During his rookie season, Rams running back Todd Gurley made a lot of highlight reels while running for 1,106 yards and 10 touchdowns in 13 games but he wasn’t featured too prominently in those packages last year.
Gurley slumped to 885 yards on 3.2 yards per carry in the Rams’ first season in Los Angeles, which left some uncertainty about what to expect in Year Three. It’s been a mixed bag through two games as Gurley has fumbled three times and averaged 3.7 yards per carry while also scoring three touchdowns and making it back on the highlight reel.
That came last Sunday when Gurley caught a pass from Jared Goff, hurdled a Washington defender and then scampered into the end zone. Gurley wasn’t happy with the outcome of the game, a 27-20 Redskins win, but likes being recognized for positive contributions.
“Oh yeah, it’s cool,” Gurley said. “It was just like, ‘Aw, you suck!’, you know they show that play a 1,000 times. So when you finally do a good play like I did the other day, it makes you feel a lot better. I don’t know how I did it, I just did it. Hopefully, I can just keep doing that or obviously they’re probably going to be expecting that now so, guess I got to come out with a new move now.”
Gurley’s found success as a receiver beyond that touchdown and has eight catches for 104 yards so far this year, something that has helped the Rams offense take a clear step forward from last year. If that can continue on Thursday, the Rams’ chances of beating the 49ers and Gurley’s chances of remaining in highlights for the right reasons will look a lot better.