The Los Angeles Rams were in control for much of their contest against the Pittsburgh Steelers, but in the fourth quarter things changed for Sean McVay’s team. The Steelers reeled off a pair of long drives in the final period to come away with a 24-17 win in Los Angeles.
The Rams seemed to get a stop on fourth-and-1 that would have given them the ball back with a chance to tie the game late. But a generous spot following Steelers quarterback Kenny Pickett’s sneak ended all hope and iced the game for Pittsburgh.
But following the contest, McVay was not focused on that one play, but rather his team’s inability to execute when it mattered most.
“Congratulations to Pittsburgh, finding a way to be able to get it done. We didn’t help ourselves,” the Rams coach said. “There were a lot of plays that we could have been able to make…Execution on teams, whether it be some execution offensively where you set yourself behind the sticks or defensively, you can’t have 12 men on the field. You have to be aligned in the right spots in some critical third downs and they were able to finish the game (and) we weren’t.
“I’m not going to sit here up and make any excuses because I know there’s a lot of things that we can do to be better collectively, that I can do a better job of. We’re going to get ourselves off the mat. We’re going to go back to work and we’re going to be a resilient group. This is a disappointing deal today, but all I know how to do is be able to respond and I trust that those guys in that locker room will do the same thing.”
McVay is right to focus on the things he and the Rams are in control of. The officials made the spot that they made so as McVay noted, whether he thinks it was right means nothing. “It doesn’t matter what I think. That was the spot they made.”
And because the play came outside of the two-minute warning and the Rams had no timeouts remaining, McVay was unable to challenge the spot. But even still, McVay refused to make excuses on the loss, adding that it shouldn’t have come down to that one play anyway.
“It’s not a challengeable play but I’m not going to sit here and make any excuses about stuff that didn’t go down,” McVay added. “Those plays shouldn’t have come down to that if we executed like we were capable of. You guys saw the same stuff that I did, but it doesn’t do any good. That was what was called and that’s what we have to be able to live with.”
It’s a tough lesson to learn and a painful way to lose the game, but McVay wants to make sure the Rams are focused on improving themselves and not worried about the refs.
