LOS ANGELES — In today’s NFL, not only is it an offensive driven league, but specifically a quarterback led league. For the Los Angeles Rams who have their quarterback in Jared Goff, the formula is simple, have a solid running game and protect the quarterback. The Rams have addressed those areas and placed excellent wide receiver weapons in Robert Woods, Brandin Cooks, Tyler Higbee, and Gerald Everett to name a few.
The Rams also made sure when RB Todd Gurley went down with a knee injury that forced him to miss the final two games of the regular season, they brought in a veteran running back in CJ Anderson. The Anderson signing took some pressure off of Goff, and enabled the team to capture a first round bye as the number two seed.
Saturday night the Dallas Cowboys come to the L.A. Coliseum, as the Rams look for their first playoff win since their return to Los Angeles.
Question is which Jared Goff will we get?
The Goff who played lights out the first 11 games of this season, or the Goff who struggled through the last five games. To his credit Goff played much better in his last regular season game against the San Francisco 49ers at the Coliseum and led them to a 48-32 win.
In Goff’s first 11 games — he completed 67.7% of his passes, 322.5 yards per game, 26 TDs, 6 INTs, with a 113.5 QBR.
If we witness Goff in the first 11 games show up against the solid Cowboys interior defense, then the Rams will move on to the NFC Championship. However if it’s the Goff we saw struggle in the final games, then it will be a long evening that could result in another playoff loss.
In his last playoff game against the Atlanta Falcons, Goff finished 24-for-45 with 259 yards and a touchdown. His performance was awful, but he learned a lot from that loss along with the rest of the team. If Goff wants the respect of a top-notch quarterback, he’s going to have to play consistent and with control on the big stage against a quality team like the Cowboys.
He’s got to play almost mistake free football while the offense is on the field and be able to keep drives alive. That also depends on the steadiness of the offensive line and feeding Gurley the ball.
Goff’s level of play will determine how successful the Rams will be this post season.
