BenFred: Alongside Gurley, Austin putting 'bust' talk to rest

[RamBill]

BenFred: Alongside Gurley, Austin putting 'bust' talk to rest

http://www.stltoday.com/sports/colu...cle_5b01529a-34f9-5ef7-900b-5dcb3c22f126.html

Tavon Austin calls her “Ma.”

She's a stranger, but a familiar one. She's always there during home games, cheering from her seat near the corner of the end zone. Last Sunday, she left the Edward Jones Dome with a souvenir.

“She's been here since I got here,” Austin said of the fan he handed the ball to after his second score. “She always talks to me every time I come out … I always told her, when I score one time, I'm going to give her the football.”

He delivered after his second touchdown of the game, a screen pass he turned into a 66-yard score, the second-longest touchdown of his career. If he plans to pass out a football every time he hits the end zone this season, the Rams might need to stock up. Those who have watched Austin since he got here have never seen him like this.

Seven touchdowns entering this weekend's trip to Minnesota. More points scored than any other Ram. Austin is shining as the counter punch to Todd Gurley's ground-and-pound. Those who wrote off the undersized receiver/running back/return man as a draft bust after two disappointing seasons are now wishing he was on their fantasy team.

“He’s a guy that attracts multiple defenders,” Rams quarterback Nick Foles said Tuesday. “I know when defensive coordinators are getting ready for us, they really have to think about what No. 11 is going to do.”

Austin is starting to look like the multidimensional West Virginia superstar who convinced the Rams to trade up eight spots and draft him No. 8 in 2013. It took two seasons, the fortunate departure of then offensive coordinator Brian Schottenheimer to Georgia, the promotion of Frank Cignetti, and the addition of a running back who is too good to ignore, but now it's finally happening.

Forget Austin's 66-yard highlight. His first touchdown against the 49ers, a 2-yard jet sweep in the second quarter, was a thing of beauty. Foles handed the ball to a full-speed Austin, then faked a handoff to Gurley, who bent over and plunged forward for the end zone.

The 49ers had a split second to decide which threat was more dangerous. Answer: There is no good answer. Austin outraced two linebackers who ended up flat on their facemasks then sprawled to hit the pylon.

“They (linebackers) just can’t drop back,” Austin said. “They’ve got to respect the running, and that’s what he (Gurley) is doing.”

Let's take a step back and respect what Austin is doing.

He is one of six NFL players with seven or more touchdowns. Four came in the air. Two came on the ground. One came on a 75-yard punt return.

Falcons running back Devonta Freeman (10, touchdowns, eight games) is the only player averaging more touchdowns per game. Patriots tight end Rob Gronkowski has also averaged one touchdown per game. The following players have seven touchdowns through eight games: Giants receiver Odell Beckham, Cardinals receiver Larry Fitzgerald and Falcons receiver Julio Jones. Pretty good company for Austin, a guy who totaled nine touchdowns through his first two seasons, and just three last year.

Compared to last season, Austin has averaged 2.1 more yards per rush (8.3) and and 4.1 more yards per catch (a career-high 11.9). He's averaging 5.6 touches per game, up 4.5 from last season. Yes, somehow the Rams actually used Austin less when they didn't have Gurley. Cignetti deserves credit for fixing this mistake.

Austin is 40 yards shy of the 466 yards from scrimmage he totaled all of last season. He's within seven receptions of last season's career-low total of 31. Foles has targeted him seven times on passes thrown 20-plus yards. He was targeted just once on a throw of 20-plus yards last season.

Throw in Austin's big-play capability on special teams — he's tied for sixth in average yards per punt return (11.3) and is one of seven players with a punt-return touchdown — and this is the player Rams fans thought they were getting. This is the West Virginia speedster who can do it all.

It took a while. But it's happening.

When asked about the roar of the crowd last Sunday, Austin flashed back.

“I felt like I was back home in West Virginia,” he said.

He's playing like it, too.

 

[RamzFanz]

Meh, TA could have always been nearly this good, the Rams just couldn't figure it out and they still haven't. He is WAY under utilised. 5.5 touches per game for your best scoring weapon? Unthinkable. Sad. Silly.

And Fisher wants to be all giddy about giving Mason the ball 15 times? What? SCREW giving the ball to Mason, give it to TA for god's sake.

Schotty blew it with TA, but this is only slightly better. He's killing the scores because of TG, but still an afterthought.

