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October 11, 2019 at 4:09 pm #106545
znModeratorRams’ run game, with or without Todd Gurley, searches for identity
Lindsey Thiry
THOUSAND OAKS, Calif. — Throughout the offseason, coach Sean McVay remained adamant that running back Todd Gurley would remain the focal point of the Los Angeles Rams offense.
But through five games, the Rams’ former NFL Offensive Player of the Year is just another player in an offense that has appeared in flux throughout a 3-2 start.
“What we are trying to figure out is what’s the best identity for this 2019 Rams football team and ultimately the offense,” said McVay, when asked if his offense has appeared how he envisioned before the season. “It’s really about us finding ways to just be efficient.”
The Rams’ challenge in establishing the run could grow Sunday, when they face an undefeated San Francisco 49ers team with a top-five rushing defense that is holding opponents to an average of 82 rushing yards per game.
Uncertainty remains about the status of Gurley, who suffered a thigh contusion in last Thursday’s loss to the Seattle Seahawks.
“What’s today — Thursday?” Gurley asked, on Thursday. “I got Friday, Saturday. But just worrying about trying to just get back right and make that decision when the time comes.”
This season, the Rams have been slow to commit to the run and quick to rely on the arm of quarterback Jared Goff, who has passed for 1,649 yards and seven touchdowns, with seven interceptions. The Rams’ passing offense ranks second in the league with 317.4 yards per game, while ranking 22nd in rushing yards with 96.2 per game. Last season they ranked fifth in passing (281.7) and third in rushing (139.4).
“As a quarterback you love throwing the ball,” Goff said. “But you do know, especially in the NFL, it’s not the best recipe for success to be throwing it so many times.”
The offense has accounted for 222 pass plays to 115 runs plays.
“A lot of instances, what I’m most interested in for our offense is efficiency, scoring points and moving the football,” said McVay, when asked about the play discrepancy. “You’d like to be able to have a balance, but our job is to move the ball and score points.”
Before the season, the Rams stockpiled running backs. Along with Gurley, who last season signed a four-year, $60-million extension with $45 million guaranteed, the Rams matched an offer sheet from the Detroit Lions to bring back restricted free agent Malcolm Brown for two years and $3.3 million. They also selected Darrell Henderson in the third round from Memphis.
Even if Gurley assumed a decreased role in an attempt to keep him fresh, it appeared that the Rams’ running game would remain robust.
That hasn’t necessarily been the case, in part, because of circumstance — the Rams trailed the Tampa Bay Buccaneers 21-0 in the second quarter of a Week 4 loss and abandoned the run — but also by design.
This season, the Rams have gone with a designed run on 31 percent of their plays, which ranks 28th in the NFL and is down from McVay’s first two seasons as the Rams coach when he went with a designed run 42 percent of the time.
In the first half of games, they are going with a designed run 28 percent of the time, a higher rate than only the Kansas City Chiefs, who are at 24 percent, according to ESPN Stats and Information Research.
Gurley is coming off arguably his best game of the season in the loss to the Seahawks, when he rushed for 51 yards and two touchdowns on 15 carries. McVay wasted no time getting Gurley into a rhythm, calling for runs on the first two plays.
“We wanted to get him going,” McVay said, adding later, “That opened up some things in the pass game.”
Despite playing an average of four fewer snaps per game than last season, Gurley has maintained a lion’s share of the workload. In five games, he has rushed for 270 yards and five touchdowns on 64 carries.
But he has been spelled at a more frequent rate than in past seasons. Brown is averaging five more snaps per game than in 2018 and has rushed for 114 yards and two touchdowns on 26 carries.
“I think,” Brown said, with a chuckle, when asked to assess the running game, “it’s been cool. We just go out there and run the plays that are being called, for real. That’s it.”
Henderson, who in April McVay called the “change-of-pace back” he’s been searching for, has played two offensive snaps, both in the season opener.
“That’s one of those things that we’re going to look at and are evaluating,” McVay said about Henderson’s role. “It’s our job and it’s my job to make sure we find a way to continue to develop him and give him an opportunity, because I think he is a guy who can help us, whether it’s immediately or whether it’s later on in the season.”
Said Henderson: “It’s all about being patient. I’m just being patient, waiting my time and making sure I’m ready whenever my number is called.”
Whoever is playing, however many run plays are called, Gurley said there’s only one bottom line.
