Optical Illusion: How bad was the LA Rams offense?

Sony/Coleman combination

The LA Rams needed to jumpstart the offense and were able to do so with the most unlikely combination of offensive players. With both RB Darrell Henderson Jr and starting offensive center Brian Allen unable to play, the Rams found themselves playing backup center Coleman Shelton and running back Sony Michel in starting roles.

That pair combined three times. Against the Jacksonville Jaguars, Michel rushed 24 times for 121 yards and a touchdown. Against the Arizona Cardinals, Michel rushed 20 times for 79 yards. Finally, against the Minnesota Vikings, he rushed 27 times for 131 yards and a touchdown. The duo not only combined for 71 rushes, 331 yards, and two touchdowns, but they also carried the LA Rams to a 3-0 record when the Rams were quite shorthanded.

Run when you must

Through the course of the season, the LA Rams were not a very good rushing team. In fact, the ground game finished the season averaging just 99.0 yards per game, which was only the 25th-best in the NFL. But after those three games, some mystery sprang up. Were the Rams a poor running team, or was it simply the choice of the coaching staff to play pass-blocking offensive linemen?

And then there was the other matter of rushing attempts. The Rams rushed 420 times in the 2021 regular season. That was good for 23rd-most in the NFL. It was also a far cry below the Rams’ 607 passing attempts in 2021.  So was it any wonder that the Rams offense was so poorly ranked on the ground?

In essence, the Rams’ offense set up the team to be more capable in the passing game. Then as the season progressed, the team continued to make decisions that would ultimately turn the focus of the offense back to the aerial assault, even when the available for games would be better suited for a more balanced offensive attack.