Has anyone considered that without Gurley, struggling to score anything against the steelers, our 8.3 YPC best running option was not handed the ball once?! That's just a horrible mistake. That could have been our win. Was he injured?

 

[jjab360]

Meh, TA could have always been nearly this good, the Rams just couldn't figure it out and they still haven't. He is WAY under utilised. 5.5 touches per game for your best scoring weapon? Unthinkable. Sad. Silly.

And Fisher wants to be all giddy about giving Mason the ball 15 times? What? SCREW giving the ball to Mason, give it to TA for god's sake.

Schotty blew it with TA, but this is only slightly better. He's killing the scores because of TG, but still an afterthought.

Has anyone considered that without Gurley, struggling to score anything against the steelers, our 8.3 YPC best running option was not handed the ball once?! That's just a horrible mistake. That could have been our win. Was he injured?

Have you stopped to think that maybe TA has been so efficient with limited touches because we aren't forcing him the ball?

 

[Legatron4]

Have you stopped to think that maybe TA has been so efficient with limited touches because we aren't forcing him the ball?

All the best players get the ball forced to them multiple times a game. Deandre Hopkins literally averages like 10 touches per game. I agree that Mason is meh. He needs a lot of room to be effective. But the only thing that will help these guys be even better is if SOMEBODY steps up as the third guy to take pressure off. It's amazing how someone isn't wide the fuck open every play because of these two.

 

[Athos]

The caveat with Austin honesty getting more touches is his size. To use him effectively, he needs to be able to run 100% and use all of his elusiveness.

You may argue Brown, but even he's still bigger.

He'd also have more touches and scores if Foles even hit him deep maybe 40% of the time.

That said. I would like to see more like 8 touches a game on offense.

 

[RamzFanz]

Have you stopped to think that maybe TA has been so efficient with limited touches because we aren't forcing him the ball?

Forcing? How is it "forcing" when you hand him the ball?!? We LOST to the steelers and they didn't run the best rusher on the team a single time. That's a mistake.

We have one win this season when TA touched the ball 5 times or less and that was the Browns. EVERY big win he touched it more and every big loss he touched it 5 times. Doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results is madness.

The day will come this season when TA will touch the ball 10 or more times and then we will see.

 

[RamzFanz]

He'd also have more touches and scores if Foles even hit him deep maybe 40% of the time.

If by "hit him" deep you mean get the ball to where an NFL receiver should catch it, that's about 90% of the time. Against the Niners, right before the half, Foles led him perfectly deep down the left sideline and TA, once again, got no separation and it was defended. Why anyone want's him to play to his weaknesses is beyond me. He's not a long ball receiver, he's a YAC receiver. He can't get separation deep and he can't fight for the ball. He has had 5 QBs throw him long passes with very little success.

 

[Athos]

If by "hit him" deep you mean get the ball to where an NFL receiver should catch it, that's about 90% of the time. Against the Niners, right before the half, Foles led him perfectly deep down the left sideline and TA, once again, got no separation and it was defended. Why anyone want's him to play to his weaknesses is beyond me. He's not a long ball receiver, he's a YAC receiver. He can't get separation deep and he can't fight for the ball. He has had 5 QBs throw him long passes with very little success.

Correlation doesn't equal causation. Is he not getting separation deep, allegedly in your opinion, because he doesn't have the ability to get deep.....

Or does Foles not see him soon enough and get the ball out fast enough? Because I've seen Foles hold the ball way too long and throw more lollipopped Rainbows, allowing the DBs to close in.

Give Austin a bit more of a lower arching laser, and see him run under it.

But we've had this argument before. And I'm not getting into it again.

 

[jap]

Forcing? How is it "forcing" when you hand him the ball?!? We LOST to the steelers and they didn't run the best rusher on the team a single time. That's a mistake.

We have one win this season when TA touched the ball 5 times or less and that was the Browns. EVERY big win he touched it more and every big loss he touched it 5 times. Doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results is madness.

The day will come this season when TA will touch the ball 10 or more times and then we will see.

Your faith in Tavon's effectiveness and Schotty's lack of imagination notwithstanding, you have to keep in mind that every single NFL DC and his grandma knows what Tavon can do in open space. It was no mistake and thoroughly by design that he was blanketed almost entirely for his first two years here. DC's had no intention of allowing TA to roam free if they could help. It is the synergy with other outstanding players that helps to free TA more than anything else to do his thing. At the moment, his counter punch is the pheonomenally talented Gurley; hopefully, other players will step to join the party.

