The Rams offense was a joy to watch against the 49ers

The Los Angeles Rams pieced together a wonderful game on offense that had Cris Collinsworth calling them “The Greatest Show on Surf” — a play on their famous team, “The Greatest Show on Turf.”

We won’t go that far in anointing this offense; it’s too early for that. The Rams played the 49ers and are still a work in progress. But for all the bad Thursday Night Football games NFL fans have watched the past few seasons, last night was incredibly fun to see as Todd Gurley, Jared Goff, and the rest of the Rams offense picked apart the 49ers defense.

Gurley caught a lot of flak after having a rough 2016 season. He played in all 16 games, rushing for 885 yards and six touchdowns — a noticeable dip from his rookie season.

So far in 2017, he’s having a nice bounce back.

Gurley finished Thursday’s game with 28 carries for 113 yards and two touchdowns. His first score on the night came after Brian Hoyer threw an interception on the first play of the game, and Gurley then punched it in from 3 yards out.

His second was an impressive run to the outside, where he somehow beat the 49ers defense to the edge:

He also helped in the receiving game, with five catches for 36 yards and a touchdown. This was his finest work in that department on Thursday night:

Jeff Fisher received a ton of criticism for not getting Gurley involved in the passing game during his two years of coaching him. Head coach Sean McVay is validating that after three games for the Rams this season. Gurley has 140 yards through the air so far this year, along with two touchdowns.

Gurley made the Pro Bowl in his first season after rushing for over 1,100 yards and scoring 10 touchdowns. He was a fun player to watch, but his 2016 was a disappointment and created doubters.

Through three weeks, Gurley has shown he’s still the thrilling player we all knew him to be since his days at the University of Georgia.

This has to be the best development for the Rams and their fans. This team was damn near unwatchable last season, and there were some serious questions as to whether or not Goff was the right pick.

However, 2017 has given us an entirely different Goff, who actually looks like a promising quarterback.

Goff delivered this beautiful pass to Sammy Watkins — one of his new shiny weapons — who made a Willie Mays-like catch that the defense just couldn’t do anything about:

But the Rams offense wasn’t just dump off passes and deep throws. When faced with a third-and-goal, Goff fired in a perfect pass to Watkins on a quick slant:

That touchdown completed a 10-play, 75-yard drive from the Rams — which had plenty of those on the evening.

The Rams offense showed a bunch of different looks on Thursday night, and Goff handled them all well. Short passes, dump offs, and perfectly placed throws were all on display by Goff, who finished the game 22-of-28 with 292 yards and three touchdowns.

He even completed a pass to tight end Tyler Higbee early on when the ball was so incredibly placed, that Higbee was shocked it actually got there. It hit him smack in both hands and was dropped.

That’s not ideal — but Goff looked the part of a long-term fix at quarterback for the Rams. That’s something they’ve been longing for.

All season, any accomplishments that the Rams have are going to have people looking back on the Jeff Fisher era. Based on what we’ve seen so far, it’s fair.

McVay might have saved Goff’s career. The coach is credited with running a Washington offense that made Kirk Cousins appear to be an elite NFL quarterback after throwing for 4,917 yards and 25 touchdowns in 2016.

Goff probably won’t put up those types of numbers, but he’s helping the Rams do things that haven’t been done in over a decade:

The help in the receiving game isn’t limited to just wideouts, either. Todd Gurley is already a threat on the ground, but McVay is expanding on the nightmare that is “The Toddfather”:

And what do you know? When you have a good passing game, it opens up the run:

Along with all of this, the Rams offense put together FIVE drives of 74 yards or more on the night. They were really out there working the Niners defense.

The season is young. Any declarations of any team right now are premature. But we can appreciate what we’ve seen out of the Rams through the first three weeks of the season — especially Thursday night.

The Rams had horrible attendance last Sunday when they played Washington. It’s going to take more than a couple of wins with the Rams at 2-1, but if they are able to maintain this entertaining offense, they might just put some butts in seats.