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December 14, 2015
HOW GURLEY GOT HIS GROOVE BACK

Versatile rookie running back Todd Gurley is leading the Rams. (Getty Images)
By Cian Fahey

The St. Louis Rams offense has been a mess this season.

Entering Week 14, the Rams were one of the lowest scoring teams in the NFL, with the worst passing output and the second lowest total yardage output for the season as a whole. Football Outsiders DVOA, a metric that measures efficiency, ranked the Rams as the worst offense in the NFL and they were a distance away from the second-worst San Francisco 49ers. According to DVOA, the Rams were three times worse at passing the ball than the second-worst passing offense in the NFL, the San Francisco 49ers. That inability to move the ball through the air led the team to a quarterback change a few weeks back when Nick Foles was replaced by Case Keenum.

Regardless of who has played quarterback for the Rams this season, the unit as a whole has been almost completely reliant on the running game. A running game that looks too much to rookie Todd Gurley.

Gurley entered the NFL in a blaze of production. He didn't start in Week 1 because he was recovering from a torn ACL suffered late in 2014, but ran for over 145 yards in two of his first three games and over 125 yards in four of his first five. Gurley was tearing the league apart over his first six games, but then appeared to hit a rookie wall. The back didn't have more than 89 yards in a game from Week 9 to Week 13, three times finishing with fewer than 50 yards. Narrative suggested that it was Gurley wearing down because of his usage after an injury at such a young age, but in truth it was his offensive line limiting his output.

With that same offensive line in front of him in Week 14 against an impressive Detroit Lions run defense, it was hard to expect Gurley to reverse his recent fortunes. Yet, with the game tied at 7-7 in the third quarter, it was Gurley who blew the game open for the Rams.

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On their own 45-yard line after a penalty set the offense up on 1st-and-5, Gurley lined up alone in the backfield behind Keenum. The Rams had two tight ends to the left side of the offense, the wide side of the field because the ball was on the right hash mark. This was important to note because of how the Lions lined up and reacted to the play when the ball was snapped. Running the ball is often simply about numbers. Whichever team has the numbers advantage is more likely to be successful because they can either account for blockers or get free defenders to the ball carrier.

In the above image, the yellow number five is the center. The center has just two blockers to his right but the defense has four defenders aligned on his right shoulder or further outside. Most importantly, the safety the Lions dropped into the box is offset wide behind the defensive end to that side who is also in a Wide-9 alignment. This puts both players outside the alignment of the Rams' offensive tackle. The Rams didn't have a tight end to that side of the field or a slot receiver, so there was no real reason for the safety to be that wide in his alignment.

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The Rams' passing game uses a lot of misdirection and is reliant on heavy bootleg play actions to throw the ball down the field. As such, when teams face them they are more likely to blitz off the backside of the play. This is what the Lions did with the Wide-9 defender, red number 5, and the safety in the box, red number 8. Both players aggressively advance downfield at the snap and are drawn towards the quarterback. They don't need to be blocked, so the Rams can further push the numbers advantage in their favor when Gurley takes the ball going towards the left side of the offense.

When Gurley gets the ball, he has three key blockers to work behind. His center has controlled the penetration of the defensive tackle up the middle. He does that effectively so Gurley can comfortably focus on reading number 52, Daryl Tapp. Tapp is a defensive end being blocked by a tight end. That is a mismatch in favor of the defense. However, the tight end is attempting to seal him from the outside, giving Gurley an opportunity to advance around the outside. Gurley initially shows patience to draw Tapp closer towards him, making the tight end's block easier, before letting the ball into one hand and accelerating around the edge.

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Gurley shows comfortable feet to turn the edge at speed. This seems like a minor thing, but every nanosecond is important on a play like this because Gurley has get to the right running lane at the right time. The above gif freezes at the point when Gurley is most likely to be tackled, but this is where his sprinter's speed separates him from your average NFL running back. Gurley is able to accelerate through the hole so quickly that the inside linebacker's angle disappears in an instant and the edge defender outside can only attempt a desperate, diving tackle that barely gets noticed by Gurley.

