The Los Angeles Rams were thrilled to see C.J. Anderson fill in for Todd Gurley during their Week 16 win over the Arizona Cardinals.
Last week, the Los Angeles Rams found themselves in a tough position when it came to Todd Gurley at running back.
After dealing with knee inflammation in the days following their surprise Week 15 loss to the Philadelphia Eagles, the last thing the Rams wanted to see was Gurley put himself in a tough position against the Arizona Cardinals by playing through his knee injury.
It took up until the day of the game to finally decide that Gurley wasn’t going to play, but when seeing how Los Angeles signed C.J. Anderson as insurance during the week leading up to the game, the offense was in much better position than before.
Nothing against John Kelly since the rookie running back displayed a ton of potential during the preseason, but Anderson’s experience over the years gave him a huge advantage over his new teammate.
Plus, when seeing how Anderson came through with the best debut possible for the Rams, being able to earn the win while resting Gurley turned out to be the best thing to happen for the NFC West champions.
Never in a million years did anyone picture a running back like Anderson rushing for 167 yards to go along with a touchdown, but now the question becomes whether the Rams will take advantage of this situation once again heading into their regular-season finale.
Even more exciting, the impact made by Anderson in Week 16 shows that once the playoffs do in fact get underway, they could be with another dangerous weapon on offense.
For obvious reasons, a healthy Gurley is going to result in the former Georgia star receiving a bulk of the carries, whether that happens to be this weekend against the San Francisco 49ers or simply January.
But even if Gurley is fully healthy, it will be interesting to see how Sean McVay mixes things up by making sure Anderson is involved as well.
Even though Gurley has always been the kind of running back who wants to remain on the football field as much as possible, McVay is too smart enough to know that Anderson’s experience and skill set is too valuable to put to waste.
With this in mind, Anderson could end up being one of the best surprise weapons for the Rams once January arrives, and it sounds crazy to think about him being a surprise factor to make that Super Bowl run happen, but it’s certainly possible.
Source: “Los Angeles” – Google News