Expectations are high for the Los Angeles Rams this season, but they didn’t live up to them in Week 1 as they were thoroughly beaten by the San Francisco 49ers, 27-7.
A lot of the discussion leading up to the game was about it being in Melbourne, Australia, and the drastically different travel decisions the two teams made. The 49ers arrived a week early and got acclimated to Australia while the Rams flew in the day before and tried to stay on L.A. time.
After the loss though, Rams head coach Sean McVay took responsibility for his team’s poor play and credited the 49ers, not willing to make excuses.
“Congratulations to the 49ers, they outplayed us in every facet,” McVay said. “I didn’t do nearly a good enough job, this is a humbling day for us. This will define us only if we allow it to. Today was one of those days. I always look inside out. I didn’t do a good enough job getting us ready to go. There were some opportunities where maybe the game could have flipped. But they deserve the win, they were ready to do. We’ll look at it, we’ll see where we can improve and be better moving forward. But this is a good, humbling day. This is what can sometimes happen in sports.
“I love this locker room and the first thing that I’m gonna look at is myself and I have to do a better job for our group collectively with our coaches, with our players. We’ll look at this film and we’ll get back to work because clearly that’s obviously what we gotta do. Sometimes sports can humble you and today was one of those days. I make no excuses. Whether you want to say it’s about travel or whatever, we just weren’t good enough in that window. I didn’t coach good enough. We’ll look at it and move forward and that’s where we’re at right now. But it was a great atmosphere, give credit to the 49ers. They deserve it. And we’re 0-1 and we’ll move forward.”
McVay added that he doesn’t think the team’s travel plan was the reason for their poor play.
“I don’t believe that’s why we didn’t play well enough. I really don’t,” McVay said. “That’s something that I’ll always make decisions that I think are best for the football team. It’s easy in hindsight to say it was a miss, but those are responsibilities that I’ll take.”
The fact of the matter is that the Rams and 49ers know each other very well and Kyle Shanahan has often had MCVay’s number over the years. That was the case again in this one as the 49ers looked like the more prepared and ready to go team.
No one will ever know exactly how much of a factor the travel played in that, but now it’s back to the drawing board for McVay and the Rams as they look to get back on track back in the states against the New York Giants in Week 2.
Sean McVay takes responsibility for Rams loss to 49ers
McVay is always one to look in the mirror and hold himself accountable after Rams losses, and that was again the case in this one.
“I think the first thing I look at is where can I improve?” McVay said. “How can I put our players in better positions to have successful outcomes? I love that locker room, I love those guys, and this story is far from written. I know there’s going to be a lot of narratives that appropriately put the blame on me and then we’ll move forward the right way.”
