The Los Angeles Rams decided Todd Gurley can get a high volume of touches again. Not surprisingly, the Rams are in the thick of the NFC wild-card race ... albeit on the outside looking in. 

With Los Angeles sitting at 7-5 and one game behind the Minnesota Vikings for the final wild-card spot, head coach Sean McVay has increased the touches of Gurley the past few games. Gurley had a season-high 28 touches in a win over the Chicago Bears three weeks ago and 20 touches in Sunday's win over the Arizona Cardinals, the only times the second highest paid running back in the NFL has received 20-plus touches this season. 

There was a perceived notion the Rams were saving Gurley's touches for a playoff run, but McVay's formula is much simpler than that. 

"Me not being an idiot," McVay said Wednesday, via Pro Football Talk. "I think he's felt good and, really, he's done a nice job with that. You look at the Chicago game and then kind of just going from there, you don't want to make the same mistakes that you ended up making earlier on in the season. I think he's done a nice job handling a bigger workload, but then also, you do have confidence in those other guys if they need to give him a spell."

Since Gurley said he was "used to" not getting any carries in the fourth quarter after a November 11 loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers, he has averaged 19 touches per game ... having 50 carries for 214 yards and two touchdowns. Gurley's fourth quarter usage has improved as well, having 10 carries for 31 yards in the three games since. The Rams have only played one close game in that span, which Gurley had seven carries for 22 yards in the final 15 minutes. 

The Rams won't admit that they limited Gurley's touches because of his knee injury from last year or they wanted to preserve him, but it appeared that's what they did based on Gurley's increased volume the the past few weeks. 

"I think we're still working through that, but didn't have anything to do with (load management)," McVay said as he denied the Rams were trying to limit Gurley. "Shoot, we're just trying to win a game. So certainly it wasn't ever with the mindset of looking ahead before anything was accomplished."