RUNNING MEN
Rams-Saints: A battle of the two-headed monster backfields
The last time a two-headed monster attacked a twoheaded monster, Godzilla and Mothra might have been in the fight. Or Sinbad. In some sloppily dubbed ’60s or ’70s claymation clunker.
Cue the dramatic trumpets! This time, the clash features a pair of scary running backs, in as memorable an NFL post-season matchup of doubly dangerous rushers since the days of tube TVs and wood-panelling basements, when the likes of Rodan and Ghidorah appeared in cheap sci-fi movies that even UHF channels would air only in latenight.
Two-headed monster No. 1: Todd Gurley II and C.J. Anderson of the Los Angeles Rams.
Two-headed monster No. 2: Mark Ingram II and Alvin Kamara of the New Orleans Saints.
The Saints play host to the Rams on Sunday in the NFC championship game (3:05 p.m. EST, CTV via FOX). The winner plays the AFC champion Feb. 3 in Super Bowl LIII in Atlanta.
We could list accolades as long as Godzilla’s tail for each of the ferocious four running backs, but we’ll try to be more selective. First, the Rams’ duo. Then the Saints’.
You want a back who can score? Who can rip off big gains? Who has great hands and elusiveness after the catch? Overall, no one in today’s NFL fits these requisites better than Gurley.
He led the NFL in rushing touchdowns in 2018 (with 17), and for the second straight season led the league in overall touchdowns scored (with 19 in 2017, and 21 this season).
While the fourth-year pro finished third in rushing yards this season with 1,251, Gurley probably would have been No. 1 if he hadn’t missed the last two games with a knee sprain.
What’s more, the 24-yearold finished fourth in yards from scrimmage with 1,831, second in rush yards per game (89.4), second in most carries of 10+ yards (35) and tied for third in yards-aftercatch with 429.
Yet everybody the past couple of weeks has been talking about Anderson almost as much as Gurley.
Los Angeles signed Anderson only a month ago — on Dec. 18 — ostensibly as just an emergency, temporary, late-season fill-in for Gurley for season-closing gimme games against lowly Arizona and San Francisco.
Anderson already had been let go by three NFL teams in 2018: Denver (in
April, after five seasons), Carolina (in mid-November, after nine games) and Oakland (on Dec. 11, after just one week).
But instantly with the
Rams the 27-year-old Anderson proved fabulous, rushing for 167 yards on Dec. 23 at the Cardinals, for 132 on Dec. 30 vs. the Niners, and last weekend for 123 and two touchdowns in the Rams’ divisional playoff defeat of the visiting Dallas Cowboys.
Whoa! Where did that come from? Suddenly the Rams backfield is described as this proverbial twoheaded monster. Or if you’d like, in horse-racing terms, as a paired entry. Gurley and Anderson.
This dynamic duo is so new, no one has even thought up a nickname yet.
“I didn’t know you can have a nickname after one week together,” Gurley said Thursday.
Right. One week. Because Gurley was hurt for L.A.’s final two games, last week’s win over Dallas marked the debut of Gurley/Anderson in the same game for LA.
While that probably isn’t fair to Gurley, really, that ‘he’ is now a ‘them,’ it’s a fact.
Rams head coach Sean McVay has handled the situation expertly so far — explaining how Anderson’s complementary presence might only make Gurley even better, as well as the Rams as a team.
“Todd knows he’s a special, unique football player. I think he’s very secure in himself so that he understands that C.J. helps us,” McVay said Wednesday. “Really, Todd is just getting back in the flow, being able to kind of just get his wind back and be able to have as productive of a game as he did, with him having really had a month off … (it’s) a large credit to Todd. But, then, so is his understanding and security to be able to be supportive of C.J.
“If there’s one thing that you hear about Todd that I think says as much as anything, any time that he’s asked about how we’re doing, or the running game, he’s always quick to give credit to everybody else. He’s definitely recognized what a good job C.J. has done to help our football team.”
Does McVay have a plan for rotating the duo against the Saints?
“I think it’s more of a feel than anything else, based on the flow of the game,” McVay said. “We want to be able to get those guys both involved, but certainly when Todd is rolling you want to keep him rolling … I think that’s the biggest thing that gives Todd a quieted mind when he wants to come off. He’s such a team guy that he doesn’t want to come off because he doesn’t want to feel like he’s letting anybody else down. But I think as a result of some of the production that you’ve seen from C.J., he can feel good about getting his good work in, but if he needs a blow then C.J. is coming in and doing a nice job.”
