Throughout his six-plus years as the Rams‘ coach, Sean McVay has often displayed optimism and confidence. That wasn’t the case on Sunday, however, as the NFL‘s youngest head coach exuded frustration following his team’s 16-13 loss to the Buccaneers.
The 36-year-old coach didn’t hold back when discussing the current state of the Rams through eight games. Los Angeles is 3-5 and in jeopardy of becoming the 16th team to miss the playoffs a year after winning the Super Bowl. In fact, the only time the Rams have missed the playoffs under McVay was in 2019, a year after reaching the Super Bowl.
“Changes have to be made. Adjustments have to be made,” McVay said from the postgame podium. “We can’t continue to go on like this. And you know, what that looks like I don’t necessarily have the exact answers right now. … I’m a big part of this. I have to do better. We’re going to stay connected throughout this, but we do have to be able to look inward and figure out what are some of the solutions, changes, adjustments, different things that we have to do to be able to get different results and different production from our offense.”
It should come as no surprise that McVay specifically mentioned the offense when assessing his team’s shortcomings. Sunday marked the fifth time this season that Los Angeles has scored less than 20 points. Despite boasting likely Hall of Fame quarterback Matt Stafford and reigning receiving champion Cooper Kupp, the Rams’ offense is just 29th in the NFL in scoring, 31st in rushing and 27th in red zone efficiency.
McVay is surely kicking himself after his conservative approach backfired during the final moments of Sunday’s loss. Protecting a four-point lead, the Rams’ defense forced a turnover on downs, giving the offense the ball back with 1:52 left. After the Buccaneers used their last two times outs, Los Angeles faced a third-and-5 from their own 12-yard-line with 1:39 left. Instead of throwing the ball, the Rams called a running play to Darrell Henderson, who picked up a yard.
Los Angeles was forced to punt, giving Tom Brady one more shot at victory. As he has done dozens of times before, Brady led the Buccaneers on a last-minute, game-winning drive.
“The defense should not have had to go back on the field. Simple,” an emotional Jalen Ramsey said after the game, via NFL Media. “Gotta have some dogs who are gonna go get it. We shouldn’t come to the…
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