C.J. Anderson punched the ball in on 4th and goal from the one-yard-line midway through the fourth quarter of Saturday night's Rams-Cowboys playoff game. The Rams found themselves a yard away from the end zone after failing to score on three separate plays. At first Jared Goff lined up and tried to force the Cowboys to jump offsides with a hard count, but Dallas didn't fall for it. After taking a timeout, Anderson moved the ball the final yard to score his second touchdown of the night and give the Rams a two-possession lead, 30-15. Anderson also scored the Rams' first touchdown of night eight minutes into the second quarter, which was also a one-yard-run. He and Todd Gurley, who made his return this week after missing the final two games of the regular season with a knee injury, have combined for 224 yards and three touchdowns on 35 carries. Even with Gurley back in the lineup, coach Sean McVay told reporters back on Tuesday that he planned on using both men for the game. "If Todd's able to go, we want to get him going. But, I think we want to get C.J. as well. So, I think you can expect to see a good balance of both," McVay said. "Some different things that maybe gets those guys on the field. But, C.J. 's done a great job the last couple weeks, but getting Todd back is definitely a big boost to us as well."<doc-sep>C.J. Anderson was signed by the Panthers back in May 2018. He was later released the following November because of his limited production with the team at the time. Panthers fans entered the season expecting Anderson and NFL all-pro running back Christian McCaffrey to be a “one-two punch” in the Panthers running game. However, that didn’t really occur thanks to McCaffrey’s emergence as the Panthers’ feature back. The veteran running back rushed for 104 yards and one touchdown on 24 total carries in nine weeks with the Panthers before he was released. That’s a reasonable 4.3 yards per carry, so his release wasn’t entirely his fault. The Panthers simply didn’t use him due to the emergence of McCaffrey, who recorded 1098 rushing yards and 867 receiving yards this season. The Los Angeles Rams signed Anderson in December as a solid backup to first team NFL All-Pro Todd Gurley. He exceeded everyone’s expectations in his expanded role in last night’s victory over the Dallas Cowboys. Anderson rumbled through the Cowboys defense as he led the Rams in rushing with 123 rushing yards and 2 touchdowns on 23 carries. This lead many Panthers fans to suspect the decision to release Anderson. What do you guys think?<doc-sep>Former Denver Broncos running back C.J. Anderson has carved out a nice role in the Los Angeles Rams’ offense, serving as a complement to Todd Gurley. Against the Dallas Cowboys on Saturday evening, Anderson rushed 23 times for 123 yards and two touchdowns in a 30-22 win in the divisional round of the NFC playoffs. Several Broncos players reacted to their ex-teammate’s big game on Twitter: Love to see my former locker neighbor @cjandersonb22 balling out there! — Casey Kreiter (@caseykreiter) January 13, 2019 Cj killed the cowboys last year too lol — Chris Harris (@ChrisHarrisJr) January 13, 2019 I see you @cjandersonb22 💪🏾💪🏾💪🏾 — Emmanuel Sanders (@ESanders_10) January 13, 2019 CJ eatin Lol — Zachariah Kerr (@ZachKerr92) January 13, 2019 After defeating the Cowboys, Anderson is now just one win away from playing in a Super Bowl for the third time in his career. Los Angeles will play either the New Orleans Saints or Philadelphia Eagles in the NFC Championship game next week.<doc-sep>The Dallas Cowboys 2018 season came to an end Saturday night after losing to the Los Angeles Rams 30-22 in the divisional round of the playoffs. This is the fourth straight division playoff game the team has lost dating back to the 2007 season. It was a good run for Dallas, who finished the regular season strong to take down the NFC East, but they were no match for the Sean McVay’s Rams. Here are 10 thoughts on this tough loss. 1. Run over In a game that many expected to be a battle of the running game, nobody expected the Rams to just run wild over the Cowboys defense. Dallas finished the season as a top five run defense, only allowing an average of 94.6 yards per game. The Rams finished with 273 rushing yards which is a new playoff record, eclipsing the 269 yards the Rams gained against the Cowboys the last time these teams faced on in the playoffs during the 1985 season. While most of the damage was done by Eric Dickerson’s 248 yards last time, the Rams used a two-headed monster of Todd Gurley (115 yards) and late-season signing C.J. Anderson (123 yards) this time around. Cowboys fans might remember Anderson from last year when he churned out 118 yards with Denver in that 42-17 blowout against the Broncos. Whether it’s next week or after the Super Bowl, C.J. Anderson is a free agent as soon as the Rams’ season is over. Cowboys should sign him, if for no other reason than they don’t have to play him anymore. — David Helman (@HelmanDC) January 13, 2019 2. Defense couldn’t get a stop Last week the Cowboys defense only allowed one Seattle drive over six plays and half of all their possessions ended in a three-and-out. Unfortunately, they wouldn’t come close to doing that against one of the league’s top offenses. The Rams had a total of nine drives in the game and only one of them was less than six plays. Three of them were 11 plays or more. Only once did the Rams punt and they held the ball for over 36 minutes in the game. The Rams