[BobCarl]

if the rams have to play catch up late they're not going to ride gurley (or any back), they're going to throw the ball, such is life in the nfl.

My thinking is yes they're gonna throw the ball ... but it is a lot easier to throw the ball when the opposing defense is FORCED to play 8 in the box

[AvengerRam]

the rams faced a lot of less than stellar defenses in the games gurley had 15+ carries, in fact only 1 of the 6 defenses faced currently ranks in the top half of the league in offensive points allowed, and against that 1 defense (chi) gurley had his most carries of the season yet goff posted a lowly 69.9 qb rating and threw for just 173 yards.

moreover against a lot of these less than stellar defenses gurley was able to pad his carries given the rams took big leads and were then able to run the ball a lot (sea, ari, atl, nor), as a team the rams averaged 30 carries a game in those outings vs just 21 per game when gurley didn't have 15+ carries.

anyway, all of that said, i'm with you, make gurley a focal point of the offense again for crying out loud, especially given the very mixed signals on this "management" stuff, play the guy, run the guy, throw to the guy.

Exactly. Clearly, it’s easier to keep Gurley in the game, rather than going pass happy, against a weaker defense and with a lead. When that happens, we see the best of Goff, which is pretty darn good.

I guess the only thing that surprised me was just how big the statistical disparity is for Goff between balanced games and Gurley-lite games. Night and day, really.

[aeneas1]

to me it looks like the rams offense has just has struggled against the better defenses this year, all the way around (mcvay, goff, the oline and the running game) - but things have gone much better for the offense against the lesser defenses... the rams are 6-2 against defenses that rank in the bottom half of the league in offensive points allowed, and 1-3 against top 10 defenses.

[Hacksaw]

It seems intuative that ANY team would / should fare better against weaker competition. With the rare exception of match-ups, desperation and dare I say it, , certain officiating crews.

It also looks like the Rams need to run TGII more.

[snackdaddy]

Vikings lost to Greenbay once already ... so chances are good they lose again.

But we need the Rams to defeat the 9ers and also win their other two games.

Where would that leave us in the tie-breaker?

Every scenario I could try on the playoff machine had the Rams owning the tiebreakers. Head to head with Minnesota, Green Bay or Chicago. 3 way ties have the Rams owning the tie breakers. A 4 way tie with GB, MN, Chi and the Rams at 10-6 gives the Bears the division and us the wild card. All that is assuming Seattle or SF secures the first wild card. As much as we need some help, out situation isn't as dire as we think. We could lose 1 out of the next 3 and make it anyway.