Rams 26, Seahawks 20
SEAN McVAY: Okay, guys. First of all, what a unique, weird game that was. What a job by our group to be able to come away with the win. I thought our defense was outstanding. Really when you look at it as a whole, it'll be a great learning opportunity for Puka. He's emotional, that's one of the things we love about him but he'll be able to learn from that but I really thought both defenses controlled the game for the most part. And then there were spurts that we were who we want to be offensively but really when you look at it to start the football game back and forth, not really getting anything going on either side and then for the half to end the way that it did, very uncharacteristic of what we expect of our football team.
Here's what I was really proud of. I was really proud of the way we came out in the second half. They had all the momentum. We did a lot of things to beat ourselves. You're down 13-3 and we found a way to be able to get it tied up after a couple drives apiece. I would have loved for us to punch that one in to come away with the touchdown, but good, long sustained drives. I thought our coaches on offense did a good job making some adjustments to be able to get the edge. Got Kyren going a little bit. And then we stalled and Kam Kinchens shows up. Our rush showed up. It felt like Braden Fiske was in the backfield all day. Really all of our front did an excellent job and then for Jaylen McCollough to come up with another interception. But what I thought was great is that we get the stop in overtime. Really for them -- credit to them for them being able to score, extend the game into overtime and then it goes into overtime. They win the toss. They drive the ball right down the field. They decide to go for it on fourth and one in field goal range. Our offense makes a huge stop and a handful of plays ready, Demarcus Robinson is making a great catch in the endzone from a great ball from Matthew Stafford and when we got that ball in overtime, he said let's keep the ball in number 9's hand. I thought he had three outstanding completions. What a job on the first play of the drive by Tyler Johnson stepping back to the football. Got the look we wanted. Woolen did a good job of kind of coming off on it, but he stepped back to it, created after the catch. Then we were able to, a couple plays later hit 2-2 on the far sideline on a good, positive play on a little bit of a movement pass and then they decided to bring an all-out pressure. Cooper does a great job of securing the edge for us. We come out. Matthew recognizes it. Demarcus sets that corner route high and making sure I think everybody was on the field. I just want to make sure that was in fact the touchdown, but like you guy haves heard me say, there's no style points in this league. I think we want to do some things a lot cleaner. There's going to be a lot of things we can learn from. I give a ton of credit Mike McDonald and his staff. I thought they had a really good game plan, especially defensively, to be able to do things that were very different than what we expected but it's our job to adjust and I think we were able to do that in the moments that mattered.
Q. Sean, week one overtime on the road. You have to environment and they ran it and ran it.
SEAN McVAY: Yeah, it did have a similar feel, but this group has grown and I think you have seen it too, Jordan. The mental toughness, the physical toughness, especially of this defensive group. You talk about being able to find your identities. Four straight weeks and they've scored now, to be able to get three touchdowns and a safety, it's pretty fin to be around this group and they've got just a contagious energy and enthusiasm and there would be a lot of reasons for them to be up set with what the offense was doing today and I never sensed that and I think that is such a cool thing that's reflective of the caliber of the character of this team and the culture that these guys are building and establishing and we're going to look at this. We're going to try to continue to get better but I'm really proud of the way this group is finding a way to get it done in different ways. To be able to get three in a row is really hard in this league and we know we're going to have a great challenge with our next game on Monday night.
Q. Obviously a division win is huge. Do you move beyond this? Is there anything you can draw back on this game later in the season?
SEAN McVAY: Certainly, there's always going to be learning lessons, Sam. I think that's what's great about the NFL. You don't want to dwell too long on it but you do want to demonstrate all right, hey, we've got the ability to respond and then there's a lot of opportunities for us to play cleaner football. Seemed like every chance we got a good thing going in the run game and then you see a yellow flag and when you look at it, there were holdings. So the answer is yes, we'll absolutely be able to use this to draw on. I think every opportunity that you take the field is a learning opportunity for us, both good and bad and it's all about how you apply for it and continue to move forward and that's what this group will do.
Q. What did you say to Puka after he was ejected?
SEAN McVAY: Just that we're smarter than that. Love him, but I think the biggest thing you know about him, Sara, is he is -- one of the best traits that he has is the emotions and the way that he loves competing with his teammates and doing everything that he can to contribute and also understand how important it is to have what AD used to call that controlled aggression so he'll learn from it. He is exactly the right kind of guy and this is a learning opportunity and we all make mistakes and I'm looking forward to be able to see him respond the way I know he's capable of.
Q. Sean, will you take us through the Tyler Johnson and the Robinson catches, just the play designs in overtime? Were you surprised to see coverage in the last play?
