Only one team has been worse at running the football than the Los Angeles Rams this season. The Rams rank 31st in rushing attempts, rushing yards and yards per carry, better than only the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
They’ve cycled through running backs in an attempt to fix it, giving everyone from Cam Akers to Darrell Henderson Jr. to Ronnie Rivers the chance to start. Yet, nothing has gotten better, and it’s forced the Rams to become one-dimensional as a pass-heavy offense.
Cooper Kupp is doing what he can as a receiver to help move the ball down the field, but he knows it’s essential for the Rams to improve on the ground. After Sunday’s loss to the 49ers, he talked about ways the team can improve its rushing attack, whether it’s jet sweeps or other extensions of the run game.
“It’s huge, it is. It’s obviously a point of emphasis. You never want to be one-dimensional,” he said. “There’s lots of ways to do that, too. It’s not always about truly just handing the ball off to the running back. There’s ways to get around the edge. We saw that with a little bit of the fly-sweep stuff, some of the run alert stuff. Still think you can do that, just extensions of the run game, as well. Make guys come up and tackle, make plays. We’ve got to do a better job of that.”
Part of the reason it’s so important is that running the ball helps open things up for the passing attack. Kupp explained that teams are essentially daring the Rams to run it by playing two-high shell coverages, preventing big plays over the top.
The stats back that up, too, because Akers has faced the second-fewest loaded boxes of any running back and Henderson has faced the seventh-fewest, per Next Gen Stats.
“Point blank, period. We have to do a better job of running the ball, there’s no getting around that, either,” he said. “Find some ways to be able to do that, allow the play action to come to life and also be able to keep people out of playing Cover 2 stuff that they’re gonna say, ‘Hey, we dare you to run the ball and beat us on the ground.’ We’ve got to do a better job of either beating that, finding ways to attack those coverages through the air, or be able to hand the ball off and be efficient running it.”
Kupp isn’t calling out the running game, but he knows the offense will continue to sputter if the Rams don’t get on track in that department. The coaches know it, the players know it and the fans do, too.
It’s just a matter of getting it fixed somehow, someway.
