Matthew Stafford is making headlines and pushing records in many aspects of football through the air. On the ground, he’s still making history, albeit for the wrong reasons.
Through nine games, Stafford has -9 rushing yards on 24 attempts. That’s an average of -0.4 yards per carry, and only three of his rushing attempts have gone for positive yards.
While Stafford is still well off the pace of Peyton Manning’s record of -31 rushing yards in a season, this negative stat might not affect the team as much as one might expect.
One might be wondering, how does Stafford rack up negative rushing yards to begin with, when sack yards do not count against a quarterback in the NFL like it does in college football?
Some of his rushing attempts are simply sliding down while escaping the pocket or running out of bounds under pressure. 16 of his 24 rushing attempts have come in victory formation when he kneels the ball to run the clock out at the end of a win.
Stafford is not alone on this island. Prolific pocket-passers of the past, like Tom Brady, Drew Brees and Matt Ryan, consistently had negative rushing yard seasons while still leading elite offenses. Stafford represents some of the last of the true pocket specialists, and the Rams have built an offense that embraces that identity.
Although the quarterback position around the NFL is becoming increasingly dual-threat, the Rams are leading one of the league’s most dangerous offenses with the worst rushing quarterback in football..
What they lose from Stafford on the ground, they make up for with their running backs. The combination of Kyren Williams and Blake Corum has rushed for 1,067 yards this year, with both averaging over four yards per carry and rushing for seven touchdowns on the ground.
This success comes down to the genius playcalling of head coach Sean McVay. Since entering the league in 2017 as the youngest head coach in NFL history, McVay has revolutionized the head coach and playcalling position.
McVay’s ability to adapt, utilization of motions and movements on offense, and creativity with personnel have allowed him to lead an offense that has been top ten in scoring in over half of his years as head coach.
Similarly, this year, McVay is using his offensive scheming to run the ball successfully in conjunction with the Rams’ prolific passing game. Oftentimes, the running game and passing game complement each other because of McVay’s tricky usage of play action, which keeps defenses guessing.
This way, the runs come at a time the defense might not expect, and even without the added layer of a dual-threat quarterback, the Rams offense can stay balanced and ensure the defense still keeps enough defenders in the tackle box.
While negative yards inherently seem bad, if it means more kneel downs and therefore more wins, the Rams organization is hoping Stafford can break Manning’s record.