Kyren Williams — Week 2: Twelve Carries, One Lost Fumble

14 to nothing, three 11 left in the second quarter, first and 10 at the Los Angeles six. Kyren Williams went up the middle for five yards, and Jevon Holland knocked the ball loose and recovered it at the 11. −5.3 expected points added — expected points added is what a play was worth given down, distance and field position — and −8.2 points of win probability, the chance of winning the game after the play against before it. That was the costliest single play of the game for either team, and it was as close as New York came to a break: the Giants took over at the Los Angeles 11, reached the three, and kicked a 24-yard field goal with 29 seconds left in the half for the only points they scored before the break.

The line: 12 carries, 85 yards, three first downs, six of the 12 successful, −3.9 expected points on the carries, and a longest of 20. The carries went three, four, five, 13, five, 20, 16, six, three, three, six and one. Four before halftime for 25 yards, eight after for 60. Two carries inside the 21 inside the 10: first and eight at the New York eight with nine 47 left in the fourth, around right end for three. No third-down carries. A four-yard run in the second quarter came back on a holding penalty on Konata Mumpfield. Through the air it was two targets, two catches, 12 yards, +2.4 expected points, and the second of them was the touchdown — third and six at the New York 10 with 11 13 left in the half, short left, 10 yards, worth +2.9.

The backfield split evenly. Williams and Blake Corum took 12 designed runs each of the Rams' 24, and the yards nearly matched — 85 to 79 — while the expected points did not: Corum +2.3 on his 12, Williams −3.9 on his. Los Angeles ran for a hundred 66 yards, the third-most of the 32 teams in Week Two.

Back in June the preview's read on Williams was a volume back at a volume price: three straight top-11 finishes built on opportunity rather than efficiency, availability named as the variable to watch, and Blake Corum named as the one real threat, with a carry split the preview said was trending from 60-40 toward something closer to even. Week One was 11 carries to Corum's 10, 41 yards, and the Rams' only touchdown. Week Two was 12 12. Through two games it is 23 carries to 22, a hundred 26 yards to a hundred 33, and the thing the preview flagged has arrived faster than it projected. What Williams still has is the ball near the goal line and now a receiving touchdown, and two games do not settle which of those holds. Los Angeles is at the Broncos on Sunday night the 20-seventh.

_Data via nflverse._