From there, the running back is able to make the deep safety miss with his fluid movement before continuing downfield, into the redzone, for a 49-yard gain. That big play led to another six-yard run before Gurley ran in a touchdown from five yards out. Gurley ran left on both of those plays as well, but also showed off his versatility.

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On the first of those plays, shown above, Gurley ran towards left tackle when he got the ball from Keenum. The Rams used a double team on the edge, but the second defender was late to engage so the edge defender had forced his way past the line of scrimmage. This prevented Gurley from running clean to the outside. He didn't panic. Instead, the rookie pushed towards the edge before making a very impressive jump cut to evade the defender in the outside hole and advance past the defensive lineman who was recovering from the inside to explode downfield. His awareness, footwork and athleticism were all outstanding on this play.

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Left tackle Greg Robinson was immediately pushed backwards on this play. Gurley is attempting to run behind Robinson, so this is a problem. At least, it should be a problem. Once again Gurley shows off impressive poise as he simply adjusts his angle while recognizing his route to the outside. The rookie is able to accelerate to the edge and get around the corner. The only defender to get between him and the endzone is safety Glover Quinn, who flies across the field and goes low in the hopes of bringing Gurley down. Gurley had to react extremely quickly to the arriving defender, springing from his feet into the air and reaching the ball out so it landed in the endzone before he hit the ground.

That touchdown drive offered the Rams an immediate reply to Matthew Stafford's touchdown pass that had tied the game. Stafford and the Lions offense couldn't respond with a score on the following drive, which gave Gurley an opportunity to extend the lead on a drive that spanned the end of the third quarter and the beginning of the fourth. It was a 91-yard drive where Gurley carried the ball four times for 45 yards. His first carry helped to move the offense into Lions territory.

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Gurley is already one of the toughest backs in the NFL to bring down. Not only is he extremely powerful and extremely fast when running in a straight line, but his fluidity and quick-twitch explosiveness allows him to evade defenders in tight spaces while moving at speed. That is what happened on this 25-yard carry. The Rams took advantage of the Lions' Wide-9 alignment with effective blocking on the right side of their line. The Lions linebackers took bad angles to the ball, leaving Gurley in a one-on-one situation with the arriving safety. Gurley was able to adjust to jump away from the safety before landing heavily on his right knee. He used one hand to maintain his balance before quickly re-accelerating to hit top speed.

The Rams were able to stop Gurley for a four yard loss on his next carry because a lineman who was responsible for a key block blew his assignment. A nine-yard run eventually set the offense up at the Lions 15 yard line.

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On second-and-inches, the Rams come out in a heavy formation and pull their right tackle to run power with Gurley. The right tackle is supposed to be Gurley's lead blocker as he runs behind where his left guard was. Because the Rams offensive line doesn't get any push at the point of attack, Gurley looks to cut back. You typically aren't supposed to cut back while running power, but Gurley understands that he only needs inches for a first down and that there is no space to his left. He is very fast through the hole also, so breaking away from the design of the play isn't actually a risk. On the second level, Gurley sets up the deep safety and draws the outside cornerback further infield by pressing the inside running lane. At the perfect time, he cuts back outside and runs inside the pylon for the touchdown.

The Rams are a hugely limited offense. Over the five games before this one against the Lions, they had failed to score 20 points, twice scoring fewer than 10. Gurley wasn't producing in those games because he wasn't being given any running lanes to work with. He doesn't need much space to create big plays and he does make help his offensive line a lot with his awareness and movement before the line of scrimmage, but it wasn't enough in those games. Against the Lions, Gurley proved to be the difference. He didn't win the game on his own, obviously, but if the Rams had played this game with just Benny Cunningham and Tre Mason, chances are they would have lost it.

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Cian Fahey is a contributor to Sports on Earth. He is a freelance writer who began his career covering the New England Patriots as a beat writer before creating his own analysis-driven site, Pre Snap Reads. He now covers the NFL for Football Guys, Bleacher Report and Football Outsiders.