RB Cam Akers learning on run; Rams committed to riding hot hand
Los Angeles Rams running back Cam Akers didn’t know if he would start his team’s season opener against the Dallas Cowboys last week, but he was ready.
The rookie out of Florida State said he was told the day of the game by running backs coach Thomas Brown that he would be in on the first play, earning his first start in his NFL debut.
“It’s a blessing to come out to my first NFL game ever playing to be starting in it,” Akers said. “It’s a blessing, and kind of shows that hard work and dedication (pays off). So, hopefully I can keep stacking weeks on top of each other.”
Akers played solid, but knows he can do more. He rushed 14 times for 39 yards (2.8 yards per carry), playing a total of 24 snaps.
“He did a nice job,” Rams head coach Sean McVay said. “I thought number one, he protected the football. I thought he had some tough, hard-earned runs.
“He put his pads down and sometimes if it's a dirty run game where, you know, they do a good job of kind of getting off and there’s not sometimes a lot of space, putting your pads down and getting on a first-and-10 to second-and-6 is a positive thing for us. He’ll just continue to improve.”
Six-year veteran Malcolm Brown served as the main ball carrier for the Rams, totaling 79 yards on the ground on 18 carries for a robust, 4.4 yards per carry. Brown played 44 snaps on offense.
As a team, the Rams grinded out 153 rushing yards, providing an effective run game for the offense playing without Todd Gurley for the first time in 2020.
“It's still really a small inventory, especially for some of our younger backs like Cam and Darrell (Henderson Jr.) to really get too enamored with it,” McVay said. “But I thought they protected the ball. I thought they played tough and that was important. Then Malcolm, you could feel Malcolm’s veteran experience. He showed up and he was definitely the star for our crew the other night.”
Offensive coordinator Kevin O’Connell reiterated that the Rams will continue to ride the hot hand between Akers, Brown and Henderson, who had just three carries for six yards last week. The Memphis product has been dealing with a hamstring injury, and McVay said Henderson should be more involved in the offense in Sunday’s road game against the Philadelphia Eagles.
What makes a running back hot? Rams offensive coordinator Kevin O’Connell did his best to answer that question.
“Just as coaches, when you’re watching a guy, his vision, his feel of kind of how a defense is defending things, how he's holding his tracks and seeing the vision of the cut and reading things a gap at a time,” O’Connell said. “(Those are) all the coaching points that you talk about when a guy kind of has a good feel for that. He can run a little bit more naturally.”
For his part, Akers got the first-game jitters out last week and looks forward to more carries against a stout Philadelphia Eagles run defense. The Eagles allowed just 80 rushing yards against Washington last week.
“I got a lot left,” Akers said. “A lot left in the tank.”
