Los Angeles Rams Media Conference

Sunday, October 3, 2021

Los Angeles, California, USA

Head Coach Sean McVay

Postgame Press Conference


Los Angeles - 20; Arizona - 37

SEAN MCVAY: I've got to be way better for our football team. Make no excuses about it. I didn't do a good enough job to get our guys ready to go. But fortunately for us, we've got a chance on a short week to be able to respond the way that we expect to, the way that we want to. And that's exactly what we're going to do moving forward.

Q. A couple questions for you. Could you take us through the accepted penalty on the third down? And what happened correspondingly? And then also, were you tempted to challenge that fourth -- that sneak that Matthew Stafford.

SEAN MCVAY: I was. I was tempted to challenge the sneak. The first one, you know, moving them back, it put them out of field goal range. Because they ended up converting and our guys did a -- it didn't work out for us in that instance right there.

So you always -- I thought -- I felt like that was the right decision at the time. It didn't work out for us. I'll make no excuses about that.

I did think about challenging that, but our guys up top felt like he was short. So that's why I didn't. And then we didn't end up punching that in.

So there was a lot of decisions, a lot of things I didn't do nearly a good enough job for our football team. I love the way our guys continue to battle, continue to compete.

We got the right guys in that locker room. We didn't all the sudden become a different football team. We didn't play up to our standards. But you give Cardinals credit and we look forward to responding on a short week. And our work will start right after this.

Q. Sean, you talked about consistency. How do you look at a week like this after looking so good the week before?

SEAN MCVAY: Yeah, they did a great job. You got to give the Cardinals credit. But, also, it's about being able to show up and play the best football you can in that three and a half hours of time you're allotted and you're guaranteed.

And, you know, there's a lot of decisions and things that I wish I would have done a better job for our football team with. We'll look at ourselves critically, we'll move forward.

And, again, part of being able to do this the right way, is being able to handle the ebbs and flows. You know, things aren't going to go perfectly. This is such a competitive league.

Our guys are wired the right way. And those opportunities to be able to show your mental toughness, the resilience that I know that exists in that locker room. And we're going to get ourselves up, ready to roll, and be ready to compete on Thursday.

Q. (Question concerning the Rams' preparation.)

SEAN MCVAY: I didn't. But, you know, again, I'll always look at myself first. And that's where the responsibility lies.

And, again, you know, the beauty of it is that you don't have much time to feel sorry for yourself. You get ready to move forward and that's exactly what I'm going to do and our team is going to do.

Q. (Question concerning Matthew Stafford's performance.)

SEAN MCVAY: I thought he was gutsy. He didn't play up to his level early on. But you talk about being able to will us down the field when we ended up coming short on that fourth down one where we just missed Higs.

But some of the individual plays that he made, the look in his eye, you know, I'll ride with that guy any day. And I feel that way about our football team.

And I think these are the moments you can really see a lot about how people are wired the right way. And this guy is everything that you could ask for in a quarterback and I can't wait to go back to compete with him on Thursday.

Q. (Question concerning Van Jefferson's performance.)

SEAN MCVAY: Van did a good job. He made the most of his opportunities creating after the catch. I was very pleased with Van today.

Q. Do you get a sense defensively you guys got a little bit frustrated? You seemed to have them in some third and longs and Murray just made play after play, it seemed like.

SEAN MCVAY: Yeah, he did a great job. You know, that's the athleticism and just the great playmaker that he is. And there was a couple instances where we felt like we could have been better.

But you got to give him credit. You know, he's a playmaker. He's been doing this for the last couple years. But it's especially been illustrated the first three weeks of this season. And it was on display today. Hats off to him. He did a nice job.

Q. Did you feel like you had a good defensive plan coming into this game? And, also, what did you see from David Long?

SEAN MCVAY: Yeah, I feel like -- of course I felt like we had a good defensive plan. You know, those are going to be things we go back and we look at, at Jordan. And we'll evaluate ourselves critically starting with coaches and then seeing, Okay, what can we do better to put our players in better positions.

David is doing a good job competing snap in and snap out. You know, I've been pleased with him. And there's going to be a lot of things that everybody, to a man, can look at, be better. And that's where we'll get a chance to let that show itself on Thursday.

Q. The third quarter, the drive that ended with James Conner scoring that second touchdown. What was the breaking down that the defense threatened that series of downs?

SEAN MCVAY: Yeah, I'm not really sure. You know, they did a good job throughout the course of the day. There's a lot of things that we'll be able to go look back at and clean up.

Q. (Question concerning the connection between Matthew Stafford and Cooper Kupp.)

SEAN MCVAY: We were just a little off. They made some plays. That's the one thing, is, you know, we expect to be better. I have to be better. You know, everybody can be a little bit better.

But you do give credit to the Cardinals. They did a nice job and had a good plan. Like I said, it all starts with me.

Q. Especially in that first half, red zone efficiency, really important. They were getting seven, you guys were getting a couple field goals. How do you improve in that area?

SEAN MCVAY: Yeah, I think you look at the film and making sure we're making good decisions and then the execution's got to be there.

Q. (Question concerning Darrell Henderson's performance.)

SEAN MCVAY: He did a nice job. I thought there was -- it was sharp from the jump. I thought our line did a good job creating some removal. We were running the ball efficiently. It just kind of got out in some of those situations when we weren't able to stick with it when the score got out of hand.

But I got to do a batter job of being patient and making sure that, again, I'm putting our guys in better spots. But I thought Darrell did a nice job today.

Q. You said earlier this week Murray would be a problem. From what you saw, was he a bigger problem, was it his athleticism, or did they do things differently?

SEAN MCVAY: No, they did a nice job. But he made some plays. It's hard to simulate and mimic and emulate the speed he plays with the athleticism, the feel, the instincts. And that was on display today.

And that's why he's done such a great job during the first month of the season and playing at such a high level. You got to give him credit.

Q. Given how well he played against your defense today, how concerned are you now going to Seattle, playing a team that's coming off a big victory at San Francisco?

SEAN MCVAY: Yeah, I mean, you got a lot of respect for Russell and the Seahawks organization. They've always done a great job under Coach Carroll's leadership. We know that. But, you know, we're going to do a good job of getting a plan together, put our players in positions, let's go roll it out there and go compete. Thanks, guys.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports
113080-1-1839 2021-10-04 00:04:00 GMT

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