Malcolm Brown has a case

Malcolm Brown has a case

A view from the opponent: Malcolm Brown has a case for the No. 2 RB spot

As a Chiefs guy, it was a bit disheartening to see the Los Angeles Rams put together such good offensive drives against the Kansas City defense. However, the Rams success did intrigue me as well.

I asked Rams Wire editor Jeff Smith which player he thought I should do a quick film study over. He quickly pointed out that I should take a look at running back Malcolm Brown.

I’m glad that he chose Brown because I was impressed with his running ability when watching the game on Saturday. I went back to re-watch the game (thank you NFL Game Pass) and I can say that Brown was even more impressive than I initially thought.

Brown didn’t come in the game until the second quarter, but right away I enjoyed his running style. Brown had a few solid gains in this quarter, and he never seemed to go down on first contact. I was actually surprised by how well he was running against the Kansas City defense as the Chiefs front seven is no joke. It didn’t seem to be much of a problem for Brown, though, because he was constantly taking players with him as he ran. Most of the time it took multiple defenders to take Brown down.

Another thing I noticed is Brown’s jump-cut ability. Often did he slice through holes to dodge oncoming traffic which led to multiple gains of four, seven or eight yards. He doesn’t seem to be particularly shifty or ultra-fast, but he makes up for that with patience and a willingness to take defenders head-on instead of trying to put together fancy moves.

On one play specifically, Brown displayed just about every attribute that I’ve mentioned. You probably remember it. It was the 28-yard run in the fourth quarter:

You can see here that Brown immediately sees an opening and takes it. He pretty much embarrasses Jeron Johnson (No. 39) who tries to ankle-tackle Brown and fails miserably. Then it basically takes the rest of the defense to bring him down.

This play set up Brown’s receiving touchdown two plays later, as Brown shows us that he has a nice set of hands as well.

Obviously, one game is a small sample size, but I feel like I’ve seen enough to know that the Rams seem to have someone special in the second-year running back. Jeff has informed me that Brown is technically the No. 3 running back on the team (for now), but from what I’ve watched he should clearly be the No. 2 guy.

I like the guy who the Chiefs have in the backup running back spot right now (Spencer Ware), but if they didn’t have Ware, I would definitely feel comfortable in having Brown as my No. 2 back as well.

• This topic was modified 8 years, 2 months ago by zn.