The Five Spot: No Todd Gurley, but Rams run game still effective
We dive into Week 3 of the NFL season with a closer look at the Los Angeles Rams and their success running the football.
1. So far, Todd Gurley’s departure has not slowed down L.A.’s ability to move the ball consistently on the ground. Through two games, the Rams average 172 rushing yards a contest, No. 3 in the league.
The Rams also have the most, heavy run offense in the league through two games, running it 56.8 percent of the time.
In 2019, Gurley’s last year with the Rams, they averaged 93.7 yards a contest. During the team’s Super Bowl season two years ago, the Rams averaged 139.4 rushing yards a contest.
Gurley finished with 1,251 rushing yards and 17 touchdowns in 2018 but appeared to lose steam in the playoffs.
McVay has gone with a running back by committee approach with Gurley gone. Malcolm Brown led the team with 110 total yards from scrimmage in the season-opening win against the Dallas Cowboys. And in Week 2, Darrell Henderson Jr. led the Rams with 121 total yards from scrimmage in a victory over the Philadelphia Eagles.
McVay is known around the league for his innovative ways of creating offense through formation, pre-snap movement and personnel. But a lot of what he does is predicated on running the football effectively to create balance on offense, so I asked McVay this week if he considered the Rams a running offense.
“Everybody talks about balance, but I think the most important thing is being able to move the ball and score points,” McVay said. “If we feel like it’s running or it’s throwing, it’s being balanced, you know, that’s what we’ll try to do.
“The first two weeks, I think our guys have done a nice job being able to get a bunch of (run) attempts off, being pretty efficient and it’s been a real positive for us. We know we’ve got a great challenge against an excellent run defense this week, but it is about moving the ball and scoring points.”
Rams left tackle Andrew Whitworth was a little more specific about his team’s approach to running the football.
“In the four years I’ve been here, Coach McVay’s offense is built around running the football well,” McVay said. “Any of these styles, whether it be the 49ers, who run a similar offense or other teams across the league that do it -- Green Bay, you see them doing it this year, running a similar offense and how explosive they look now that the running game is working.
“The key to this offense is being able to run the football effectively and getting ahead of the chains. And then all of the things you can do putting the defense in tough positions once you can do that.”
Whitworth brings up a key issue, pointing to how offenses like the Rams, San Francisco, Green Bay and the Raiders with West Coast foundations are more effective when they can run it.
But how they run the football has changed over the years, as New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick points out. The Patriots face Jon Gruden’s Raiders on Sunday.
“When you look at the West Coast offense, that that term really refers to more to the West Coast passing game,” Belichick told reporters this week. “If you look at (Former Cleveland Browns and Cincinnati Bengals head coach) Coach Paul Brown’s running game in that offense, which is really where it started, that was primarily a two-back offense with minimal one back. Some of it was motion to one back, and it had a fullback in it, so you’d have the split backs and the near and far backs that were part of it, as well.
“That’s all been, I would say, modified with all the other West Coast coaches that came up in that background.”
Coaches like McVay have tailored West Coast offense run game principles to fit how he wants to stress a defense, creating a more dynamic version of that offense.
The Rams will have their hands full trying to replicate what they’ve done running the football the first two weeks against a Buffalo Bills defense that has allowed just 73.5 rushing yards a contest.
2. Kicking overall was much better in Week 2. After making just 71.6 percent of the kicks in Week 1, NFL kickers made 91.8 percent of their field goals in Week 2 (56-for-61).
For the Rams, rookie Samuel Sloman has steadied. However, he’s still going through some growing pains. Sloman had an extra point blocked against the Eagles last week. On the season, Sloman is 3-for-4 on field goals with a long of 35 yards and 6-for-7 on extra points. Seven of Sloman’s 12 kickoffs have been touchbacks.
“There’s definitely some room for improvement, but I don’t want to be too quick to judge with two games of inventory for a guy that didn’t have a preseason,” McVay said about Sloman. “It’s a rookie kicker. There’s so much involved just from a mental approach that I do feel good where he’s at and you want to continue to just monitor that and see him progress. I think as he gains experience, his confidence will come with that as well.”
3. With their success running the football, the Rams continue to lean on the play-action game. According to Pro Football Focus, through two games quarterback Jared Goff is
20-for-27 (74.1 percent) for 270 passing yards, two touchdowns and no interceptions on play-action passes (130.2 passer rating). According to Next Gen Stats, a league-leading 45 percent of Goff’s drop backs have been on play-action passes.
4. They said it: “Sometimes when it’s not going well, you know, people are looking at him. I think that that’s where he’s taken a big step forward. He knows that eyes are on him and that people are counting on him, not to just be a shutdown corner, to be a complete corner. That includes taking a leadership role and we think he’s doing a good job. He’s continuing to grow in that way and I’m excited about how he played the other day. I thought that he was outstanding in that game.” – Rams defensive coordinator Brandon Staley on cornerback Jalen Ramsey taking on more of a leadership role on the team.
5. Did you know: Since the start of the 2017 season, the Rams have scored a league-leading 117 points off turnovers in the first quarter of games – 44 more points than the Baltimore Ravens, who have the second-most points off turnovers in the opening quarter during that time period.
