Rams HC Sean McVay (9.22.19)
LA Rams Head Coach Sean McVay:
Opening Statement:
“[It was a] tough, hard-earned victory tonight. You can’t say enough about the defense’s effort. I thought they did a great job. I mean, look at the stand at the end. Ultimately, it’s about getting the win. There are a lot of things that we can clean up as a team, certainly. I can’t wait to go back and look at this film. I have to do a much better job for us offensively, and getting us in a position and finding a rhythm early on. That sole responsibility lies with me; but we’ll take the win however we can get it.”
On the offensive line:
“I think they did okay. That’s a really good front. You know, there were some things that, until you go back and look at the tape, it’s hard to say. There were some costly errors that we did make in some crunch time situations with some communications. I thought overall, they found a way in the second half to get a couple of touchdown drives together. That ended up being the difference in the game.”
On what stood out from the defense:
“Just the rush. I mean, really all 11. I think just the overall effort. You look at the way we were swarming to the football, but I thought the fact that were able to consistently apply pressure with a four-man rush, play good coverage on the backend, whether it be (DT) Aaron (Donald), you saw (LB) Clay (Matthews), (OLB) Dante (Fowler, Jr.) show up. Those guys did an outstanding job really throughout the course of the night. I think hats off to the defense tonight.”
On LB Clay Matthews’ father being inducted into the Cleveland Ring of Honor tonight:
“It was pretty cool. It was great. [It was an] awesome honor to have. Hopefully, he’ll give his mom a little crap for the stuff that she did with pumping up the Browns fans with her son on the other sidelines. I’m just kidding. [Reporter noted that was LB Clay Matthews’ sister] Oh? His sister looks good. Sorry, I didn’t realize that. I’m kind of focused on the game right there, but he’ll give his sister some crap.”
On the defensive stand at the end of the game:
“Unbelievable. It was really just a great job by them. I just thought to be able to re-gather themselves. Four straight downs and fighting through it, especially with (Cleveland QB) Baker’s (Mayfield) ability to be able to extend plays, and some of the athletes that they do have. It was just incredible. It showed great mental toughness, and for them to be able to close it out was outstanding.”
On DT Aaron Donald’s performance:
“Big time. Whether it be getting to the quarterback or whether it is getting a holding call, he influenced the game in so many way tonight. He was outstanding.”
On WR Cooper Kupp and QB Jared Goff’s consistent rhythm and connection:
“They’ve got a great rapport. For (WR) Cooper (Kupp) to have 11 catches on 12 targets says as much as you need to know. He came up with two crunch time touchdowns that obviously we had to have to get the win tonight. [There were] a couple other plays made. They made a play on a 2nd and 10 in the high red, where he’s running an in-breaking route versus a quarter structure, and Jared did a great job of delivering a great ball and [Kupp] aggressively crossed face. There were so many plays that he made tonight that were timely for us, and we needed every single one of them.”
On the secondary’s performance:
“I just saw consistency and great communication on the backend, and doing a great job. We mixed up some coverage principles, and I thought they did a good job of recognizing what some of the things they were doing formationally. We wanted to be able to lend presence and help accordingly based on some of their personnel. For the most part, really, they did a great job of keeping everything tight, making sure we were on the same page, and with an explosive offense like that, to be able to limit them the way that they did is a huge credit to them.”
On what adjustments were made going into the second half:
“I think it was more than anything, just execution. The guys did a great job of being able to make some plays. I thought we stayed ahead of the chains for the most part on some of those early downs, and really it was just about executing more than anything else.”
On leaning on QB Jared Goff when the running game looked spotty:
“I thought he made some big time throws. Anytime you have to evaluate the quarterback position when you throw it as many times as he did tonight, there’s always going to be some things we can learn from. [But] I thought his ability to escape the rush, make some plays on his own, do things off schedule, was big time. On the two touchdown drives that we did have, he had some major conversions. Both of those 3rd down touchdowns that he had – the 3rd and 6 to Cooper, where they bring zero pressure and basically drop and he ends up delivering a great ball. Then the same thing when he hits Cooper on the outbreak in route on the 3rd down and I think it’s 10 or 11 [yards] there. Those are big time throws that we had to have, and those aren’t real high-percentage downs for offenses. When you have a quarterback playing like that, that’s big.”
On the noise creating communication issues:
“There were a couple [issues] early. It was, more than anything, being able to hear on some of the calls that have a little but more verbiage, but that wasn’t an issue in the second half.”
On RB Todd Gurley II not getting it going tonight:
“I have to go back and look at it. It was tough to get us into a rhythm, and it starts with me. I keep saying it. I can’t keep sitting up here and saying the same thing. I have to find a way to get it fixed and be better for our football team. Really, there are no excuses other than I just have to do better.”
On the second-half adjustments:
“I think it was just staying out of some bad down-and-distances. They did a good job and we were able to move the spot with Jared a little bit. We did get a couple runs off that ended up helping us. Whether it be a reverse to (WR) Robert (Woods) and (WR) Brandin (Cooks) having it around. We did hit a couple hard-earned runs when they were playing a different front structure. Credit to the offensive line – (Run Game Coordinator) Coach (Aaron) Kromer did a good job making some adjustments, and ultimately we won the game, but there are certainly a lot of things that we can do better.”
On winning in this atmosphere on Sunday night:
“It’s big. You don’t have any style points. It’s about winning. It’s about finding a way to win a football game. We did that as a team, and that’s the beauty of it. There are a lot of things that we can continue to do better, and we have to do better, but getting the win is what matters most. To be 3-0 is a good thing right now and a real credit to our players, their resilient mindset and mentality. Our coaches did a nice job as well.”
# # #