St. Louis Rams Already Putting Too Much Weight on Todd Gurley's Shoulders

Anyone remotely close to a television over the last two Sundays is well aware of how great Todd Gurley already is as a workhorse NFL running back. 

But great as he may be, the St. Louis Rams won't get very far leaning exclusively upon him for offense. That much became apparent in the Rams' 24-10 defeat to the Green Bay Packers Sunday at Lambeau Field.

The rookie dazzled for a second straight week, posting 159 yards rushing against the vaunted Packers defense. But that came on 30 carries, quite the heavy workload for a team that trailed virtually all of Sunday's game.

Gurley provided basically all of the Rams' rushing offense aside from 22 end-around yards from Tavon Austin, taking 30 of St. Louis' 36 team rushing attempts. He took one of those for 55 yards, notching a carry of 50-plus yards for the second week in a row, as the NFL's Twitter account showed:

Take that rush out of the equation, and Gurley ran for just over 3.5 yards per carry—an indication of the Packers' adjustments to slowing down the rookie out of Georgia.

Still, Gurley's proficiency on the ground blew the Rams' previous rushing success out of the water, as ESPN Stats & Info observed:

With Green Bay stacking the box to stymie the run, all quarterback Nick Foles had to do was get some decent pass-blocking and keep the ball away from Packers defenders. He did neither.

Foles endured one of his worst-ever starts, going just 11-for-30 and throwing four interceptions. Needing nothing more than consistency from their quarterback, the Rams didn't get much from him, as Jason La Canfora of CBS Sports observed:

Foles' 147 passing yards don't tell the whole story of a day when nothing was going right for the Rams through the air. He didn't complete a pass downfield until late in the fourth quarter, when Stedman Bailey broke free for a 68-yard gain.

Embarrassingly enough, punter Johnny Hekker had the Rams' longest pass completion of the day before that moment, as Jim Thomas of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch noted:

Perhaps even more discouraging is that the Rams defense did the impossible in order to give Foles and Co. a chance. With Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers sporting nearly 500 passes without throwing an interception at home, St. Louis nabbed two picks.

Rodgers added a lost fumble to spot the Rams three extra possessions, but they did little with them and wasted a masterful game from Gurley in the process, per ESPN's Andrew Brandt:

Gurley's consistency on the ground did give the Rams a chance to take advantage of those Rodgers turnovers, but kicker Greg Zuerlein missed three field goals that halted the momentum.

When the team had missed opportunities for points like that, a quarterback who couldn't stop turning the ball over and a defense that gave up two passing touchdowns, a 150-yard rushing performance from Gurley was all for naught.

Despite the rest of the team not performing well enough to give Gurley a shot at leading them to victory this week, head coach Jeff Fisher didn't sound like he was going back to the drawing board, per his postgame interview on the Rams' official site.

"We're running the football right now, so the formula is there," Fisher said. "We're 1-1 since Todd [Gurley] got his opportunity, so we just have to keep him going."

Matt Ludtke/Associated Press

Gurley is certainly getting his opportunity—you could say more than that. With more than 50 touches combined in the last two games and hard-earned yardage, it could be argued that he's getting too much opportunity and has too much weight on his shoulders.

The Rams may be 1-1 since Gurley broke out, but the more important aspect is how Foles' play compares in those two games. The victory over the Arizona Cardinals last week saw him throw three touchdowns and avoid mistakes, while Sunday was a completely different story.

With Gurley's production remaining constant in those two games and Foles' play more of the night-and-day variety, it's no secret which of the two offensive players has a more direct impact on his team's success.

Having a game-changing running back like Gurley is a piece to the offense that few teams across the NFL can enjoy. But it's a quarterback's league in today's NFL—a league that demands consistency from the signal-caller and the passing game.

Until the Rams find that and fix a bevy of other problems in the process, Gurley will continue to be a bright spot on a mediocre football team.