After the Rams defeated the Browns, head coach Sean McVay praised John Johnson.
With their victory over the Cleveland Browns on Sunday, the Los Angeles Rams raised their record to 6-6. After the game, Sean McVay had a chance to talk with some members of the media, and for the most part, he seemed pleased with where the Rams are at. With five games remaining in the NFL regular season, LA is deep in the running for the NFC playoffs, led by the Rams, who have won three straight. Now let’s hear some of the coach’s thoughts on LA’s most recent victory.
It’s doubtful that the Rams could have prevailed in a match like this earlier in the season. This game should serve as evidence of the team’s true development and improvement. The Rams were commended by Coach McVay for their ability to play as a cohesive team and for playing their best ball in the closing minutes of the contest.
“Fantastic work by our guys for managing to find a solution. came to life at the crucial junctures, I thought. John Johnson’s interception seemed to be the game’s pivotal moment, and complimentary ball play has been discussed. That’s been evident, in my opinion, especially in the last two weeks.”
Puca Nakua had a huge game for LA as he continues his historic rookie campaign.
In this game, Nakua also looked injured and left for a while before coming back and continuing to play at a high level.
“I believed him to be dead, but he miraculously resurrected.”
This season, the Rams have faced many challenging teams, but they haven’t always achieved the desired outcomes. They played a strong defense, maintained the game’s closeness, took the lead, and ultimately shut out the Browns. Although the team has demonstrated some talent throughout the season, it appears that they are currently playing their best football.
“I believe that this team is mentally and physically tough; we may not have always achieved the desired results, but it has been evident throughout the season. I see guys maintain their connections. Guys are creating their own energy, which makes it so much fun to go to work and keep moving in the right direction, as I’m seeing. Many of our veterans are demonstrating excellent leadership; we just need to keep it up. The season is extended.”
The Rams have a realistic chance to qualify for the playoffs with this victory. Though a lot can change, LA is currently in the ideal position to play beyond the regular season.
“If we keep playing this way, you’ll keep having conversations in which you could be mentioned in passing and given the chance to play later, but that’s completely unrelated to how we think.I truly enjoy working with this group so much.”
The Rams’ offensive and defensive plays were flawless. Leading the attack and avoiding any serious errors was Matthew Stafford. The defense, led by Aaron Donald, prevented the Browns from scoring enough points. The kicking unit’s missed field goal may have been the only true cause for concern during this game.
“We need to be able to improve upon our kicking game. We need to do some better things in that area.I have no doubt that we will.”
The Rams had a chance to kick another field goal toward the end of the game to take an 11-point lead, but they chose to go for a touchdown instead. Everything is good because LA won the game, but it worries me that McVay might not have trusted his kicker or the operation as a whole.
Rather than taking a short field goal, the head coach discussed the decision to score with Kyren Williams.
“We said, ‘Make sure we have great ball security, but if we can punch it in…Kyren’s on my fantasy team…that’s a joke, that’s a joke, I don’t really mean that,’ in deference to their field goal block operation.”
LA is going to either figure out their kicker situation or it’s going to stay inconsistent. If it stays inconsistent then it is more likely than not going to hurt the Rams eventually. The good news is that the rest of the team seems to be humming. The offense and defense both have some veteran players and plenty of rookies. McVay seems to think the team has the right mix of experience and youth as the rookies are learning plenty from their veteran leaders.
“I think a lot of these rookies whether you talk about Puca, whether you talk about Kobie Turner, Byron Young, Steve Avilla, lot of these guys are really mature beyond their years, and their doing a great job of accelerating their progress, but when you’ve got guys that can really show you the ropes…there’s nobody better than Aaron Donald to be able to model the way…his consistency, the way that he goes about it, I’ve been so fortuante and blessed to be able to coach a player like him, and really a lot of our verteran leaders that have poured into these guys and I think they deserve a ton of credit, but also you know, those leaders for being able to help accelerate their progress because I think seeing is more powerful than anything that we can say….the way that they’ve poured into these guys is really starting to show itself and it’s got to continue to be a theme if we want to go where we’re…hoping to go.”
Stafford put on yet another outstanding performance, continuing his run of consecutive games with multiple touchdown passes. The fact that this team has won its last three games can be attributed mostly to Stafford.
“He’s fantastic…You know, Matthew is really awesome. You’ve probably noticed over the past few weeks that he performs at his best during the most consequential of circumstances. Seeing him produce clutch play after clutch play and maintain scoring drives was fantastic, and he was doing a lot of different things. Whether it was guiding us into and out of the appropriate play, as demonstrated by the one long touchdown pass he made to Puca, which he ultimately had to make up.”Shoot, what the heck am I supposed to do?” I ask.
It appears that McVay is depending on Stafford to keep playing at this caliber.
“Matthew is really good. He played brilliantly once again, and we can expect him to play even better in the future.”
In Week 14, Los Angeles will travel to face the Baltimore Ravens in an attempt to secure their fourth straight victory. Many people rank the Ravens as the best team in the league and as the best division in the AFC North. We might start to see LA as the best team as well if the Rams can dominate the Ravens both offensively and defensively. Every week is an exam, and in December, the results are more important than ever. On Sunday, we’ll find out if the Rams can pass one more.