Wagoner: will the offense get better? when?

Next step for Todd Gurley and Rams offense: starting faster

Nick Wagoner

http://espn.go.com/blog/st-louis-rams/post/_/id/22946/next-step-for-todd-gurley-and-rams-offense-starting-faster

EARTH CITY, Mo. — The sample size is small but as closers go, St. Louis Rams running back Todd Gurley is quickly evolving into football’s answer to Mariano Rivera.

Although Gurley has only been a part of the Rams’ offense for three games, he already leads the NFL in fourth-quarter rushing yards. In that final 15 minutes, Gurley has 23 carries for 213 yards, a robust average of 9.26 yards per attempt. For context, Cincinnati’s Giovani Bernard is second at 181 yards in the fourth quarter, but it’s taken him 38 attempts, and that’s still 32 yards behind Gurley.

Suffice to say, Gurley gets stronger and defenses wear down as games go on.

“I think that is a factor,” Gurley said. “We kind of get to wear teams down and hopefully we can keep doing that throughout the year. It’s all about mental toughness in that fourth quarter.

“That’s just a part of football. Guys going hard on Play 1 and a guy is not going to be going as fast on Play 50, so that’s just a part of the game. It’s mental toughness. For us, we just want to keep pounding the rock or going tempo and finishing.”

While the Rams and Gurley have no intention of slowing down in the fourth quarter, they also are making it a priority to have more success early in games. In 2014, the Rams offense wasn’t much better overall than it is now, but the one thing it consistently did was get off to quick starts. The offense scored 44 points on opening drives in 2014, which ranked third in the league.

This year, those fast starts have dissipated. The Rams have scored just once on their opening possession (a 17-yard drive after a fumble recovery on the kickoff) and the offense has mustered just 10 points in the first quarter.

What’s worse, the Rams aren’t even moving the ball in the opening quarter, averaging a league-low 2.85 yards per play and 30.8 yards. Perhaps most damning, the Rams have mustered only 11 first downs in the first quarter, which lags far behind everyone else in the league. Miami is 31st with 21.

“Yeah, we’re working on it,” coach Jeff Fisher said. “We’re trying to sift and sort it out. What happens often times is, as coaches you – and we all do this – you game plan based on what you’ve seen your opponent do. So, you set things up and then you have to be mindful of making the adjustments because they’re not necessarily going to approach you the way they approached everybody else.”

And while nobody on offense is producing in the first quarter, the running game is struggling the most, often failing to gain any positive yards and putting the Rams in third-and-long situations.

St. Louis runners are averaging just 1.7 yards per carry in the first quarter, almost a full yard less than the New York Jets, who rank 31st. While Gurley has emerged as the offense’s best player in just three starts, even he hasn’t been immune to the early-game woes. He has 12 carries for 16 yards in the opening quarter and that includes one run that gained 11 yards, which means his other 11 carries have gained 5 yards.

The lack of success hasn’t gone unnoticed by Gurley and his teammates.

“If we can get things picking up a lot faster from the first play, we would love that. But things don’t always work out as you planned,” Gurley said.”Every team is going to try to play that game or their kind of scheme against us. They’re going to do that regardless.”

Strong Finisher

Rams running back Todd Gurley’s quarter-by-quarter production this season:

Quarter Rushes Yards Avg. TD
First 12 16 1.3 0
Second 21 97 4.6 0
Third 18 116 6.4 1
Fourth 23 213 9.3 1

Like every team in the NFL, the Rams script about 12 to 15 plays to open the game, but they’ve consistently found defenses coming out in different looks than what they’ve shown on film. That’s forced the Rams to adjust, something they’ve done well on occasion (such as last week’s no-huddle tempo) but not well enough on a regular basis to consistently move the chains.

The problem has been exacerbated by the team’s struggles on first and second down in the first quarter. On those two downs, the Rams are averaging 2.53 yards per play and an average of 19.8 yards per game in the first quarter on first and second down. Denver is second to last in the latter category and averages 40 yards per game in the first quarter on first and second down.

“I think the big thing is we’ve got to stay inside the chains,” quarterback Nick Foles said. “We’re getting to too many third-and-longs. When you’re in third-and-longs, especially early in a game, it’s really hard to convert. A lot of defenses do a lot of exotics on third down. It’s one of those things where I think we’re just having to make adjustments on the sidelines. And then when we get things going, try to get that rhythm. The big key is just staying inside of the chains on first and second downs, getting positive yards. That’ll help.”

The Rams and Gurley expect to see more loaded boxes moving forward though given the overall lack of success the Rams have had offensively, some teams may stick to what works, let Gurley get his yards and force someone else to step up to beat them.

That is why Gurley isn’t so sure he’ll start seeing more defenders near the line of scrimmage.

“Maybe, but you never know,” Gurley said. “You have to game plan for it and if not, just go on what you see on film. That could be coming, it could not be coming. It’s dependent on what personnel we’re in.”

If the Rams can start producing earlier, they won’t have to rely on Gurley to keep coming on to close out opponents