The Los Angeles Rams pieced together quite the performance against the Seattle Seahawks on Sunday Night Football in Week 14 to keep their playoff hopes alive.
There had been plenty of speculation on whether or not the offense would be able to keep their recent resurgence going against a Seattle team that had been riding a five-game winning streak coming into Los Angeles. Fortunately, quarterback Jared Goff and running back Todd Gurley were able to make the offense click on all cylinders.
The Rams picked up right where they left off in the ground game by feeding it to Gurley 23 times in the 28-12 victory. He was even able to cap off his performance with a vicious stiff-arm on cornerback Tre Flowers en route to a 7-yard touchdown run.
Goff was admittedly happy to see Gurley show flashes of his former self, via Josh Alper of Pro Football Talk:
Quarterback Jared Goff called Gurley a “bad dude” for that stiff arm after the game and called that play “vintage Todd.”
Goff added that utilizing Gurley in the run game has paid huge dividends for the offense as a whole:
“Opens everything, it opens everything,” Goff said in his postgame press conference. “It starts with him and when he’s rolling and we’re rolling in the run-game, it opens up everything. We’re able to do what we want to do — tonight was a perfect example of that.”
There is certainly plenty of truth to Goff’s comments. Gurley had a tough time finding yards against this stingy Seahawks defense, however, the Rams were still able to take full advantage of his presence with misdirection plays and taking their shots downfield when necessary.
As a result, Goff was able to enjoy another efficient performance after completing 22-of-31 passes for 293 yards and two touchdowns. While the two interceptions will serve as a blemish on his overall outing, the offense had already done more than enough to secure the win thanks to his play.
It is no secret that Los Angeles had seemingly shied away from having Gurley take on a heavy workload to start the 2019 NFL season and this resulted in them struggling to get any kind of a run game going. Fortunately, it is clear that head coach Sean McVay has opted to lift the restrictions now that the team is fighting to stay in the playoff hunt.
Although it may have taken McVay longer than some may have liked, it is clear that Gurley is much more healthy now than he was at this point in the 2018 campaign.
