With Cam Akers out, Rams need to reimagine run game
THOUSAND OAKS, Calif. -- A subdued Sean McVay delivered the bad news to reporters this week via video conference call.
Los Angeles Rams rookie running back Cam Akers suffered a high-ankle sprain in the first half of his team’s loss the New York Jets and will miss Sunday’s game against the Seattle Seahawks at the least.
“He is a war daddy, but he’s going to be out for at least the next week or so,” McVay said. “He’s a tough kid, man, the way he battled through, but he does have a high ankle sprain, which usually is a couple of weeks.
“He’ll definitely miss this game, which will be a big blow to us and then we’ll see what happens after that.”
Akers taped up his left ankle and returned to the field, playing the rest of the game and scoring what appeared to be the winning touchdown on an 18-yard run that was called back due to holding.
Since the bye week, Akers has ran for 443 rushing yards on 89 carries, averaging five yards a carry. The Rams were 4-2 in those contests.
Now, McVay will have return to Darrell Henderson Jr. and Malcolm Brown to keep the running game going at a crucial stretch with the Rams at 9-5 and fighting to reach the postseason.
McVay said both Henderson and Brown will be heavily involved in the offense on Sunday against at Seattle
Creating balance on offense with an effective running game is a much-needed fix for a Los Angeles offense that’s averaging just 20 point a contest over the last four games if you take away the three defensive touchdowns they’ve scored during that stretch.
Fixing the inconsistencies on offense is a focus for McVay this week.
“There’s been moments in games where you’ve seen good consistency, offensively, throughout and then there’s been moments when it hasn’t been,” McVay said. “That’s the same thing with special teams. Then for the most part, defense has been pretty consistent.
“It’s about putting all three phases together. We’ve shown glimpses of doing that, which is why I think we’ve won enough games to be relevant at this point, but it is something that we’ve got to be able to get ahold on and there’s different reasons for it.
“We’ve got to play consistently well at the key spots and usually when we do that, good things happen.”
Perhaps McVay can look to his team’s earlier matchup against the Seahawks for guidance, a 23-16 win over Seattle in Week 10.
In that game, quarterback Jared Goff threw for 302 yards with no interceptions, although he did lose a fumble. The Rams ran 29 times for 106 yards, creating some balance on offense.
“It’s extremely disappointing but we’ve shown time and time again that we respond in the right way,” Goff said about his team’s embarrassing loss the previously winless Jets. “What better chance is there to respond then next week against the Seattle Seahawks? I know for this week, really for these 24 hours, we’ll be disappointed about this, but starting tomorrow we’ll be ready to go and geared up to go up to Seattle.”