L.A.’s run-game coordinator Aaron Kromer was asked this week is Anderson brings any element to the Rams’ already formidable rushing attack that Gurley doesn’t. In short, no.
“I can’t picture anything that Todd doesn’t bring to the run game” Kromer said. “He brings it all. He’s got speed. He’s got power. He’s got size. He’s intelligent. He has been productive all year for us and has done a great job.
“But having C.J. run the football, if you watch closely, you see him finish the runs aggressively — meaning he gets really low to the ground, and when you tackle him he’s going to gain a couple more yards that you weren’t expecting. You look out and say, ‘Hey, that’s a nice fiveyard run,’ and then you look up and it’s a seven-yard run or it’s an eight-yard run. That finish … that power at the end of the run is really what makes him a good back.”
That both Anderson (123) and Gurley (115) ran for 100plus against Dallas — when seven days earlier the top rusher on the NFL’s No. 1 rushing attack, Chris Carson of Seattle, could amass only 20 yards on 13 carries against the Cowboys — surely must concern the Saints.
Saints head coach Sean Payton was asked if Anderson’s addition impacted his own team’s defensive preparations this week.
“I think significantly,” Payton said. “What they did last week to a real good, a real good run front, was unbelievable. Both he and Todd looked fantastic. When you sign a player like that, you’re hoping a guy can come in and understand what you’re doing. I think the fit has been real good for them. He’s someone that’s got a great feel for that wide zone scheme, and if he can get into the second part of your defence, he’s a load to handle.”
In contrast, the Saints went through their unsettled phase at the running-back position to start the regular season, not end it.
Ingram missed the first four games because of an NFL-ordered suspension, for his performance-enhancing drug use. The Saints tried a number of players in the hope of finding an Anderson-like instant-impact performer, but that never happened.
“We had a handful of players for the first four games (when) we had to be careful not to use Alvin too much,” Payton said. “So we had to have that balance.”
Kamara averaged 14 carries per game from Weeks 1-4, then nearly 16 per game thereafter. So mission accomplished there.
Whereas Kamara might still have been viewed a year ago in his rookie season as a “1-b” of sorts to Ingram’s “1-a” in the Saints’ offensive backfield, Ingram’s absence essentially flipped those roles, and the dynamic Kamara is seen as most dangerous.
Much has been said about how Kamara these past two seasons can do it all — run inside or outside, while proving at least as much of a danger in catching passes, and from a variety of positions.
Indeed, only Gurley has been more prolific than Kamara in reaching the end zone in each of the past two seasons among all NFLers. The 23-year-old scored 14 TDs to Gurley’s 19 in 2017, and 18 to Gurley’s 21 this past season. Touchdown monsters, both.
What’s more, Kamara finished seventh in yards from scrimmage (1,592) with nearly as many yards receiving (709) as rushing (883), and he finished eighth in rush yards per game (71.0).
“Yeah, he’s a matchup problem,” Rams defensive coordinator Wade Phillips said of Kamara this week. “I go back to the old days, (Hall of Fame RB) Marshall Faulk was that way. He could run with the ball great, and you could put him out as a wide receiver and he could run wide-receiver routes, or he could beat you out of the backfield.
“(With Kamara) it’s the same type of guy, with great ability. I’m not going to put him in the Hall of Fame yet, but he has a lot of similar traits that are hard matchup problems for you.”
Ingram, a 29-year-old in his eighth NFL season, often is slotted as a mere betweenthe-tackles style of pounder, when for years Payton has strongly disputed that label.
“Mark is someone who is extremely familiar with what we do in the third down, in the nickel, in the base,” Payton said. “There is not one thing when I am looking at this (play-)call sheet where I am saying (he cannot do it).
“That ability to use either back is extremely beneficial and much easier on you when you are calling plays.”
Ingram ran for 645 yards in his 12 games, and actually had a better yards-per-carry
average (4.7) than Kamara (4.6). Who’ll get the most carries of these four backs from their two-headed-monster backfields today? Who knows. As Rams wide receiver Brandin Cooks all but said this week, who cares?
“As long as we get the win,” Cooks said.
“I couldn’t care less where the ball goes.”