The Rams are a vast wasteland of broken dreams
By Joe Lipovich
The St. Louis Rams have continually drafted electrifying players and continually misuse them.
St. Louis Rams quarterback Nick Foles shouldn’t be surprised that he got benched. He had one job.
All he had to do was give the ball to either Todd Gurley or Tavon Austin. The two young playmakers are some of the most electrifying talents to grace a football field in recent memory. Many remember Gurley’s ridiculous senior season at Georgia, but not many remember the work done by Austin at West Virginia.
Don’t believe me? His senior highlight tape has over 11 million views on YouTube.
When the Rams have targeted Austin seven or more times this season, he’s averaged 14 yards per catch and has broken plays of 47 and 66 yards. Particularly against the defensive stylings of young Patrick Peterson and Tyrann Mathieu, Austin caught six of the even passes thrown to him for 96 yards, two touchdowns and 16 yards per reception.
In addition, Austin is averaging eight yards per carry on the season. When the Rams get him involved in the offense with four or more receptions, they are 3-1 on the season.
The same goes for Gurley. The Georgia product was feasting on the innocent souls of NFC defenses between Weeks 3-9. He was averaging more than five yards per carry and was gashing defenses to the tune of over 120 yards per game. Even against one of the top rushing defenses in the NFL, the Minnesota Vikings, the rookie sensation managed 89 yards on the ground on 24 carries.
He also had to deal with the fact that Vikings linebacker Anthony Barr was treating the Rams’ left tackle Greg Robinson like Casper the Ghost before leaving the field with an arm injury.
Then this week, for whatever reason, coach Jeff Fisher decides to leave the game in the mitts of ol’ reliable, Foles, who proceeded to attempt 36 passes and throw for just 200 yards in the Rams’ 37-13 thrashing at the hands of the “dominant” 4-5 Chicago Bears.
Gurley had just 45 yards on 12 carries, his lowest total since taking over the starting job.
Fisher, Foles and offensive coordiantor Frank Cignetti should bench themselves.
If you have the best young running back in the NFL, and you give him the ball just 12 times, you deserve to lose to the team who could end up owning a top-five pick in the draft come April. Gurley was feeling it too.
This has been a perpetual problem for the Rams since losing Kurt Warner. They have all of the talent to be a playoff team, and can’t do anything with it. With an improving offensive line, a decent core of young receivers and two of the most electrifying playmakers in the NFL, this team should contend for the final wild card spot in the NFC. Yet they are marred in mediocrity, sitting at 4-5 and without a steady quarterback yet again.
St. Louis is probably wishing that they hadn’t given Foles that two-year extension a couple of months ago, but it’s such a St. Louis move.
Who knows, maybe Case Keenum can revive a little bit of that air raid magic in the NFL and finally get this offense going consistently. Nevermind, it’s the Rams.