Anderson playing Sundance Kid to Gurley’s Butch Cassidy
T HOUSA NDO A KS, CA LIF.» Todd Gurley never had a true running partner during his first four regular seasons with the Los Angeles Rams.
The superstar running back took most of the carries and grinded out most of the tough yards while his backups played only sparingly.
When he suited up with C.J. Anderson for the first time last weekend during the Rams’ divisional playoff win over Dallas, Gurley truly shared the big carries for one of the first times in his NFL career.
As the New Orleans Saints have already noticed, the tandem was pretty much unstoppable.
“I guess it was a good thing I got hurt,” Gurley said with a laugh.
Gurley’s knee injury last month led the Rams to sign Anderson, a six-year veteran who had been released by three NFL teams in the previous eight months, including the Broncos, for whom he helped win a Super Bowl. Anderson hit the ground running with 299 yards in the Rams’ final two regular-season victories while Gurley sat out.
When Gurley and Anderson suited up together against the Cowboys, their contrasting styles and similar relentlessness made history. Anderson went for 123 yards and two touchdowns, while Gurley rushed for 115 yards and another score as they propelled the Rams to a franchise playoff-record 273 yards rushing and on to the NFC championship game on Sunday.
Anderson is 5-foot-8 and a self-described “fat kid running.” While he hits holes and linebackers ferociously, he isn’t planning to break away from any defensive backs anytime soon.
“From the 40 in. That’s it,” he said Sunday when asked to imagine his longest possible TD run. “Can’t go 70. Todd can go 70, 80 if he wants to. Me, from the 40 in, man. When they say the 40 at the combine matters. That’s where it matters.”
Anderson understands his place in the Rams’ larger picture, and he willingly defers to Gurley.
“Whatever Todd wanted to do, we were going to ride with anyway,” Anderson said of the substitution plan against Dallas. “If he wanted to play 98 percent of the snaps, we were going to let the man be the man. That’s why he’s one of the best backs in the league.”