Los Angeles Rams: Areas that must improve to beat Seattle Seahawks
By Jason Reed
1. The running game
The Los Angeles Rams’ running back situation this year has been so frustrating to watch that I just keep asking myself what Sean McVay and running coordinator Aaron Kromer are doing.
To be fair, I completely understand wanting to limit Todd Gurley that way he is 100 percent for the postseason and I have absolutely nothing wrong with that. That is not the gripe with the running game whatsoever.
The gripe is that the team ran the ball just 11 times last week. Yes, they fell behind early and had to play catch up the rest of the game, but it did feel like McVay panicked and relied on Goff way too heavily in this contest.
The most frustrating thing is that the Rams have other running backs. Malcolm Brow had a great first week for the team and has carried the ball only 14 times in the three combined games since after successfully carrying it 11 times in Week 1.
But even more frustrating is the fact that the Rams used a third-round pick on a running back for this exact same reason, instead of addressing the defensive holes, and have given Darrell Henderson just one carry all season.
Let’s be honest: talented running backs in the third round are a dime a dozen. The Rams easily could have found someone as good as Henderson next year. So if the plan was not to play him this year then it was a massive waste.
I don’t care if it is Gurley, Brown or Henderson, the Rams need to run the ball more and open up the play-action game, which is where they are the best. You cannot rely on Jared Goff to be like Patrick Mahomes.