Some Ram excerpts from Peter King 10/15/18...

[profootballtalk.nbcsports.com]

Offensive Players of the Week

Todd Gurley, running back, Los Angeles Rams. With the Broncos banking on a swarm-job defensively around Jared Goff (mission accomplished), coach Sean McVay turned to the run. The Rams sledgehammered Denver (39 carries, 270 yards), led by Gurley’s 208 yards on 28 carries. (It was the first 200-yard rush game by a Rams running back since Marshall Faulk in 2001.) Great sign for the Rams’ intergalactic offense, because it showed they can win any way offensively.
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Intelligent Football

Week 5, Seahawks at Rams, Los Angeles ball, fourth-and-one (actually fourth-and-a-foot, but PFF doesn’t account for feet or inches—only yards) at their own 42, fourth quarter, 1:39 left, Rams up 33-31. Conversion percentage: 78.2 percent. Chance of winning if they convert: 99.9 percent. (They’d simply run out the clock.) Here’s the key, and it’s why—even though I wrote last week about what a smart call it was by Sean McVay—that it actually was overwhelmingly the smart call by McVay to go for it even if the play failed:

The Rams’ chance to win the game was still 59.7 percent if they didn’t convert and handed the ball back to Seattle with no timeouts left and a questionable kicker in Janikowski (who’d made six of nine this year at that point). In other words, PFF still believed it was more likely than not that handing the ball back to Russell Wilson on a short field would have resulted in a Rams win.
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MVP Watch

After six weeks, here’s my MVP ballot:

1. Patrick Mahomes, QB, Kansas City. (Last week: 1.) The kid flinched in the first half, but showed in the second half that the road stage was not too big for him. At all.

2. Drew Brees, QB, New Orleans. (Last week: 3.) Fodder for a Saints bye week: Imagine Brees winning the MVP when it’s announced Feb. 2 at NFL Honors in Atlanta. He’d be the second straight 40-year-old quarterback to win it. (Tom Brady won last February at 40.)

3. Jared Goff, QB, L.A. Rams. (Last week: 2.) Goff had his first meh day of the season in the cold at Denver: 14 of 28, no TDs, one pick. But the Rams are 6-0, and he’s at the nerve center of it all.

4. Khalil Mack, OLB, Chicago. (Last week: 4.) His first pedestrian game since the Oakland-to-Chicago trade six weeks ago (two tackles, no sacks) played a part in the Bears getting upset 31-28 at Miami.

5. Philip Rivers, QB, Los Angeles Chargers. (Last week: unranked.) With losses to only the best two teams in football, the Chiefs and Rams, the Chargers are getting a classic Rivers season to lead them: 69 percent completions, a 115.1 rating, a 15-to-3 TD-to-pick ratio.
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I think, now that we’re nearly through six weeks, it’s becoming very interesting to see how arguably the best two teams—the 5-1 Chiefs and 6-0 Rams—look, and to project a month ahead. How amazing is it that the (next) Game of the Year in the NFL might not be played in the United States? The Chiefs and Rams could both be a combined 19-1 when they face off on Monday night, Nov. 19, in Mexico City. The obstacles:

• Week 7, Cincinnati at Kansas City. The Bengals have the kind of interior pass rush that could vex Patrick Mahomes.

• Week 8, Green Bay at Rams. No game against Aaron Rodgers is any sort of lock.

• Week 9, Rams at New Orleans. Drew Brees would be licking his chops to face an Aqib Talib-less secondary, and who knows about the health of Marcus Peters in three weeks.

10-0 vs. 9-1, in Mexico. Amazing. It’d still be great if it were two 9-1 or 8-2 teams.