A juggernaut awakens
LOS ANGELES — When Sean McVay was named the Rams head coach last January, one of the first conversations he had was to convince running back Todd Gurley to become more of a receiving threat.
Gurley, the 10th pick of the 2015 draft out of Georgia, had established himself as a capable running back, rushing for 1,106 yards as rookie before his production fell to 885 yards in his second year. Now he was being asked to improve as a receiver.
Gurley’s ego could have bruised or he could have wondered if this 31-year-old head coach knew who he was talking to. But instead, Gurley embraced the challenge and his versatility has helped the Rams offense go from dead last in the NFL in scoring a year ago to No. 1 in the league this season, averaging 29.9 points per game.
Gurley led the NFL in rushing touchdowns this season with 13 and yards from scrimmage at 2,093. He gained 1,305 yards on the ground, but added 788 receiving yards to rank second among NFL running backs. Gurley never thought it was a big deal when McVay talked about improving his receiving skills.
“I’ve been playing football my whole life,” he said. “I don’t see how hard it is just to catch a pigskin coming your way and you’ve got gloves. I mean if you can’t do that you don’t need to be playing football.”
The Rams’ vast improvement on offense has led to an 11-5 re- cord and the franchise’s first NFC West title since 2003. They will face the Falcons (10-6) Saturday night in the NFC wildcard round. It will be the first time the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum has hosted a playoff game since 1994.
With 478 points scored this year, the Rams more than doubled their point total from last season’s 224. Along with Gurley, the Rams have enjoyed a breakout season from quarterback Jared Goff. The first overall pick in the 2016 draft, Goff completed 62.1 percent of passes for 3,804 yards, 28 touchdowns and just seven interceptions. His touchdown passes are the most by a Rams quarterback since Kurt Warner threw 36 in 2001 when the Greatest Show on Turf was in its heyday in St. Louis.
“They’re making a lot of big explosive plays,” said Falcons head coach Dan Quinn. “They’re doing a good job of dividing defenses down the middle and that’s where Gurley is getting a lot of those runs. He’s playing with a whole new motor about himself than the year before and guys up-front are playing really hard.”
Gurley applauds McVay for a season in which he is among the candidates for the Most Valuable Player award. He credits McVay for “just him coming in and adding [receiving] into my game and me wanting to be able to be coachable and him doing a great job of coaching me. That just all came together,” Gurley said, “and we’ve been able to get some catches in this year. It’s been going well, so hopefully we can keep that up.”
Goff is trying not to get caught up in the hype of playing his first playoff game, even though the rest of Southern California is going crazy over the Rams.
“It’s definitely a cool thing,” Goff said. “But we want to go out there and operate the same way we would weekly. It’s a playoff game with a little more meaning to it, but we want to treat it the same.”
Nothing about the Rams has been the same since McVay showed up, telling his players to believe in the process despite a new coaching staff and adjusting to relocating. He named Matt LaFleur, a former assistant in Atlanta, offensive coordinator, and challenged his players to get better in their preparation on and off the field. The Rams might be the youngest team in the mix, but they have a calm swagger.
“It’s the way that Sean handles himself each week,” Goff said. “He operates with the same rhythm and routine and that trickles down the team.”
It has helped the Rams offense go from worst to first.