Kyren Williams stood in the corner of the end zone at Allegiant Stadium on Sunday, taking in the crowd. Just moments earlier, he had spun out of the grasp of Las Vegas Raiders safety Treydan Stukes at the 8-yard line and squeezed his way between Taron Johnson and Jeremy Chinn across the plane for the Los Angeles Rams' fourth touchdown of the first half.
Just a week ago, Williams vocalized his frustration over his lack of involvement in the Rams offense. He had just 50 yards on 10 touches, and played just 40 snaps as LA dropped its second straight game. The fifth-year running back out of Notre Dame was asked postgame about the team's lack of consistency on offense.
"I couldn't tell you, bro," he told reporters. "I wasn't out there."
What a difference
a week makes.
Kyren Williams extends the lead for the Rams 💪
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Williams finished Sunday with 99 yards on 16 carries – both season-highs – and the aforementioned touchdown. Blake Corum, his running mate in the backfield, added one of his own on 17 carries for 93 yards. As a team, the Rams rushed for just under 200 yards on Sunday as they powered their way through the Raiders defense for a 35-21 Week 7 win.
When the Raiders rallied late, the Rams turned to Williams and Corum seven times on their 15-play, 66-yard fourth quarter drive – and it was Corum who punched in the dagger to seal the game.
"Both Blake and Kyren did a great job," head coach Sean McVay said on Monday. "And I think to be able to get them both involved and both allow them to get the kind of touches that they did, and really for us to get the amount of rushes off while still being able to be efficient. ... I was really pleased with that."
It was a breakthrough for a Rams run game that has struggled at different points throughout the first seven weeks of the season, and it wasn't just on the tailbacks. The linemen were winning with their pad level. The tight ends – a shorthanded group by the way, with Terrance Ferguson on the IR and Colby Parkinson subbing in and out three times after appearing to go through multiple injuries – were also engaged on their blocks, which gave Williams and Corum all the space they needed to operate.
That kind of production is what McVay has envisioned with this two-back system.
"I thought it was a great reflection of them deserving the well-earned credit, but also the guys that were part of the blocking surface," he said. "When you're able to do that, you're not in a bunch of bad spots on second down and on third down, and a lot of things can come off of that. I thought that was the first game that was reflected."
And with the offense down another major player in the passing game in Davante Adams for the next 6-10 weeks, the onus could fall onto that same ground game to save the Rams' season.
Unlike the traditional running back tandem that would feature a speedster with a power guy, Williams and Corum aren't too far apart physically. Williams stands just one inch taller and weighs five pounds more than his counterpart out of Michigan. And while they don't have the exact same run styles, they both are capable of running any play out of any package that McVay might call. That makes them a problem for NFL defenses when everything clicks.
That hasn't always been the case this season, but Sunday showed a glimpse of how explosive this offense can be – even when it's not at full strength – behind a balanced attack on the ground. It got the Rams to 3-4, and can probably get them back to .500 this week against the winless Los Angeles Chargers.
Whether or not they'll get back into the Super Bowl conversations that surrounded this team entering the season, however, might be another conversation.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Why Kyren Williams and Blake Corum might be the key to saving the Rams' season
