Column: Rams’ Jared Goff offers comic relief with audibles

Don’t blame the big men up front if you see some shoulders shaking Sunday along the Rams offensive line.

The audibles of Jared Goff are pretty funny.

A video compilation of Goff’s line-of-scrimmage calls went viral this week after the second-year quarterback was mic’d up for the Rams’ victory over Houston last Sunday. This wasn’t your everyday “Omaha!” stuff. Goff variously barked “Elvis,” “Tupac,” “Obama” and “Ric Flair.”

It’s standard for offenses to come up with cryptic words or names to signal plays, formations or snap counts. Common practice is to use words containing an L or R to indicate left or right, so that conceivably could explain Elvis and Ric. Of course, the Rams aren’t saying.

“I can’t tell you everything because that would certainly be an advantage,” coach Sean McVay said. “A lot of those words are from the players, from the coaching staff. You try to have fun with some of those code words and the communication.”

When Miami coach Adam Gase was offensive coordinator in Denver, he used to peruse Scrabble.com to find words to entertain quarterback Peyton Manning.

In Cincinnati, the audible “Bruce” meant the running back was supposed to block the strong safety. Why? Because the acronym for “back on strong safety” is BOSS, and Bruce Springsteen goes by “The Boss.”

“You try to keep it relevant and make sure that whatever it is, there’s at least some association and you try to be intentional with those things,” McVay said.

A lot of those directions at the line of scrimmage are merely gibberish aimed at fooling the defense. There’s an art to those dummy calls, as former NFL quarterback Matt Hasselbeck told The Times in 2014.

“It’s actually not that difficult to come up with the real stuff,” said Hasselbeck, who was Andrew Luck’s backup in Indianapolis at the time. “But coming up with something bogus is hard.”

Hasselbeck was once fined by Colts teammates at training camp for getting “too cute” with the dummy audibles.

“My code word was, `Dora, Dora, Dora the Explorer! Swiper no swiping!’” he said. “The fans were out and they could hear it. They got a chuckle. I really wasn’t trying to be cute. I just needed some mindless thing that I could say that I know doesn’t interfere with the real word.”

The cartoon “Dora the Explorer” made its debut in 2000 when Goff was 6. That could be right in his wheelhouse. Now that would get the line laughing.

Overachieving understudy

This is the time in the season when a lot of backup and even third-string quarterbacks are called upon to ditch their clipboards and get in the game. In places like Denver and Arizona, the revolving quarterback door is spinning off its hinges. The backup who has really come through this season is Minnesota’s Case Keenum, who replaced the injured Sam Bradford and has been instrumental in the Vikings’ current five-game winning streak.

In discussing Keenum this week, Rich Gannon, who in his illustrious career went from longtime backup quarterback to NFL most valuable player, said he took particular pride in running the scout-team offense when he was in Kansas City.

“The scout team became not only very important to me, but I made sure it was very competitive,” Gannon said. “There was a lot of [trash] talking going on between the two sides. I told my guys in the huddle, `We’re not here to get slapped around by the starting defense.’ It was physical, man.

“We had a nickname. We called ourselves the GNC, the `Get Nice Crew.’ The coaches loved it. … If a guy didn’t run the route or he didn’t win, I’d jump their butt. That’s how I got better.”

The Get Nice Crew?

“I was in my seventh year when I got to Kansas City,” Gannon said. “They’d let me start the second half of the preseason games, and I’d be out there with rookies and second-year guys. Their eyes were like saucers. My job was to settle them in and get them comfortable. I used to say to them, `Hey, dude, this ain’t no different than Fresno State, man. I don’t care if it’s the Steelers over there. Let’s go!’ I’d try to relax them and get them going.

“So one of the offensive linemen, a big Southern kid named Jeff Smith, he’d say, `C’mon now, we’re the get nice crew!’ So we started saying the GNC. We’d go out and get guys prepared, get them nice.”

Uphill finish

There’s no denying the Rams have played well during their 7-2 start, but they don’t have an easy finish in their final seven games, with notable matchups against the Vikings, New Orleans, and league-leading Philadelphia.

According to FootballOutsiders.com, the Rams’ schedule to this point was ranked 29th in terms of difficulty, but they have the second-toughest finish. Kansas City is heading the other direction, with the third-toughest schedule through the first nine games, and the 29th down the stretch.

The biggest swing belongs to the New York Jets, who went from the league’s easiest schedule in the first nine games to the second-most-difficult from this point forward.

sam.farmer@latimes.com

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