Los Angeles Rams blasted for not using hyped rookie in Week 1 loss to Lions

Over the course of the Los Angeles Rams taking a concerning loss to the Detroit Lions in the Week 1 opener, the backfield was the Kyren Williams show.

And that is not what most anticipated.

Williams dominated the backfield, rushing 18 times for 50 yards and a score, averaging just 2.8 yards per carry. Ronnie Rivers and Cooper Kupp were the other two guys to register more than one tote.

Hyped third-round pick Blake Corum? Zero carries and zero snaps.

That sticks out dramatically as the one thing the Rams must change going into Week 2 for Bleacher Report’s Alex Kay :

“Considering Los Angeles expended a third-round pick on Blake Corum, it was rather shocking to see the rookie back fail to log a single snap in Week 1. Ronnie Rivers worked as the primary backup to Williams but garnered a meager two totes (which did go for an efficient 16 yards) and was on the field for just seven offensive plays in total.”

And to be fair, the Rams sound just as surprised about how things shook out.

Head coach Sean McVay, notably, said that the gameplan had to change on the fly.

“I think each game is going to be its own entity,” McVay said, per PFT’s Mike Florio . “It was a very unique circumstance because when we got so many of our [offensive] linemen banged up, it limited some of the different — basically, we didn’t operate off anything that our game plan was. We had to truly just change in the middle of that game plan.”

The rough translation is that, due to injuries up front, the short passing game replaced the running game and the coaches wanted veterans they could trust in there.

Fair enough, but it’s not hard to see why fans wanted to see more of a rookie the team spent a big asset to acquire who averaged 5.5 yards per carry with 3,700-plus rushing yards and 58 touchdowns over the course of four seasons at Michigan—especially while the veteran in front of him averaged less than three yards per carry on the day.

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