McVay: Rams ‘Moving Forward’

(News4usonline) – With just one game under their belt, the Los Angeles Rams have been hit with a couple of tests that they didn’t expect to come this early in the season. The first was a 27-7 loss to the San Francisco 49ers in the team’s season opener. 

Losing the services of edge rusher Myles Garrett for an extended time is the second blow. Rams head coach Sean McVay is not one to flinch in the face of adversity. Neither is his ballclub. 

“We’re committed to our process,” McVay said during a Zoom press conference with the media. “Then ultimately, when we get our next opportunity to swing, let’s go be courageous enough to go do that. I’m excited about putting everything I got into that with this group.” 

McVay and the Rams have gone through a string of challenges during his decade-long run as head coach. The listless defeat to the 49ers and losing Garrett, a two-time defensive player of the year, presents a different kind of test for the Rams. 

With all that going on, McVay is still excited to see how his team responds. 

“These are the opportunities to really separate yourself with how you handle them,” McVay remarked. “And what we’re not going to do is change. It’s easy to be positive, say all these things before you have it, but now here you go. You get tested.”   

The addition of Garrett in the offseason, along with the return of Aaron Donald, gave the Rams an automatic look of a super team if you throw in reigning NFL most valuable player Matthew Stafford and two-time Super Bowl champion Trent McDuffie. 

That may still hold true, but at the moment, McVay and the Rams are focused on pushing their way past this adversity moment.   

“There are so many things that I’m excited about just moving forward,” McVay said. “That game, you give the Niners credit, like I talked about. That is over with. That’s in our rearview mirror. We’re all eyes moving forward.” 

“We’ll make our corrections and then we figure out, how do we establish the identity, the play style, the different things that we want to be able to have come to life, and how do we really continue to emphasize that? Because what we emphasize with this group, we get, and we’re just excited about moving forward,” he added. 

With Garrett out of the lineup for a while and with Donald still pushing his way back into full-time game shape, the Rams are a team looking to record their first win of the season. The Rams were outplayed in just about every facet of the game against the 49ers, a fierce rival in the NFC West. 

The Rams had a difficult time maintaining any semblance of offensive continuity as the team went 2 of 9 on third downs and managed just 15 first downs. Stafford, unfortunately, had a forgettable afternoon with his 15 of 25 for 155 yards and one interception performance. 

About the one positive takeaway from the game for the Rams was the rushing attack. As a team, the Rams rushed for over 100 yards (Blake Corum 10 carries, 54 yards; Kyren Williams 11 carries, 41 yards). McVay liked what he saw. 

“I thought there were a lot of positives in the run game. I’m not interested in necessarily what the final numbers [are],” McVay said. “I’m looking at the removal, the space that we created. There are always going to be areas of improvement, but I did think that we did a nice job in terms of creating space, being able to reset the line of scrimmage and doing some different things like that.”  

In moving onward to their Monday Night Football game against the New York Giants and looking ahead to the rest of a very long season, McVay cautions against the vein of overreaction.  

“The first thing is I think you talk about it,” said McVay. “It’s more about, hey, let’s be totally and completely present. Let’s not ignore the things that we can learn from, but we can’t lose twice to that. We’ve got to be able to move forward.” 

“All the things that I discussed afterwards, I feel that much stronger about it. The only way that I know to get this taste out of my mouth is to go back to work, apply the growth mindset, all the things that we’ve talked about,” he said.  

Top or Lead Image of Los Angeles Rams running back Blake Corum (24) in action against the San Francisco 49ers during an NFL game played in Melbourne, Australia. Photo credit: Los Angeles Rams