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CHICAGO -- Todd Gurley II, bundled in an oversized winter parka, stood in the corner of the visitors locker room at Soldier Field on Sunday night without much to say. The Los Angeles Rams had just been dealt their second loss of the season in a 15-6 defeat by the Chicago Bears. “They did a great job,” Gurley said. “We played like s--- and they held us to six points, and it’s as simple as that.”  Gurley, a front-runner for the NFL’s MVP award who leads the league with 19 touchdowns, was held to 28 yards on 11 carries, his fewest rushing yards since his rookie season in 2015. He added three catches for 30 yards. But for the second time in three games, he was kept from the end zone. The numbers are even more concerning given how much the Rams’ offense struggled in the passing game.
“I don’t make the playcalls,” Gurley said when asked why he had limited touches. Rams coach Sean McVay shouldered the blame for a game plan that put his offense, which had averaged 439.9 yards and 34.9 points per game, in a bind throughout the night. McVay pointed to the Bears’ defensive scheme, which he said often put six players near the line of scrimmage, as the reason for relying on the pass rather than running Gurley, who is second in the league with 1,203 rushing yards. “We felt like we had to be able to [pass]; the best way to be able to move the football was going to be throwing it,” McVay said. “So whatever I was deciding on tonight clearly wasn’t putting our players in good spots.” The Rams finished with a season-low 214 total yards, and the six points scored were the second fewest by a McVay-led offense in his 79th game (regular season and postseason) as an offensive coordinator or head coach. And it was just the second time a McVay offense didn’t score a touchdown, per ESPN Stats & Information. Jared Goff, who threw a career-high four interceptions, credited the Bears’ defense for stopping the run. “They’re in the same league we are, and they’re going to do some good things as well,” Goff said. “At times our offense isn’t going to always be as explosive as we want and you try to avoid that, but you play enough games long enough, you know, they watch film too. They do all their preparation.” “It was bad, just bad,” Gurley said. “They outplayed us. They did pretty much everything better than us.” With the loss, the Rams failed to secure a first-round bye in the playoffs and lost control of home-field advantage. At 11-2, they’re tied for first place in the NFC with the New Orleans Saints, who own the tiebreaker by virtue of their win over the Rams in Week 9. Before he left the locker room, Gurley expressed confidence that the Rams would solve their issues ahead of their upcoming game against the Philadelphia Eagles. “Next Sunday night against the Eagles, you know what’s up,” Gurley said. “We’re not losing back-to-back. We’ll take all of what we didn’t do this week and apply it to next week.”
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