“As long as you’re winning games, that’s all that really matters.”
October 12, 2019 at 2:48 am #106564znModeratorRams passing more, but less effectively, as they face tough 49ers defense
THOUSAND OAKS — The Rams’ passing game brings to mind the old joke about the math-challenged discount store owner who loses money on every sale but says he makes it up in volume.
By most measures of passing-attack effectiveness, the Rams are below the NFL average this season, a lot less efficient than they were last year. Yet they keep throwing, nearly 45 pass attempts a game, selling more of an unprofitable product.
Jared Goff sounds as if he wishes he could keep flinging the ball around the field, but knows an imbalanced offense isn’t ideal.
“Obviously, as a quarterback, you love throwing the ball,” Goff said this week. “But you do know — especially in the NFL — it’s not the best recipe for success to be throwing it so many times.”
The Rams (3-2) might wish to pass less and run more in Sunday’s game against the San Francisco 49ers (4-0), since the Niners have been the league’s hardest team to complete a pass against, led by cornerback Richard Sherman and defensive ends DeForest Buckner and Nick Bosa.
But they might not be able to. Rams running back Todd Gurley is uncertain to play Sunday after bruising his left thigh in last week’s loss to the Seattle Seahawks. If Gurley (4,817 career rushing yards) is out, the rushing workload falls to Malcolm Brown (628) and rookie Darrell Henderson (0). So the ground game could continue to shrink.
To hear the Rams tell it, passing more wasn’t the plan for this season. They say they’ve been forced into it, mainly because they’ve trailed nearly half the time in their past three games, including almost all of the Sept. 29 loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
“We’re throwing the ball because w’re trailing in games and have to play catch-up, because we have to. It’s not what we want to do,” said Robert Woods, one of eight Rams who have caught Goff’s passes this season.
“We’re getting the yards. We’re just not completing our drives. I think the biggest thing is completing our drives, scoring touchdowns, and that will allow us to be more balanced.”
That’s somewhat accurate.
While it’s true the Rams have thrown a lot when they’ve trailed, they’ve also done it early in games when they’ve been tied. In Rams drives while the score is still 0-0, they’ve thrown 26 times (15 completions) while running 12 times, actually a slightly higher pass-to-run ratio than in the rest of those games.
Goff’s 68 pass attempts (third most for a single game in NFL history) while nearly pulling off a comeback against Tampa Bay are a big reason the Rams have thrown 222 times, tied with the Atlanta Falcons for most in the league in 2019.
But even if you ignored the Tampa Bay game, the Rams would still have more passes per game than all but six other teams. (And those six other teams are a combined 10-19-1.)
They’re passing more than they did in 2018 and far more than in 2017, when Gurley was rushing to the NFL Offensive Player of the Year Award.
Maybe it’s because they’re throwing so much — not always in ideal situations — that Goff’s passing statistics have almost all trended downward. The quarterback with the league’s largest guaranteed contract has its 25th-best passer rating, when it was seventh best last season.
San Francisco coach Kyle Shanahan sounded as if the 49ers are preparing for the best version of whatever the Rams show on Sunday.
“They seem to get about 500 yards every game and almost 40 points every game, so it seems like regardless how they do it, to me, it doesn’t matter,” Shanahan said of the Rams, who average 413 yards (fifth in the league) and 29.2 points (sixth). “Whether you’re throwing it or running it, it’s just good offense. They have the scheme and they have the players to do either one.
“I’m sure it will balance out a little bit more for them as the year goes, like it does for most people. I don’t see that as a negative for them, I see that as a positive. They are hard to deal with in the pass game, and everyone knows how good they’ve been at running the ball and how good their backs can be.”
The Rams’ passing game might improve as young center Brian Allen and left guard Joe Noteboom mature, and if Goff finds still more favorite targets, on top of Woods, Cooper Kupp, and Brandin Cooks. Tight end Gerald Everett set career highs with seven catches for 136 yards Oct. 3 against Seattle.
Rams passing-game coordinator and quarterbacks coach Shane Waldron said balance is a goal, but that this can change depending on what an opposing defense permits.
“We’ve got to keep doing a good job of staying the course and trusting the process over the results,” Waldron said.
Goff said he’s ready, whatever the process produces.
“Obviously, moving forward we don’t want to throw the ball 50 times every game,” he said. “But if that’s what happens, and that’s the way we have to do it, I’m good with it.”
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