SEAN McVAY: No, I wasn't. A field goal wins it. We were already getting close to that. That was something that they had shown and that a lot of teams will do. The first play, they ended upbringing an internal backer and played a match coverage on the back end. That's exactly what we were looking for and a mesh route down the field. Woolen did a nice job of being able to recognize, all right, that's the what we were trying to do. He held off as a third player and came off and T.J. aggressively stepped to the football but great, aggressive throw by Matthew. You can feel that weak side backer got enough depth that he had to layer over the top. It was a great throw. But to be able to start it off with an aggressive mindset and for the guys to deliver, I thought that got the momentum backwards like, all right, here we go now. Then a couple plays later, he hit 2-2 like I mentioned and then you're 39 yards out, we were really close to what would be deemed field goal range. A field goal wins it based on us having that second possession and Cooper Kupp deserves a ton of credit. He secures Dodson coming off that edge right there. It allows Matthew to be able to escape that short little motion, prevented that add-on and then when Matthew got out, when he was able to outflank, he recognized there was no top shelf to the coverage. He got behind Woolen and it was a big-time route, a route that Demarcus has caught a lot. A cover zero look, but what a catch, what a finish and what a job by Matthew leading the way.
Q. (Inaudible) against his own momentum 49 air yards.
SEAN McVAY: There you go.
Q. (Inaudible).
SEAN McVAY: Some good stats you got right there, you know? But it was a dot. He put it right on him and those two and there was a lot of resilience necessary because there's going to be a lot of things when we look at this film and you're saying oh, man, we're better than that or I can be better with some of the decisions and it's a lot easier to tolerate when you come away with the result that our guys did today.
Q. Sean, the way the second quarter ended, a blocked punt and giving up a touchdown with a minute to go. In realtime, can you take us to you and the challenge of not letting those emotions --
SEAN McVAY: I think you want to be what you ask your players to be. You try to be in the moment. You try to be present, control the things you can control and that's doing the right next thing, doing the next right thing, excuse me. So I thought our guys did that. The more that you're in these pressure situations and circumstances and things don't go the way that you want but you show that you're got the ability to be able to have some resolve, some resilience, the ability to respond, there's a callus that's developed and man, we've had a lot of unique experiences that have occurred through the first eight weeks of the season. It's pretty wild. But you don't take anything for granted and what I've really started to enjoy and want to make sure you never take for granted is coming away with the result, the joy in that locker room, the work that it takes to even put yourself in a position to try to be able to go win a game or be able to finish a drive or be able to get a fourth down stop, it is. Or get a punt off, if you will, with a guy that I just met a couple days ago. And so proud of this group, long, long, long way to go but I do think there's a lot of learning lessons and our guys are getting better and there's some things we can get better for as coaches and I'm looking forward to being able to improve for our guys because I thought there's a lot of things that I know I'll look at myself critically and say, man, I got to do a better job putting these guys in the right spots and like I said, tip any cap to Seattle's coaching staff, I thought they did a great job today.
Q. Kam Kinchens has seen his role increase in the last few weeks. What can you say about the way he answered?
SEAN McVAY: He was ready. Kam Curl was a little banged up and he was just ready. Makes a big play on the goal line, really two big plays down deep in tight red area territory and I'm going to get him on the team meeting, though. I don't know if he finished. We'll show these guys not finishing all the way it there endzone and if he added to the reel, he's lucky he had the presence to realize what the heck was I doing and get back on it. I didn't see the finish, but I heard about it. And then down in the tight goal line, bringing a zero blitz, being able to fall off when they tried a little RPO right there. I couldn't see it from my angle but when he came up with it and the smile on that guy's face, it was pretty cool and those are two huge plays that we had to have or I'm not sitting here feeling the way that I do.
Q. Jaxon Smith-Njigba had 180 yards receiving. What made him tough?
SEAN McVAY: Yeah, I mean, he's a baller and you could see they featured him a little bit with DK out. He had his opportunities and you could see he and Geno have a good rapport. He can activate all parts of the field and you can really see there's -- he's got a great ability to be able to track the ball. He's friendly over the middle and you felt him show up. It's the same things that made him a first round pick. We were big fans of him coming out and you can see he's starting to come into his own. We just don't like it happening against us.
Q. Speaking of stats, Jaylen McCollough, two targeted this year, four interception. That's kind of unusual.
SEAN McVAY: Yeah, he's been -- he's one of these guys -- certain guys are always kind of in the right spot and he's made those plays so good instincts, good awareness, you talk about a guy that has a lot of position flex for us, what he was doing today, what he's been doing in previous games but he's just got that look in his eye. You guys asked me about it in training camp and he's a grown man. I think a lot of guys in this rookie class are that. They're going to continue to get better but I'm really happy for Tank. He did a great job today, okay?
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports