The Los Angeles Rams put up a lackluster performance against the Tennessee Titans on Sunday Night Football in Week 9, losing 28-16 to fall to 7-2 on the season.
The Titans were clearly the more physical team in the game, constantly getting pressure on Matthew Stafford. The Rams also made a number of mistakes though, beating themselves in a way.
L.A. was penalized 12 times for 115 yards on the night, which is the most they’ve had since Sean McVay took over as head coach. The Rams also turned the ball over twice, which led to 14 of Tennessee’s 28 points on the night.
While McVay gave credit to the Titans after the game, he also put blame on himself and his team for the number of mistakes they had.
“First of all, congratulations to the Titans. (Titans Head) Coach (Mike) Vrabel and those guys did a good job. I didn’t do nearly a good enough job for our football team tonight. We were uncharacteristic with the penalties, the turnovers. I really think the defense started off, they were giving us a chance. It was a big-time interception by (CB) Jalen (Ramsey). Then ultimately, really just the momentum and the flow of the game, I didn’t do nearly a good enough job of helping our players establish that, particularly on offense. You go back, you look at yourself critically. We get these things corrected. That’s all I know how to do. That’s what we’ll do. I trust the character of this locker room to be able to respond the right way. Not nearly good enough and it starts with me.”
When talking about the penalties they committed, McVay doesn’t expect it to become a theme moving forward.
“I think you go back and you say, ‘All right, we’re not going to allow one game to define us. I don’t think that’s reflective of the type of football team we are. We had a rough night. It really seemed like that was kind of the narrative for the night. A lot of those things that occurred are uncharacteristic. I choose to believe that tonight was not a reflection of who we are. We can look at it, correct it, and we’ll keep it moving.”
The Rams came into this game as one of the least penalized teams in the NFL, so perhaps this was an outlier and not a sign of things to come.
L.A. will have to clean things up immediately though or they risk falling out of the NFC West division race considering how well the Arizona Cardinals are playing.
