Rams still need to get Todd Gurley going

Rams still need to get Todd Gurley going
By Alden Gonzalez

[www.espn.com]

LOS ANGELES -- The Los Angeles Rams have a win, but they still don't have a touchdown.

Their scoring through the first two weeks of the 2016 season has been confined to three field goals, all of them coming in a 9-3 home victory over the Seattle Seahawks. They are the only team that has yet to find the end zone, a concern Rams coach Jeff Fisher volunteered in his opening statement on Sunday.

"We need to score some touchdowns," Fisher said. "We'll keep working on that."


Todd Gurley finished third in rushing yards as a rookie last season but has gained only 98 yards on 36 carries in his first two games of 2016.
It'll start with getting more out of Todd Gurley, the star running back who was supposed to carry the Rams' offense this year.

Gurley finished third in rushing yards as a rookie last season, but has gained only 98 yards on 36 carries in his first two games. If you go back to his final eight games of 2015 -- the ones that followed a record-breaking four-week stretch to begin his career -- Gurley is averaging 62.9 yards per game and 3.7 yards per carry. It has a lot more to do with defenses stacking the box than it does with Gurley's actual skill set, but it is a problem nonetheless.

"It's whatever," Gurley said of rushing for 51 yards on 19 carries against the Seahawks. "It's football. You're not going to have a great game every game."

Kenny Britt, who led the team with 94 receiving yards, said the best way to get Gurley going is to "throw the ball." Case Keenum did a lot better job of that in Week 2, going 18-of-30 for 239 yards and zero turnovers. And though Gurley didn't have a standout game, the threat of him running helped Keenum set up successful play-action passes a handful of times.

Still, Fisher expressed a need to give Gurley more touches.

"He'll be fine," Fisher said. "He'll just be fresh at the end of the season."

"Todd is going to get going," Keenum added. "It's Todd. Just continue to operate how we are. I think the passing game and running game are going to complement each other. I think we are doing a good job of marrying some of those plays. I'm excited to see him continue to go because I know he's hungry. I thought he played well [Sunday]. We're going to rely on him a lot moving forward."