compiled 459 yards of total offense, which is the second-worst defensive outing of the year for the Cowboys, trailing the Week 5 Houston game by only three yards. The Cowboys defense just couldn’t get off the field. They looked worn down and it was made worse when the Cowboys offense couldn’t move the ball and allow them a chance to catch their breath. In a game where the Cowboys didn’t commit many penalties (four for 26 yards) and never turned the ball over, it was frustrating to watch the Rams offense grind the game away. 3. The great wall of Los Angeles We’ll just go ahead and assume all the Rams offensive linemen are Pro Bowlers because they were flat-out incredible on Saturday night. The Cowboys defensive line had been creating so much disruption down the stretch that many of us expected them to cause problems in the trenches against the Rams. They didn’t. The offensive line for the Rams played phenomenal both in the running game and in pass protection. The parted open running lanes like the red sea, allowing two different running backs to have over 100 yards rushing. Not only that, but Goff wasn’t ever in any type of trouble. He wasn’t sacked only once. The Rams offensive line neutralized the Cowboys pass rush tonight Jared Goff was only pressured once on his 28 dropbacks, per @NextGenStats His pressure rate of 3.4 pct was the 2nd-lowest in a game for any QB this season (min. 20 dropbacks) — NFL Research (@NFLResearch) January 13, 2019 4. Air it out, would ya? In a game where the Cowboys offense knew it had to play well to stay with a high scoring Rams team, they just didn’t have it in them to move the ball. While the Cowboys bread and butter is a stout rushing attack, it just wasn’t working in this game. Ezekiel Elliott only had 47 yards on 20 carries (2.3 ypc). While the running game wasn’t there, the Rams defense didn’t show much ability to stop the Cowboys passing attack. Dak Prescott was 20 for 32 with 266 yards for an 8.3 yards per attempt. The Rams secondary looked soft and it was baffling as to why the Cowboys offense didn’t try to attack them more. All three of their scoring drives were aided by big plays in the passing game, but for some reason the offense didn’t start attacking until it was too little, too late. The Rams are a good team and losing to them is nothing to hold your head down about, but you want to at least feel like they left it all out there. It just feels like they could’ve done more in the passing game and Scott Linehan will have some explaining to do. 5. Should’ve been a touchdown for Gallup Prescott had a great play scrambling to his left to hit Michael Gallup for a big 44-yard passing play late in the third quarter. Gallup was called down at the two-yard line and for some reason the Rams decided to challenge the call. Gallup clearly caught the ball. In fact, if anything, the ball came loose as he was sliding on the ground and he didn’t regain control until he had crossed into the end zone. It should have been a touchdown. Making it even worse was that the referees spotted the ball at the two-yard line. At the very least it should’ve been placed inside the one. Dak gets out of the pocket and drops a perfect ball to Michael Gallup.pic.twitter.com/zMjxm6vlpM — Sporting News (@sportingnews) January 13, 2019 It’s moot as the Cowboys scored anyway, but it cost them extra time of the clock. Gallup had his best game of his young career. He finished with six catches for 119 yards and one robbed touchdown.<doc-sep>
Todd Gurley is the best running back in the NFL. The Los Angeles Rams signed the generational talent to a $60-million contract extension in the offseason, making him the league’s highest-paid player at his position. Despite missing two games this season, Gurley finished with 21 total touchdowns and was a perfect fit for head coach Sean McVay’s sophisticated offense. Los Angeles faced the Dallas Cowboys on Saturday in a huge playoff game, and so the Rams naturally leaned on their totemic rusher: C.J. Anderson. Anderson is a journeyman backup who didn’t join the Rams until December 18, but the running back rushed for 123 yards and 2 touchdowns in Los Angeles’ 30-22 win over Dallas in the Divisional Round on Saturday. He might be the greatest temp in history. Anderson had been released by three separate teams in 2018 alone. The Rams signed him after Gurley suffered a knee injury in December, and they rode the former Broncos running back during the final two weeks of the regular season. He proved to be a wrecking ball in those games, but no one outside the Los Angeles locker room could have expected him to feature so heavily against the Cowboys. Gurley was healthy and played great as well (115 rushing yards and 1 touchdown), but Anderson was the traction engine that kept the Rams moving. He was a joy to watch, partly due to his poofy long sleeves (the mercury in Los Angeles dipped all the way down to the mid-50s) and ginormous frame. Anderson is a big dude, and someone took the liberty of editing his Wikipedia page to reflect his imposing figure. That may not be accurate, but try and tell that to the Cowboys defenders tasked with tackling him on Saturday. You could feel Anderson’s touchdown runs through your television set. Does he even get stuck in L.A. traffic, or does he bulldoze BMWs on his way to work? C.J Anderson was introducing himself to his new teammates three weeks ago. On Saturday, they clung to his back as he rammed Los Angeles into the NFC Championship game. Good job, new guy.