances, one being quarterback Jared Goff.

Last year’s No. 1 overall pick finished 22/28 passing for 292 yards with three touchdowns. That works out to 10.4 yards per attempt and a 145.8 passer rating. A perfect passer rating is 158.3.

“I think he did a lot of really good things. I thought he distributed the ball well. I thought in crunch time, some of the third down conversions he made were really exciting,” McVay said Friday. “Anytime that you go 22-for-28 you feel pretty good, taking care of the football and then again, no sacks, huge credit to the offensive line, so can’t say enough about what those guys did yesterday as well.”

Through three games, Goff has looked like a player who spent a lot of time working to improve during the offseason. He’s completed 70.4 percent of his passes for 817 yards with five touchdowns and one interception. He’s averaging 10.1 yards per attempt, 14.3 yards per completion, and owns a passer rating of 118.2

“What’s crazy is how much he humbled himself and just went to work,” offensive lineman Rodger Saffold said. “After that he started trusting us — trusting the guys in front of him. I mean there’s going to be battles, there’s going to be technique off here and there, but to be able to sit in the pocket and throw whenever you have somebody barreling at you or if you have somebody right in your face, that’s what makes the difference. He is just gradually becoming the quarterback that we want him to be and the way that he’s supposed to be.”

3) Gurley does, too

In just three weeks, running back Todd Gurley has already equaled his touchdown total from last year.

Gurley had three first-half touchdowns on Thursday night — two rushing, one receiving. He had a rushing touchdown in Los Angeles’ win over Indianapolis, then a rushing and receiving touchdown against Washington last week to give him six on the young season.

The Georgia product finished the game with 149 yards from scrimmage — 113 yards rushing, 36 yards receiving. It’s the first time Gurley has gone over 100 yards rushing since 2015.

“It felt good,” Gurley said. “Obviously defense gave me the easiest touchdown ever on the first play. And we just got into a rhythm, everybody was getting going. We were able to have a little success running the ball and we’re opening up the passing game. It just felt good to be out there and execute as an offense.”

The running back helped the Rams build their lead, and was the offense’s needed closer, too. Gurley started a fourth-quarter possession with a 29-yard run, and followed that with a 27-yard check down reception on 3rd-and-10 to extend the drive.

Gurley has been heavily involved in the passing game so far this season, making 13 receptions for 140 yards.

“It’s very comforting knowing that he can make a play and make a catch,” Goff said. “He’s a very sure-handed player. He’s also a very good communicator, in body language as well as verbally, while he’s running his routes and on the sidelines as well.”

4) Woods, Watkins steal the show

Two former Buffalo receivers Sammy Watkins and Robert Woods have shown how productive they can be in Los Angeles’ offense, becoming the first pair of Rams to eclipse 100 yards receiving in the same game since 2006 when wideout Isaac Bruce and running back Steven Jackson accomplished the feat.

Watkins made six receptions for 106 yards with two touchdowns. Woods finished with six receptions for 108 yards.

“That’s our offense — we want to just keep it like that, keep it balanced,” Woods said. “You don’t know who is going to strike at any time. I think now when teams play us, they can’t hold the box, they can’t play outside. So just have to keep being balanced and I think it will open up our offense to keep scoring points like that.”

“It means a lot [to have them on the offense], obviously two explosive guys, two guys that make plays together,” Gurley said. “So, they have been doing a great job for us in helping us out.”

Unfortunately, Watkins had to leave the game in the fourth quarter and has been placed in the concussion protocol. But both wideouts have made their presence felt.

5) And about the defense and special teams…

There’s no question the Rams’ defense and special teams will have to improve after Thursday’s performance.

Defensively, the unit performed well when it had to — like on the two-point conversion attempt and after the onside kick. But defensive tackle Michael Brockers credited the Niners for having a strong plan of attack.

“I think it’s just a chess match,” he said. “We were prepared for them to run the ball a little bit. They came out on first down and did some play action passes, caught us in some stuff. But this game is a chess match, they’re adjusting and we’re adjusting so I just give it to a testament that they made some good adjustments at halftime and had a great game plan for us.”

As for special teams — which had an uncharacteristically sloppy day under coordinator John Fassel with turnovers and penalties — McVay said he expects the unit to correct the mistakes.

“We’ve got to take better care of the football,” McVay said. “Those are things that with our players that are touching the ball, it will be addressed, they’ll make sure that they’re moving on and improving from that. Then just some of those situations as far as jumping offsides from a 4th and 2 where you give them a first down – we just can’t do that. It starts with us as coaches and then the players have to make sure that they understand those situations.”