I agree with LA on this. I just flesh out why I agree. Whatever was wrong with Gurley was happening all season and started in the 1st 4 games...when in fact they went 3-1.

This is my take...my mantra is that so many things went wrong in 2016 that reducing it to one or 2 will always just mean you're leaving too many things out. It's the same with the running game. Lots went wrong. And one of them was Gurley himself.

BTW, just to develop this, everyone saw TG was a different player last year, but here are the numbers. These are numbers that pertain DIRECTLY and ONLY to the RB's contribution...on these stats, it's all about the back's own play. It's not the coaches, qb, OL, scheme, or cheerleaders. Just him.

You don't need these numbers really...all of this was visible, you could see it yourself watching games. BUT the numbers reinforce the point.

Quote

from Numbers say Todd Gurley missed holes in 2016

Alden Gonzalez

[www.espn.com]

He averaged 1.59 yards before first contract, which was also the second-worst mark in the league. The latter stat shows that defenses were getting to him quickly. But Joyner’s numbers say the Rams gave him good blocking on 36.3 percent of his carries, which ranked 28th among 43 qualifying running backs and indicates that Gurley should have been better. Perhaps significantly so.

In 2015, while on his way to being named Offensive Rookie of the Year, Gurley averaged 10.9 good blocking yards per attempt (GBYPA) on 73 carries, the highest rate in the NFL. In 2016, Gurley averaged 6.8 GBYPA on 101 carries, 38th among the 43 running backs with triple-digit good blocking attempts.

That means that in 2015, on 229 attempts, Gurley got good blocking attempts 31.9% of the time. In 2016 he got good blocking attempts 36.3% of the time yet his yards on those attempts decreased by 37.6%

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from Nick Wagoner

[www.espn.com]

some of the blame has to fall on a poor supporting cast and an unimaginative offense, but Gurley also didn’t resemble his 2015 self on the rare occasion when holes were open. He broke 47 tackles as a rookie, good for seventh-best in the league, according to Pro Football Focus. Last year, that number dropped to 41, even though Gurley had 71 more touches.

In 2015 he broke tackles on 47 of 229 attempts, which is 20.5% of the time. In 2016, he broke tackles on 41 of 278 attempts, which is 14.7%.

Normally you might say, he had fewer chances to break tackles, he was stymied behind the line. According to Football Outsiders, the Rams runs were stuffed 22% of the time, which ranks 28th in the league; in 2015, Rams runs were stuffed 23% of the time, which also ranked 28th in the league. So just in terms of stuffs, 2015 was no different from 2016, yet he did better in 2015 under the same conditions. This brings us back to the first stat---Gurley actually got fewer yards on more good blocking plays (non-stuffs) in 2016, and more yards on fewer good blocking plays in 2015. That measures his own contribution---how much does he get when given the shot to get something. That went down in 2016.

Quote

from PFF

[www.profootballfocus.com]


Gurley was seventh out of 52 running backs in yards after contact per attempt in 2015 at 2.87, but he saw that number drop to 2.18 in 2016, putting him 46th out of 53 qualified backs.

The stat "yards after contact" allies with breaking tackles and good blocking yards. Going from 2.87 in 2015 to 2.18 in 2016 is a drop of 24%.

As I said, everything went wrong with the running game in 2016, but one of those things was Gurley. It was visible and the numbers back that up.

I think a lot of it was him losing weight and along with it strength and explosion. After a while that led to frustration and pressing. It's therefore worth noting that everyone says he is working really hard this off-season, and in fact he himself draws attention to the fact that he is working really hard this off-season. I think he has heard the criticisms that he did not work as hard in the 2016 off-season as he did in the 2015 off-season.







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Edited 4 time(s). Last edit at 07/21/2017 07:39AM by zn.