Los Angeles Rams 35, Jacksonville Jaguars 7
SEAN McVAY: All right. First of all, awesome being here. Great hosts. This is our third time being in London. We've had really great experiences, second time playing at Wembley so really appreciate it. I thought the fans, the atmosphere, and environment was awesome so it was great to be here and it was great for our guys to come out and play the way that they did.
I thought we had a really great week of preparation and I thought it translated. We talk about practice, performance, equaling game reality. I thought that came to life today. I thought even was involved. I thought the defense was out standing, got stop after stop. They got the one drive a little bit later on but I taught we really controlled the game defensively. Six different guys with sacks. Ten different guys on offense with catches. I thought Matthew did an excellent job. To be able to lead three touchdown drives with our first four drives. I know we had a fifth if the first half where we just kind of were trying to run the clock out. Had a couple of opportunities in the second half, but then ultimately it was cool to be able to hit Terrance Ferguson for his first touchdown. Davante gets three. Matthew throws for five. I thought Kyren ran tough versus a really good run defense, and I thought the kicking game was solid. Being able to hit all the extra points. I thought we covered kicks well when we did want to be able to kick touchbacks. Josh did a nice job and I thought Ethan, when he did have to punt handled that really well.
So there's a lot of penalties that ended up extending drives for us where there were, I thought, the right calls that Davante drew a handful of those. We'll continue to improve, but, man, it'll make for a much more enjoyable flight home and it's great to be 5-2 at the bye.
Q. (Inaudible) how do you evaluate the last week?
SEAN McVAY: What do you think? You know, here's what I would say: I think it's a tremendous credit to really our players and their mental toughness and their resolve and their understanding of, hey, it is a different time clock. Let's not make it a bigger deal. Let's be ready when the game kicks off to show up. Let's do everything within our control but let's not waste our emotional or mental energy on things we can't control. Here's what we could control. Great week of preparation in Baltimore. Unbelievable hosts, the Orioles were for us. Really had a great week there and then we got in late yesterday or we got in yesterday morning.
I thought the guys did a great job of being able to sleep on the plane. Reggie did an excellent job of facilitating an understanding of, hey, what we really tried to make the trip is similar to what we do in terms of going west to east, which we're very familiar with. We got our body clocks adjusted to Baltimore and it's a little bit different timetable, but you say three and a half hour difference when we kicked off at 2:30 here. Don't worry about doing all the math, Gary, all right? We were just trying to make it a west coast to east coast trip. I think the way the guys played showed it was the right decision and it's a hats off to those guys. I think there's a lot of people behind the scenes that deserve a ton of credit for making a nine-day trip where you pick up your whole operation and you go somewhere else. The Carter Crutchfields of the world, the Brennan Bergers, the Dan Demitrisens. Obviously Reggie Scott and his group have been instrumental. Our ops group. So really grateful but this will make an enjoyable flight home. Proud of our team.
Q. There was a re-instatement of the an attempt for your team straight from the off maybe the second play, fourth down, 25 yards out. You went for the kill.
SEAN McVAY: Yeah.
Q. Straight off the bat. You were ruthless.
SEAN McVAY: Yeah.
Q. No give me the field goal, go for the kill.
SEAN McVAY: Yeah I thought, really, our guys did a great job. We ended up being two for two on those fourth downs. Obviously the one to Terrance Ferguson was big and the one to Kyren Williams early on in the game on the fourth down and three was big but we came in to play to Quinn the game. We always want to be aggressive. We want to be smart. I think when you have confident in your players it allows you to be able to do that and there was a lot of examples of that. I thought being able to open the game up to 21-0 and then to be able to just kind of control and slow the second half down a little bit, but our defense was instrumental. I thought the offense did a great job. It was a good team win.
Q. Congrats on the win.
SEAN McVAY: Thank you.
Q. You guys had ten different (inaudible).
SEAN McVAY: It's funny you say that. I think it's such a good reminder for us that we have got a lot of players that we have a ton of trust in as coaches. Obviously Matthew to be able to spread the ball around and let the ball go where the coverage dictates. I think the best offenses that I've been a part of, everybody's involved. You can do either/or based on what they're doing and we've got a lot of guys that we want to continue to lane on. Obviously Puka and Davante have been the guys that have led the way for our pass game, but we've got a lot of other guys and it's a good reminder that even when we lost him last week, let's use all of our eligibles.
Let's continue to lean into being a complete offense. You just so happen to have two number one receivers and you want to get that he mean their touches but let's also make sure we got all these other great players involved. I think it makes you more difficult to defend and ultimately, it's always a player's game. I was happy for those guys today.
