we have no clue what is going to happen in the future.

gurley has maybe 4 good years left in him if he’s lucky.

any long term success will be dependent on goff, and we still have no clue how good he can be. he could be a flash in the pan.

we also have no idea how mcvay will turn out. this league is littered with “offensive geniuses” who fizzled out as head coaches in a few short years. i’m still waiting for mcvay to become a complete head coach.

we’ll see.

is there another level to donald we haven’t yet seen?

i’m curious to find out.

• This reply was modified 8 years, 3 months ago by InvaderRam.

georgia running for 273 yards 13 yards per carry!

so far!!!

from football outsiders

carolina panthers
offense – 15th
defense – 8th
special teams – 6th

atlanta falcons
offense – 8th
defense – 23rd
special teams – 21st

yeah. the falcons offense is scary, but on defense and special teams they are very below average. that’s a strength on the rams. i think it’s a better matchup. the rams offense should do well against their defense especially if the special teams has a day. although yes. i realize that gz is not available. that is a problem. but if a lot of points go up, the rams defense might be the difference.

but looking at the carolina panthers, i can see the panthers defense neutralizing the rams offense. the rams defense will be less of a factor if the score remains low. and again, given how high they are ranked in special teams, they might do enough to neutralize our special teams which has more than made a difference in games.

rams got the 3 seed anyway.

atlanta 17th in team dvoa.

carolina 8th in team dvoa.

i definitely think the rams got the better matchup. haven’t really seen either team. but stats say falcons should be easier.

hopefully that was just for the regular season.

i don’t know if this was posted before, but it’s a pretty convincing argument for gurley as mvp.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/football/ct-todd-gurley-tom-brady-nfl-mvp-20171227-story.html

Todd Gurley, not Tom Brady, should be NFL MVP for 2017

Neil Greenberg
The Washington Post
The NFL’s MVP race has been in a constant state of flux this season, but it now looks to be a two-person race between New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady and Los Angeles Rams running back Todd Gurley.

It’s rare for a non-quarterback to win the award. Quarterbacks have won nine of the past 10 MVP awards and the six rushers who have won over the past 30 years have been historically good, either establishing a record for touchdowns or rushing for more than 2,000 yards in a season. However, that shouldn’t stop Gurley from serious consideration in 2017. After all, a player’s purpose is to help his team make and succeed in the playoffs, not set or break NFL records.

Gurley is the catalyst for one of the league’s top offenses this season. The Rams are scoring 2.4 points per drive, the third-highest in the NFL in 2017, and Gurley leads the league in rushing yards (1,305), rushing touchdowns (13) and total touchdowns from scrimmage (19). And that’s despite the Rams’ offensive line allowing their rushers to be stopped at or behind the line of scrimmage 23 percent of the time; only eight teams have been worse this season.

Just a few weeks ago I argued Pittsburgh Steelers running back Le’Veon Bell was an MVP candidate based on his usage rate and his effectiveness with the ball, but Gurley has since surpassed him, and everyone else in the league, in this regard.

Gurley accounts for 38 percent of his team’s yards from scrimmage and 43 percent of his team’s rushing and receiving touchdowns, both league highs in 2017.

Not even the past three running backs to be named MVP — Shaun Alexander (2005), LaDainian Tomlinson (2006) and Adrian Peterson (2012) — ranked at the top of the league for both percentage of yards and touchdowns from scrimmage in their respective seasons.

Gurley is also rated as the league’s best running back in 2017 by Football Outsiders’ Defense-adjusted Yards Above Replacement, which is adjusted for situation and opponent, and by the game charters at Pro Football Focus. In fact, among offensive skill players that aren’t quarterbacks, no player has a higher PFF rating than Gurley in 2017.

Brady is the highest-rated quarterback per PFF and Football Outsiders, but he ranks 17th for the percentage of offensive touchdowns he is responsible for (67 percent), making him barely an above-average quarterback in this regard (64 percent league average). That might be hard to hear, but consider Brady is throwing touchdown passes at a rate that is just 14 percent above average compared to 53 and 35 percent above average during his MVP years of 2007 and 2010, respectively. Plus, Brady’s stats this season, relative to the league, don’t compare favorably to other quarterbacks who have won the award over the past 18 seasons.

The average MVP winner since 2002 produced a completion rate that was 20 percent higher than the league average, with the median of that group 25 percent higher than the average passer in the NFL that season. Through Week 16, Brady sits below both marks in comletion rate, tourchdown rate, passr rating and adjusted net yards per attempt.

As noted earlier, quarterbacks have the inside track when it comes to the NFL’s MVP award, but it is clear Gurley is worth more to his team than any other player in the league this season.

i would say he was alright. not spectacular. 80 of those receiving yards and a td were off that screen to gurley. and he missed some receivers.

but he also had at least one dropped pass from kupp.

his highlight was that td throw to kupp to put them up in the fourth.

overall, he was ok. he’s gotta be better.

as much as i hate to say it. win or lose. that team is gonna be tough next year. garoppolo looks good. hyde is a solid rb. they got garcon. and shanny is a helluva coach.

hopefully they have to cough up tons of cash to sign garoppolo. and they have no money left to sign anybody else.

joemad wrote:

I love Shannon Sharpe

shannon said he’s a slightly above average head coach. i would agree with that. i don’t think there’s anything wrong with that statement.

with mcvay, they got possibly. we don’t know yet. possible they got a special head coach. and yeah. getting rid of fisher would be worth getting a special head coach. there’s nothing wrong with that.

but i wouldn’t say that fisher was a terrible head coach.

i wouldn’t play gurley at all. it’ll be like a bye week for him. he won’t be rusty. if anything, he’ll be fresher coming off the bye.

use brown and austin. leave the other starters in.

on defense i’d rest at least quinn. at the very least.

pittsburgh game is nearly over, and gurley will most likely enter the final week as the leading rusher in the nfl as well as the leader in yards from scrimmage.

the only reason i would want to see gurley play is to see him get a chance at the rushing title and possibly the mvp award. but there are bigger things at stake. i’d rather they sit him the entire game.

the other offensive starters i’d play for a half. get goff some experience without gurley to lean on.

rest all the main defensive stars. especially a guy like quinn. and again, only bench players in the second half.

zn wrote:

“I’ve marveled at it this season, the way they’re changing their tempo,” Orlovsky said. “They have like five tempos. [McVay] is like Greg Maddux, where he doesn’t necessarily overpower you, but you have no idea what’s coming and he’ll make you look silly.”

i like that quote. i don’t see gsot. i see a smarter offense that keeps defenses off balance whereas the gsot just would defeat you with sheer awesomeness.

and he’s averaging 12.3 yards per catch. that’s crazy.

i also liked seeing him line up wide yesterday. i want to see more of that. i like the screen passes and all, but if he could start running more wr routes, wow.

i think sean’s just scratched the surface of how he can use gurley in this offense.