The Los Angeles Rams are a souped-up Lamborghini Veneno speeding down the Pacific Coast Highway with the top down, nary a care in the world.
Thursday night’s Showtime performance at the L.A. Coliseum against a presumed fellow NFC power gave the Rams an aura that their offense can’t be stopped. With Jared Goff, Todd Gurley, Brandin Cooks, Robert Woods, Cooper Kupp and a road-plowing offensive line, the Rams have playmakers across the field to blitz defenses.
Visiting the NFL Network set after the 38-31 victory over the Minnesota Vikings, Gurley was feeling the moment.
"Any team can be beat right now, but, nah, we can’t be beat right now. No ifs, ands or buts about it," the running back said.
Let’s guess Gurley’s thought process during that statement: I should defer to a cliché and not upset anyone…nah, screw it, THIS IS AWESOME.
Despite the duplicative nature of Gurley’s thoughts, he’s not wrong about any of it. Any team can lose any week — the Vikings proved that at home last Sunday — yet it feels like it would take 45 bottles of Chloroform to knock out the Rams‘ high-flying offense.
Take Thursday night, for example. Gurley didn’t feel like the star of the show, rushing for ‘only’ 83 yards on 17 totes, but still earned 156 total yards and the offense scorched Minnesota for 556 yards.
"It’s a blessing. It’s a blessing for sure," Gurley said of playing with so many weapons. "Just having these guys at receiver. The Arizona game [Week 2] — they were depending on stopping the run — I’m like, ‘OK, it’s going to be [the receivers’ game].’ And those guys went out there and tore it up. Like coach says, we don’t feel pressure, we apply it. That’s our motto. We try to go out there and attack and we got a great offensive line. You might know we’re going to run the ball, but at the end of the day, you have to stop it."
Coach Sean McVay’s offense applies so much pressure that defenses self-destruct. The Rams had Mike Zimmer’s defense spinning. Whether it was picking on Anthony Barr, getting pristine matchups on the outside, stonewalling the pass rush or simply winning one-on-one battles, the Rams looked unstoppable. This L.A. offense inevitably will be compared to the Showtime Lakers at some stage this year, with Jared Goff running the point.
"We know what everybody’s capable of," Gurley said. "At the end of the day, Sunday or Thursday night, we’re going to go out there and put on a show, that’s what I tell the guys every time."
We all know how much L.A. loves a show.