The Los Angeles Rams were hit with a reality check in Week 4 as they were embarrassed by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers at home, losing 55-40.
The Rams defense had been stellar throughout the first three weeks of the 2019 NFL season, but Jameis Winston and the Buccaneers offense had a field day. Winston had no issue finding his receivers during the game, particularly Chris Godwin who exploded for 12 receptions, 172 yards and two touchdowns.
However, the more concerning issue may have been Todd Gurley’s involvement in the Rams offense. The running back was called to carry the ball only five times and he seemed displeased with the result, according to Vincent Bonsignore of The Athletic:
“I don’t call the play calls, bro.”
When pressed a bit more, Gurley said, “Like I say, I don’t call the plays. I go out there and play. I block for ‘JG’ , run the ball, run the routes, whatever. Whatever the play call is, I’m going to go out there and do it just like everyone else is going to go out there and do their job. It’s 11 people on the field and there’s only one ball.”
Los Angeles has maintained throughout the early part of the season that Gurley is 100% healthy and that he is not on some sort of snap count, but the playcalling has seemingly proven otherwise. Gurley has mostly been used as a pass blocker or decoy on plays and his lack of involvement has hurt Jared Goff and the offense as a whole.
When given the opportunity, however, Gurley has looked healthy as evidenced by the two rushing touchdowns he managed to convert against the Buccaneers. He also saw some success in the passing game for the first time this year as he managed to haul in seven receptions for 54 yards.
The Georgia product’s lack of carries could arguably have been attributed to a negative game script as the Rams fell behind big early and needed to throw for most of the afternoon to catch up. Despite that, head coach Sean McVay should have made more of an effort to get the ground game going more considering the lack of balance on offense made it easier for the Tampa Bay defense to diagnosis the play call and pressure Goff.
Fortunately for Los Angeles, they get an opportunity to bounce back quickly from the loss as they face the Seattle Seahawks on Thursday Night Football. It will be interesting to see just how much work McVay gives Gurley against a tough divisional rival.
