Gurley

I understand where he’s coming from with that, but I disagree. If BC were better, the coaches would know by now. They would have known long ago. Gurley is a better back than BC by a lot.

BC may be a better screen/flat pass kind of guy, and he is great, but as a pure runner out of the backfield, it’s not even close.

When I watch the coaches tape of the past 3 games (I refuse to watch the niner game LOL!), I’m seeing defenders leaving nowhere for Gurley to go. I’m sure teams have made adjustments from last year to prevent the Gurley “highlight reel” run, which is what’s missing this year from his stats. Throw in one highlight reel run per game, doesn’t have to be a long TD, just a 30-40 yard gallop, and Gurley’s numbers look similar to last year during his hot streak. Throw in 2 big runs per game and he looks just like the stud Todd Gurley we know and love. And everyone will be oohing and aaaahing over him again.

He runs through tackles, breaks them as well as anyone in the league today, and he can outrun people.

IMO, there’s just way less daylight this year than last. The opportunities for big plays are far less right now.

If I were a defensive coordinator, I wouldn’t lose sleep over Britt, Quick, Cunningham, or Keenum. I’d find a way to stop Gurley. He’s the only player on offense than can completely take over a game. Austin can hurt you, but he’s not gonna beat a team for 60 minutes.

Hopefully, the Rams can take advantage of that in some other ways. And I think they have with Britt and Quick. If Keenum would stop misfiring to Austin, and Austin would stop the drops, we’d see more big plays from Austin, too.

Yeah. I think Gurley is being “keyed” by the defenses. Whatever that term means?

I don’t blame them. I’d key him, too.

Well some cogitating and pondering, I’ve decided that by far the best take on this I’ve heard is from D’marco Farr. It’s here, in this audio, about 11:48 in —>

link: http://theramshuddle.com/topic/audio-farr-simmons-on-the-arz-game/

Farr says defenses not only crowd the line against Gurley and the Rams, they play all sorts of games with stunts and change-ups. His point is that the shifting and movement causes indecision in the OL (not sure who to block) and in turn that causes indecision for the RB.

I think what happened this year is that SF gameplanned that kind of attack, it worked, and now every team they face is doing it.

Remember this is not just a simple case of loading the box. More than that, defenses have been creative in getting their guys to stunt and move in their attack, making it harder for a less experienced line to figure out what to do and who to block each play. That produces hesitation and indecision and so they look like they’re out of sync as a line.

Gurley is not a great behind the LOS lateral movement guy–he has to go forward, that’s who he is. So that’s part of it. Still when you get the blocking, as we saw last year, a back like that can still thrive.