For the Los Angeles Rams to succeed, does Jared Goff rely on Todd Gurley?

On Monday, 3k dropped a tweet in regards to Los Angeles Rams QB Jared Goff needing to lean on to other players and the coaching staff to find success at least as far as the season opener was concerned:

He basically said said Goff was a bum and the team saved him, and then everyone reading said "off with his head." Sucks to be you Joe!

However, the real question is, was he on to something?

No, Goff is not a “bad quarterback.” But yes, he absolutely did play poorly. However, if you are a listener of Turf Show Radio then you know this was my expectation the entire time as well as Joe's. The unfortunate truth is, QB's need live reps to really get better. Even 40-year old Patriots QB Tom Brady played multiple full quarters in the preseason. The timing can and will be off between QB and receiver without live reps.

In practice, the quarterback can't be touched. This creates a level of comfort that is impossible to get in a game. So when you get in a game and the bullets are live and the speed is different it throws off your rhythm as you at times rush throws, you take your eyes from downfield, you lose your mechanics due to pressure, etc...

We saw all of this from Jared Goff against the Oakland Raiders.

Los Angeles Rams RB Todd Gurley only saw four carries in the first half. As a result, the Rams struggled to move the ball. Without two huge pass interference calls, and a dropped interception in the endzone, this is a completely different game.

The FACT is when Gurley doesn't get his touches, and the game is in Goff's hand, the Rams are more likely to lose. Last season, we saw the Rams do what they did against the Raiders five times in which they simply did not feed Gurley. They eventually got their act together on Monday and went to their bread and butter against Oakland, however. When they did not give Gurley at least 20 carries last season the Rams went 1-4.

Those games were against Washington (L), the Seattle Seahawks (L), the Houston Texans (W), the Minnesota Vikings (L), and the Philadelphia Eagles (L).

These five games saw Goff complete only 58% of passes with six turnovers. The result of Goff being featured over Gurley is a 1-4 record and six of his 10 total turnovers across 15 games, came in those five games.

Well smack me around and call me Suzy. Joseph was on to something...

Unfortunately, Goff is still developing and far from being the QB who can put a team on his back the way the world watched Green Bay Packers QB Aaron Rodgers do against the Chicago Bears Sunday night. He is only a year and some months removed from that abysmal rookie season he had. So if no healthy QB in the history of football has sat out the entire preseason, it is probably not a good idea to do it with him. He needs those live game reps to get better and develop chemistry and rhythm with the receivers and their routes.

The truth is we saw him miss throws that he made in his sleep last year. And the two PI calls should have been touchdowns as WR Brandin Cooks burned the secondary but he was late on his release. And the line play can't be blamed as Sosa points out in his PFF team of the week piece. the line was pretty much perfect.

Jared just has to continue to develop as well as get as many valuable snaps as possible. Yes he played poorly, and no you should not expect much more in that scenario, at least not yet. Maybe next year or even later this year he will start to develop the ability to carry a team.

Until then, and it kills me to say this...

Joe was right.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