What Sean McVay had to say after Rams’ 30-23 loss to 49ers

Sean McVay spoke to the media after the Rams let one get away at home to the 49ers

Sean McVay provided a post game press conference after the Los Angeles Rams (1-1) fell to the San Francisco 49ers (2-0) on Sunday. The Rams put on a gutsy performance but miscues, including surrendering a touchdown right before halftime, costly turnovers and a few mental errors ended up costing McVay and his team this game. However LA did hang in there until the end, and really showed that they may be closer to being competitive than many thought prior to the start of the season.

Let’s hear some of what LA’s head coach had to say about this disappointing but inspiring loss.

“Hat’s off to the 49ers. I thought it was a high caliber game today. I was really pleased with a lot of different things you could see the margin for error is really small against a great football team like that. There was a few play sequences at the end of that third quarter where it just got away from us. It’s all things that I’m very encouraged that we can fix, that we can control. I like the spirit, I like the competitiveness, I like the resilience of this group.”

McVay goes on to say that he expects this team to bounce back the right way. The coach says that adversity can lead to opportunities and overall McVay really does seem to come away from this game thinking his team is still in good shape. So far he does seem to be embodying the idea of not being too high or too low. Last week McVay showed a calmness after their opening season win. This week McVay still shows that calmness after their first loss of the season.

“I’m excited to dive into this tape. We know that’s an excellent defense, excellent front. They definitely dialed it up, ended up bringing more than four a coupe times”

The Rams offensive line stood tall against a stout 49ers defense, and that was a good sign for the still growing and molding LA offensive line. It did seem like the Rams oline took a step back when Joe Noteboom left the game, but they also may have just gotten warn down. It did not help that towards the end of the game LA was in obvious passing downs. The running game was productive too though, even without Cam Akers, who many thought would be the featured back going into this season.

“Coach’s decision. Felt like that was best for our football team. Felt like Kyren (Williams) gave us the best opportunity and what Ronnie (Rivers) and Royce (Freeman) have done and so that was a decision that I made.”

Drama between Akers and the Rams happened last year and they worked through it. Will they be able to work through it this time?

“I’m always going to make decisions that are in the best interest of our football team. I have tremendous respect for Cam Akers, but I felt like for our football team today and in this game and as we move forward that was gonna be the best decision for us. I think there’s gonna be an opportunity to see what that looks like moving forward, but it’s not gonna be a back and forth thing. He and I have had great dialogue and we’ll see what happens over the next couple days.”

Fair to say that we won’t know what will happen with Akers until a decision is made but the three probable scenarios are that Cam returns to the team, he is traded to another team or he is ultimately cut. Either way this team is going to have to move forward. In the meantime, other players get a chance to shine.

“He’s the epitome of what we want to be as Rams, I love Puka Nacua and I was really pleased with him today.”

The young receiver had a huge day and really helped the Rams stay in this one. Kyren Williams may want some plays back, but he also was a reason LA was in this game at all. A lot of players on both sides of the ball stepped up and though they did lose, there is plenty to learn from.

“There’s learning opportunities. You know, that’s what it is and ultimately we didn’t come away with the result that we were hunting up, but there was a lot of good things that we can take away. There’s a lot of things that, like I said I’m excited to dive in this tape.”

The results are the results. The Rams showed up to play and were in this game until the end. LA had chances, but they did fall short this week.

“I thought the guys played really tough.”

The coach goes on to say that he felt the team had effort and engagement throughout the game.

“You look inward, you continue to stay connected. I love the rapport of that group. I love the way that they play for one another. I love the energy and the edge that they play with. Think we wanna just be able to continue to stack blocks. Whether we came away with the result we wanted or we had this result today, it’s about how do we move forward, how do we continue to embody a lot of the growth mindset that we talk about. Let’s understand the work works, we’re gonna continue to go back to work, we’re gonna look inward at where we can improve, continue to tighten up our process and that’s exactly where we’re at.”

Every loss is disappointing, but some can come with more silver linings than others. This team has not looked scared through the first two weeks of play. It should be interesting to see what this team looks like next week on Monday Night Football in what should be another growing moment for this young Rams team.