November 2, 2017 Page 3
Surprising Rams Catching NFL by Storm
By Adam Serrao
Maybe it took a trip to London to finally
get the world to realize that the team is for
real. Maybe it’s just a new head coach and
an explosive offense led by second-year
quarterback Jared Goff that has the Los
Angeles Rams sitting tied for first place in
the NFC West standings. Either way you spin
it, the Rams have won four of their last five
games and are now 5-2 heading into Week
9 of the NFL season. After 10 long years of
a tumultuous, losing brand of football, who
would have thought that the Rams would
have had what it takes to be a competitive
team in the NFL in what is now just their
second season in Los Angeles?
The outlook for the Rams is currently as
sunny and bright as the typical seven-day
forecast in Los Angeles. The last time the
Rams finished the regular season with a
winning record was in 2003, when they also
won five of their first seven contests of the
year. New head coach Sean McVay certainly
hopes that this season ends in the same successful
way that the 2003 season did, when
the Rams took home the NFC West title and
lost in the divisional round of the playoffs.
“He has a standard and it’s pretty high in
terms of precise football execution,” Rams
general manager Les Snead said of McVay,
who is currently the youngest head coach
in the NFL. “We needed a culture change,”
star defensive tackle Aaron Donald added.
“You just want to bust your butt for him.”
McVay’s youth and exuberance can certainly
be said to be one reason for Los Angeles’
stark turnaround from a 4-12 finish just one
season ago. Another reason can be what he
and the rest of the coaching staff has done
for an offense that is one of only two in the
league to score over 200 total points in the
season dating back to last week. Jared Goff,
the quarterback who looks like a new man
now that Jeff Fisher is gone, has the Rams
offense leading the league through their bye
week in scoring, averaging 30.3 points per
game. Goff’s nine touchdown passes to just
four interceptions gives the Rams a distinct
weekly advantage on the offensive side of the
ball that the team has not experienced since
the glory days in St. Louis when they were
nicknamed “The Greatest Show on Turf.”
Instead of Marshall Faulk, who occupied
the backfield in those days some 18 years
ago, now resides Todd Gurley. Gurley, like
the Rams as a whole, is also enjoying a
resurgent season in which he has averaged
4.3 yards per carry and gained 627 yards on
the ground. Gurley has also been getting it
done as a receiver, compiling a total of 293
yards and three touchdown catches thus far,
giving the team a potent, dual-threat offensive
weapon to line up behind Goff.
No team is complete without an elite defense
and although the Rams began the year
slowly on that side of the ball, new defensive
coordinator Wade Phillips has now seemingly
turned things around. While the Rams may
have given up a total of 96 points in weeks
two through four of the regular season, they
have only allowed a total of 33 points in the
three games since then. Currently L.A is allowing
19.7 points per game, which ranks
the team as the league’s 10th best scoring
defense. Coming off of a 33-0 shutout
over the Arizona Cardinals at Twickenham
Stadium in London with Donald now back
from his holdout and fully integrated into
Phillips’ system, that shutout may be a sign
of things to come. It also certainly bodes
well for a Rams team that is headed into a
mixture of tough matchups against the likes
of the Houston Texans, New Orleans Saints,
Philadelphia Eagles and Seattle Seahawks,
among others.
It may be an understatement to say that
the Rams are the biggest surprise of the
2017 NFL season so far. What’s even more
surprising, though, is that the young team is
finding ways to get the job done on the road
too. Four of the team’s five wins entering the
break have been away from the Coliseum in
Los Angeles (counting the game in London),
as a variety of players continue to get the job
done in the face of adversity. “We’ve got a
lot of good contributors who understand their
importance and their role, and you just try to
make a habit of pointing them out” McVay
explained. “That lets them feel appreciated
because it is recognized and that credit is
well deserved.”
It’s not just the Donalds, Goffs and the
Gurleys who are getting the job done, but
also the Matt Longacres (who leads the team
in sacks), Malcolm Browns (backup running
back) and Marqui Christians (special teams
ace) who are flying under the radar, giving
the Rams a fully balanced attack. That
fully balanced attack is precisely what Los
Angeles will need as it gets into the part of
the schedule that will see the team take on
many of the NFC’s elite line-ups. Through the
first half of the season, Los Angeles already
has more wins than it had all of last year.
While only time will tell if they can hold
onto the first place spot in their division, it
has become overwhelmingly clear that this
young Rams team is certainly headed in the
right direction.
Aserrao6@yahoo.com •
Employees from front page
at their desks.
The average working American puts in
roughly a 34-hour workweek. Work output
is rising even though the actual effort is
declining, meaning “more is being done
with less,” according to Smith. That’s a
good thing.
“If I can complete a task in two hours
Employees say they talk to their co-workers when boredom strikes at the office.
that used to take four, and spend the extra
two hours surfing Twitter, it means that
technology, management or some other
aspect of the economy has gotten twice
as good,” Smith writes.
He adds, “Even if slacking off is a bad
thing, it could be good news for technological
progress.”
And, Smith writes, it would explain
why the adoption of information systems
technology in U.S. companies hasn’t lifted
the nation’s productivity over the past 30
years. Why productivity is flat has stumped
economists.
The OfficeTeam’s examination of employee
habits found that management
underestimated how much paid staff time
is going towards non-work activities. They
guessed too low.
Some the managers--39 percent--thought
their people had too much work to complete.
Others acknowledged the lack of
motivation to get things done, saying that
employees didn’t feel challenged enough
by assignments. While slacking off is a
year-round habit, office workers reported
feeling the most bored in the winter months.
What are these people doing instead of
work? One answer: Trying to look interested
and engaged at meetings. Employees
admit to putting on appearances at their
desks, too, in case their supervisors pop
in unexpectedly. “Let’s face it, the workday
isn’t always filled with excitement,”
said Brandi Britton, district president for
OfficeTeam. When it comes down to it,
the responsibility for staying busy and
not pushing back from work is on the
employees themselves, she said. Managers
and supervisors can check in with staff to
make sure they are engaged and staying
on track too.
The question, “What do you do when
bored in the office?” brought some gardenvariety
answers. People said they browse the
Internet, check personal email and social
media, pay bills and talk to co-workers.
A few talked about waging “rubber band
battles” and working on an unfinished
manuscript.
Britton with OfficeTeam offered some
career advice for those who find their
work dull and uninspiring. “When boredom
strikes or there’s a lull in activity,
individuals should proactively ask to help
with projects that challenge and interest
them,” she said.
Some creative ways people say they
dodge work are:
• Learning a language
• Doing crossword puzzles
• Doodling
• Daydreaming
• Making videos
• Watching TV shows and movies
• Playing online games
Asking for extra work, cleaning their
desks, and looking for another job finished
near the bottom of the list. •
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