It is like back in the GSOT years. In early 1999, DC's sold out on stopping the known threat, Marshall Faulk, and dared the unknown refugee from a K-Vee facility to beat them. They did not know that this refugee had a super accurate slingshot for an arm and a host of talented receivers at his beck & call. Ricky Proehl had led the Horns in receiving in 1998 while Isaac struggled with hamstring problems. Ricky was arguably a legit NFL #2/#1 wideout. Both Isaac and rookie Torry Holt were #1 WR talents. The Wizard of Az was too small to handle the pounding that a true NFL starting receiver endures, a fact he learned the hard way when he defected to Detroit later on, but he was arguably the most dynamic #3 pass snatcher in the entire NFL.

The DC's blanketed Marshall in the early games with 8 guys constantly in the box, and Special K unveiled his circus ringmaster skills as he started accurately whipping passes to receivers against hopelessly outclassed DB's. After a string of blowouts, the NFL DC's realized Kurt was the real deal, and they started dropping extra DB's back to take away his fly boys---and Marshall went off like a raging fire!

In TGII and Tavon, our current Horns have merely a taste of that GSOT synergistic magic, and their own version of the GSOT will bloom once our young OL comes together later this season, our current fly boys stand up & deliver, and Jolly 'Ole Nick stops worrying about being clobbered and plays like a legit NFL QB.

 

[jjab360]

Forcing? How is it "forcing" when you hand him the ball?!? We LOST to the steelers and they didn't run the best rusher on the team a single time. That's a mistake.

We have one win this season when TA touched the ball 5 times or less and that was the Browns. EVERY big win he touched it more and every big loss he touched it 5 times. Doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results is madness.

The day will come this season when TA will touch the ball 10 or more times and then we will see.

Okay, RF, but you're not really saying anything. More touches how? Screen passes, because those theoretically only work consistently when used infrequently. End arounds the same thing. Deep passes? Because you argued pretty hard that he can't get open deep in the other thread. Runs out of the backfield? I personally don't have a problem with them but I doubt a 175 lb. receiver can take repeated punishment from DL.

And if you say that TA is a better runner than Gurley just because he has a higher YPC one more time I think I might lose my mind lol.

 

[RamzFanz]

Correlation doesn't equal causation. Is he not getting separation deep, allegedly in your opinion, because he doesn't have the ability to get deep.....

Or does Foles not see him soon enough and get the ball out fast enough? Because I've seen Foles hold the ball way too long and throw more lollipopped Rainbows, allowing the DBs to close in.

Give Austin a bit more of a lower arching laser, and see him run under it.

But we've had this argument before. And I'm not getting into it again.

Both. Foles has made him slow up and Foles has placed it out in front of him.

I gave a recent example.

 

[RamzFanz]

Okay, RF, but you're not really saying anything. More touches how? Screen passes, because those theoretically only work consistently when used infrequently. End arounds the same thing. Deep passes? Because you argued pretty hard that he can't get open deep in the other thread. Runs out of the backfield? I personally don't have a problem with them but I doubt a 175 lb. receiver can take repeated punishment from DL.

And if you say that TA is a better runner than Gurley just because he has a higher YPC one more time I think I might lose my mind lol.

Everything but deep. I'll leave the film study and creativeness to the experts. Early and often, just like Gurley, and if we get out ahead, we can pull back later in the game. If not, we keep pouring it on.

We have nothing else to discuss really until they do it and it works or fails. The proof is in the doing.

Right now all we know is, in wins this season, TA was used more 75% of the time.

 

[HometownBoy]

There's still people trying to argue that he's a bust. They don't have much in the way except clinging to his receiving stats and never letting go.

 

[HE WITH HORNS]

There's still people trying to argue that he's a bust. They don't have much in the way except clinging to his receiving stats and never letting go.

If that's all he was was just a receiver, then they might have a point, but he's also a running back, a punt returner, and now, a TD machine.

 

[SuperMan28]

I think this is a good example of the Rams only scratching the surface of what they could become by the end of the year. Pundits talk about the running game and the defense and Tavon gets left out. You know defenses are accounting for him.

But this team is growing. They aren't coming out blasting full throttle like the GSOT did, but they're getting there and they're doing it their own way.

We saw Cook flash last week and Britt drop a TD in the first quarter. (I got had a great angle on that at the game. He had to of lost it in the lights or something. It was a perfect throw.)

We even saw Quick get in on the action on a slick sidline route. That was the Quick I knew from last year and he got a nice roar when his name was announced.

The way I see it, we've only just begun.