Q. This is Matthew's first five-touchdown game as a Ram. What did he have going for him today?
SEAN McVAY: I thought he was excellent. In the tight red area, just to be able to finish some of those throws. He and Davante obviously had a great rapport down in there. Thought the fourth down conversion where he ended up hitting Terrance Ferguson was awesome. What a great, patient route. What a great job by him to draw him offsides to even allow us to be able to go for it where you can elicit a little bit some of those defensive structures where they're basically playing zero with no post player.
And then I thought the progression that he had to be able to get Mump his first touchdown was awesome. So Matthew was outstanding, I thought he orchestrated just a great offensive drive. I thought he had some really good throws on some third downs where we didn't come down with it but he was in total command. He took great care of the football. That's been really consistent for the year, but it was awesome to see him and Davante make some really tight-window catches and convert where two fades and then kind of a little, like a run alert down there where he ends up one-handing it, gets the PI, and still ends up scoring. So Davante was on one today. Our guys had a good day. Matthew was excellent.
Q. (Inaudible).
SEAN McVAY: Yeah, I think the best thing is is that we were able to be pretty efficient on some early down where is it earned the right to be able to rush the passer. Our defensive coaches do such a great job of presenting a variety of looks that are problematic for offenses. I give them a ton of credit and then the players bring it to life but that's been a consistent theme with our group. We want to continue to lean on it and really just proud of the coaches and players and they were outstanding today.
Q. With the game plan in terms of being able to activate tight ends nut also Davante in the red area. What did you like about those areas in particular?
SEAN McVAY: I think you just mentioned it. When we've got four legitimate NFL tight ends and you got them all up and active, let's take advantage of that. Let's be able to do some different things where we're not just in 11 personnel all the time. We have got guys that are functional, on the line of scrimmage, they can make plays in the pass game, so I think we're just continuing to learn. As the season goes, you might have an idea of what you think you're going to be but it's about utilizing all the personnel that you do have and I think this is an exciting thing for us to be able to build on. We'll have some time to be able to look at it.
Obviously it's always predicated on the opponent, but it always starts with us and I want to make sure that I do a better job and then really us selectively of taking advantage of the depth that we have at some of these different positions, so they can make you a little more to defend.
Q. Two questions.
SEAN McVAY: You would, wouldn't you, man? (Laughter) That's a vet move, Gary.
Q. (Inaudible) Were those kind of red zone catches that you envision when you signed Davante?
SEAN McVAY: Yep.
Q. Number two, going into the bye 5-2 is a lot different than the last two seasons. Just kind of assess how that's looking.
SEAN McVAY: Yeah, it is a lot different than the last ones. We were 1-4 last year. I know you know that, Gary. Thanks for bringing that back up, man. (Laughter) But we did finish better, all right? So I want to see us be able to put it together. I'm really proud of this group. I can't think of a time where you've had two more gut-wrenching losses the way those unfolded. We obviously had some good breaks against Indianapolis, but our guys, I just really love this team. There's something about this team where the way that they go to work, the intentionality, it's about the individuals and you just love each of those individuals and how they make up the collective and the greatest team sport that there is is what we look at it as. There's a lot of great sports, but football, in my opinion, is the greatest team sport.
The answer to the Davante thing, I thought it was great. You get a lot of those types of coverages. It's tight sticky. There's no vertical grasp. You got to be able to win those one-on-ones. He did that consistently. He was strong. I think the rapport they had really throughout the weekends up translating. It was really cool and it was cool to see how much fun those guys had.
I love watching our group, whether it's our players and our coaches enjoy themselves. They earned the right to be able to enjoy it and we'll have a fun, long flight home, too.
Q. Just on Matthew and Davante, they both talked about how they wanted to get more consistent, especially in the red zone. I guess how much of a step was today...
SEAN McVAY: I think it's big, Nate. Momentum is a powerful thing. I think just being able to have it come to life. You knew you had so much confidence in these two special players and then it's really just about getting on the same page. Repetition is the mother of learning. You forget Matthew didn't really get a lot of reps with Davante. He was getting a lot of those reps with Jimmy when he was out with the back. It's hard to make those things up throughout the course of the year, but slowly but surely I think they both had the great communication. I think there was excellent collaboration across the board throughout the course of the week. I was really happy for them. They brought it to life and hopefully we expect more of that as we finish out this back half of the season. Thank you, guys. Great hosts, appreciate it.
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