Seven games in, a trade deadline looming, and the defending Super Bowl champion Los Angeles Rams once again find themselves below .500 after taking a 31-14 beatdown at the hands of the San Francisco 49ers on Sunday, October 30.
The Rams had a prime opportunity to sink the 49ers further down the NFC West ladder, as an L.A. victory would’ve dropped the 49ers to 3-5 and potentially send NFL fans and national media into thinking that the Niners need to reevaluate things.
But following a bye, and their second lopsided defeat to their rivals from Northern California, it’s the Rams getting placed in self evaluator mode as they’re submerged below .500 for already the third time this season.
And the question got asked to head coach Sean McVay: Are major changes coming to the Rams?
Panic Button Getting Pressed?
McVay gave a straight shooter answer on if changes are on the horizon.
“No,” McVay answered to the L.A. media. “I think what you have to acknowledge is that, yeah, this is a different situation but that doesn’t mean you press the panic button.”
McVay added, “Let’s look at the things that are occurring and we’ve had a lot of different instances of things that have been different than any of the previous five years. What I’m not going to do is sit up here and make excuses. What I’m going to do is try to do the best job I can for this team to try to start having consistency in terms of the way that we’re playing on Sundays or whenever we get a chance to be able to kick off. We’re 3-4 through seven games and I think our record is an indicator of what we’ve been and that’s inconsistent. We’ve played well enough in three games to win, we haven’t in four games. We’ve got to be more consistent offensively.”
The offense went with this surprise move: Starting rookie running back Ronnie Rivers — who just two weeks ago got his first roster elevation to the two-deep against the Carolina Panthers on Week 6. Rivers was the lead rusher, but was bottled to 21 yards on eight carries. The Rams managed just 2.7 yards per carry. The air attack didn’t fare much better either — as Matthew Stafford threw for only 187 yards, averaged 5.7 yards per completion and got sacked twice.
But still, McVay took the podium and sounded like a man who wants to roll with who he has to work with now on offense…versus pivot to the trade deadline in two days.
McVay Addresses Other Areas
McVay didn’t just point out the offensive deficiencies against S.F. He was honest about the defensive breakdowns, especially after watching a 14-10 Rams lead evaporate and turn into a 21-0 run the rest of the way for the 49ers.
“This wasn’t in alignment with what we expect defensively,” McVay said of that unit. “There were some things special teams-wise that had some opportunities to do things at a little bit higher clip, but in a lot of instances I think you get to be able to look at it, and let’s go ahead and try to identify the problems and then give the players the solutions and then they have to be able to go out and execute.”
Overall, McVay doesn’t want to be in a situation where a complete overhaul is made. But if there are changes that do need to be made, it has to be done internally within the Rams.
“And so, to say that you want to just have a total change in approach, I’m not saying that, but I’m also saying that this isn’t good enough and we all have to do a little bit better,” McVay said.
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Sean McVay Reveals if Changes Will Be Made on Rams During 3-4 Start