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Is it just me or is the weirdness surrounding Todd Gurley's Conference Finals performance flying under the radar a bit?
To recap:
- Gurley missed the last two games of the regular season with "knee inflammation" after suffering a knee injury in week 15 against the Eagles. It was the same knee he injured in week 1, although he still played.
- He had 16 carries for 115 yards and a TD (and two catches for three yards) against Dallas. The Rams may have had the Cowboys defensive signals, but still, those are good numbers.
- Gurley had 4 carries for 10 yards against the Rams. He also dropped two easy, critical catches. He saw almost no time after that. He was on the sideline bike, which players do either to stay warm or test injuries.
Sean McVay said Gurley was benched because of the "game flow" and CJ Anderson played the rest of the way. Gurley said he was benched because he was 'sorry' (i.e. played badly).
Todd Gurley may be the best RB of his era and a future Hall of Famer. He led the league in TDs each of the last two years (this year he had more TDs than anyone since Moss 07) and had 2000+ yards from scrimmage last year despite sitting Week 17. He can take over a game when he's on.
So my question is...why did he only get 4 carries last week in the biggest game of his career. Here are the obvious (and not so much) reasons:
1. He was hurt. This was reflected in his poor performance. CJ Anderson was doing fine so they decided not to risk anything with Gurley. A little strange given he played fine against Dallas the week before, although maybe the injury flared up again?
2. He was healthy, but dropped two passes and was benched. This is plausible, but would be an incredibly ballsy call by McVay. Again, he is one of, if not the, best RBs of the decade. Benching him because he dropped two passes in the conference finals is insane. Hard for me to believe (although McVay can be unconventional sometimes, so maybe?) McVay said "I've got to get him more touches"...sort of a weird thing to say given that he could have just put him in any time during that game.
3. (Less obvious / quasi-conspiracy) -- McVay thought Anderson was doing fine and he sandbagged a bit by benching Gurley in preparing for the Super Bowl where he'll unleash him on our defense (which notably struggled against the run for large parts of this year).
I don't necessarily believe this third option, but you have to admit that people on this board don't seem as nervous about the Rams offense as, say, the Falcons two years ago (there are currently a couple Rams Offense threads on the front page where this can be seen). If we had just seen Gurley coming off a stretch like he had the end of last year where he had almost 600 yards and 8 touchdowns in three games, we might be singing a different tune.
Anyone have any thoughts? Here's an article with more information including GIFs of the drops:
What’s wrong with Todd Gurley? McVay, Gurley claim he's healthy after he barely played during Rams' wild win
To recap:
- Gurley missed the last two games of the regular season with "knee inflammation" after suffering a knee injury in week 15 against the Eagles. It was the same knee he injured in week 1, although he still played.
- He had 16 carries for 115 yards and a TD (and two catches for three yards) against Dallas. The Rams may have had the Cowboys defensive signals, but still, those are good numbers.
- Gurley had 4 carries for 10 yards against the Rams. He also dropped two easy, critical catches. He saw almost no time after that. He was on the sideline bike, which players do either to stay warm or test injuries.
Sean McVay said Gurley was benched because of the "game flow" and CJ Anderson played the rest of the way. Gurley said he was benched because he was 'sorry' (i.e. played badly).
Todd Gurley may be the best RB of his era and a future Hall of Famer. He led the league in TDs each of the last two years (this year he had more TDs than anyone since Moss 07) and had 2000+ yards from scrimmage last year despite sitting Week 17. He can take over a game when he's on.
So my question is...why did he only get 4 carries last week in the biggest game of his career. Here are the obvious (and not so much) reasons:
1. He was hurt. This was reflected in his poor performance. CJ Anderson was doing fine so they decided not to risk anything with Gurley. A little strange given he played fine against Dallas the week before, although maybe the injury flared up again?
2. He was healthy, but dropped two passes and was benched. This is plausible, but would be an incredibly ballsy call by McVay. Again, he is one of, if not the, best RBs of the decade. Benching him because he dropped two passes in the conference finals is insane. Hard for me to believe (although McVay can be unconventional sometimes, so maybe?) McVay said "I've got to get him more touches"...sort of a weird thing to say given that he could have just put him in any time during that game.
3. (Less obvious / quasi-conspiracy) -- McVay thought Anderson was doing fine and he sandbagged a bit by benching Gurley in preparing for the Super Bowl where he'll unleash him on our defense (which notably struggled against the run for large parts of this year).
I don't necessarily believe this third option, but you have to admit that people on this board don't seem as nervous about the Rams offense as, say, the Falcons two years ago (there are currently a couple Rams Offense threads on the front page where this can be seen). If we had just seen Gurley coming off a stretch like he had the end of last year where he had almost 600 yards and 8 touchdowns in three games, we might be singing a different tune.
Anyone have any thoughts? Here's an article with more information including GIFs of the drops:
What’s wrong with Todd Gurley? McVay, Gurley claim he's healthy after he barely played during Rams' wild win
