A year after owning one of the most anemic offenses of this century, the Los Angeles Rams tote the second-highest scoring offense in the NFL and 6th-most touchdowns.
Unlike some other teams, the Rams' TD celebrations haven't been very noteworthy.
"Bad chemistry on the celebrating, but it's whatever," running back Todd Gurley said Thursday, via the Los Angeles Times. "We get in there so much we don't have to do it every time, so it's cool."
Let's forget for a moment that the highest scoring team in the NFL, the Philadelphia Eagles, lead the league in creative celebrations. Gurley sits first in the NFL with 11 touchdowns, so he individually would have had to come up with a lot of different celebrations. The headline was merely an excuse to get into how big a turnaround has been for Sean McVay and the Rams, not intended to get in a celebration-off.
At 8-3, the Rams have already locked up their first non-losing season since 2006. After the 7-9 bull---- they put on the field under Jeff Fisher, McVay has his team playing loose, fast, and smart.
The difference between the past two seasons is stark:
2016: 4-12, -170 point differential, -11 turnover differential, 14.0 PPG, 24.6 PPG allowed
2017: 8-3, +123 point differential, +5 turnover differential, 29.9 PPG, 18.7 PPG allowed.
The Rams have the NFL's second-best point differential this season (+123), behind only the Eagles (+160), and are one of five teams with a top 10 scoring offense and defense in 2017. The +293 from 2016 to 2017 would mark the third-largest point differential turnaround since the 1970 merger, per NFL Research.
L.A.'s increase of 15.9 PPG over last season is the largest single-season improvement in the Super Bowl era.
McVay has gotten the most out of his young offensive stars, Jared Goff and Gurley. The offensive coach also took a gaggle of unwanted or rookie receivers and turned them into a productive corps.
Goff is on pace to become the fourth quarterback in NFL history to have 4,000-plus passing yards and a 95-plus passer rating in his second NFL season. The second-year QB's passer rating increase of 35 points from 2016 is the fifth-largest single-season improvement in NFL history (min. 200 attempts per season) -- 98.6 rating in 2017, 63.6 passer rating in 2016 -- and the third-biggest increase from Year 1 to Year 2 (Nick Foles, Josh Freeman).
Gurley not only leads the league in TDs, but his eight games with 100-plus scrimmage yards are also most in the NFL.
The Rams are one of three teams with a top 10 rushing offense and passing offense this season (NO, ATL). Last season, the only two teams finished with a top 10 rushing offense and passing offense, Falcons and Patriots, met in Super Bowl LI.
For L.A., it's not about the TD celebrations. It's stacking points and Ws, which they've done better than any Rams team since Kurt Warner was under center.
