It was a rough outing for Cam Akers on Sunday versus the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. The Rams’ second-year running back was limited to 48 yards on 24 attempts against Tampa Bay’s stout run defense and he fumbled the ball twice.
Even with Akers coughing up the ball twice, Sean McVay’s confidence in the young running back hasn’t wavered moving forward.
“Still have tremendous faith and confidence in Cam Akers, he’s going to be a great player — there will be a couple plays that he wants back, then we had a little miscommunication on the one snap after we end up getting the turnover in their territory,” McVay said. “Those are things that [we] can’t have, but we were able to overcome it, and I’m excited for those guys.”
Akers’ first fumble came near the end of the first half when the Rams were driving deep into Buccaneers’ territory. Akers took a handoff from Matthew Stafford and was 1 yard away from the end zone when he lost possession of the ball and Tampa Bay recovered.
Los Angeles had a 20-3 lead before Akers’ first fumble and another touchdown could have prevented the theatrics that took place in the second half. Akers would then fumble again with 2:32 left in the game following a deep touchdown from Tom Brady to Mike Evans that made the score 27-20.
The Buccaneers would tie the game with under a minute remaining in the contest, but Stafford and Cooper Kupp stopped the bleeding with a clutch completion to set up a game-winning field goal by Matt Gay.
Altogether, the Rams had four fumbles on offense that nearly cost them the game. Two of them came from Akers, who hasn’t shown any signs of having fumbling issues in his career.
Seeing that Akers is operating in a full-time role just five months after tearing his Achilles, it goes to show the trust that McVay has in the young running back. And even with him making crucial mistakes in a pivotal game versus the Buccaneers, McVay is confident that Akers will make up for it in the NFC Championship Game against the San Francisco 49ers.
