[Claremontram]

Upland:

I agree. We need to pass the ball to Gurley --screens, in the flat, and as a Wide out too.

Nine man fronts can't be dealt with on all of our 1st and 2nd downs.

This must be addressed before he gets severely dinged up.

[Rocky Landing]

Gurley has been facing 8 men in the box for the last 4 weeks against strong front fours and that's why he hasn't been able to rush as effectively as we might like. On the other hand it has been very beneficial in giving Keenum some open receivers to pass to. Keenum has passed for nearly 700 yards and 4 TD's the last 3 games so, teams are going to have to start adjusting and shouldn't be stacking the box as heavily. Although, Buffalo has had a good defense look for Gurley to have a good game this week by getting more attempts due to Buffalo's DB's being able to cover a little tighter. I will predict Gurley will have over 100 yrds Rushing and 40 receiving which will be a warm up for him into the following week against Detroit.

I certainly agree that the Bills' DBs will have the rams WRs well covered. But, if Gurley is going to have any success getting into the secondary, he's going to have to run more to the outside. If he runs up the middle against the Bills, he will get stuffed.

[PARAM]

I haven't seen as many of the Tavon in motion getting the handoff followed by Tavon in motion as a decoy with Gurley hitting the opposite direction that seemed to make the defense choose quickly who to go after. Perhaps a couple of the Tavon runs early? Or maybe we need to throw some passes with things spread wide and then run out of that formation. Maybe we need to do more of both? I think the biggest thing that will open up some lanes for Gurley is the one thing that won't happen anytime soon.

[Hacksaw]

Just mix it up and execute. aka DON"T DROP THE BALL. Toss it around. Send the WR's out. Gotta keep their LB's and safeties back.

Gotta get TGII on track and I agree with Rock Landing (Welcome to RFU) to run a few more wide plays will help Barnes, Wichmann and Softfold,,,,, by avoiding them.

[bloodsnhall]

I certainly agree that the Bills' DBs will have the rams WRs well covered. But, if Gurley is going to have any success getting into the secondary, he's going to have to run more to the outside. If he runs up the middle against the Bills, he will get stuffed.

I 100% agree with you, you're completely right. I've been saying for two weeks that Gurley is fast enough to run outside and get to the sidelines when its completely obvious defenses are anticipating a run up the middle. To break up a 8 man front "4*4's" that are overloaded you need to run out of the I formation off tackle, but the Rams don't have a Fullback to run it, that I'm aware of and that really is what makes a fullback a valuable asset to a running game which is truly what Gurley is missing in situations like he's in. With that said since we don't have a Full Back Gurley needs to be allowed some sweeps or pitches to get outside and use his mobility to make plays. Punishing him by constantly running up the A gap while knowing he has no blocker against a loaded 4*4 defense is eventually only going to get him hurt.

I totally agree with you and its something I guess only we can see.

[bloodsnhall]

Upland:

I agree. We need to pass the ball to Gurley --screens, in the flat, and as a Wide out too.

Nine man fronts can't be dealt with on all of our 1st and 2nd downs.

This must be addressed before he gets severely dinged up.

I agree with you as well, makes perfect sense to me. In the end of the Rams last game against Arizona I think that they started utilizing Gurley better as far as his ability to contribute by being a receiver out of the back field. I think Keenum needs to be credited for those plays as much as Gurley cause those plays were called on the fly and neither of them had much preparation running them. I'm glad the Rams OC was able to change things up and adjusted knowing that Gurley had become ineffective as a runner and he needed to get him contributing in a close game. I think that the Rams are well on their way to finding an offensive identity through a bit of trial and error, but over all 3-1 isn't a rough start. I'm looking forward to the next 4 weeks and truly believe that this team is only going to get better with every game.

[aeneas1]

according to dickerson, gurley needs a qb who can complete passes, dickerson said he played for qbs who couldn't and as a result he faced what gurley's now facing, i'm guessing the '85 bears game probably popped into ed's mind... that said, dickerson wasn't whistling dixie, of the top 35 qb with the most pass attempts, keenum ranks dead last in completion % through the first 4 games...

[aeneas1]

I don't disagree completely... but, as that article says... other teams are facing stacked boxes and their olines aren't getting their asses handed to them.

i hear ya, but imo there's stacked boxes and then there's stacked boxes, as one of the commentators said sunday after watching gurley get stuffed again and again, "forget 8 in the box, gurley faceing 9..." anyway something has to get fixed because this is just brutal, especially when harkey and kendicks are in and still nothing...