The Los Angeles Rams allowed the New York Jets to pull off the upset of Week 15 by securing their first win of the 2020 NFL season.
It is no secret that the Rams were heavy favorites going into their matchup with the 0-13 Jets at SoFi Stadium. Unfortunately, it quickly became evident that they had overlooked their opponent after allowing them to jump out to a 20-3 lead midway through the third quarter.
Although L.A. made a valiant effort to close the gap, New York managed to hold on for the 23-20 victory. Rams head coach Sean McVay is now left with more questions than answers going into their pivotal NFC West matchup versus the Seattle Seahawks.
McVay shouldered the blame for his team’s loss and admits that it is imperative that they do not let it haunt them to finish out the season, per ESPN’s Lindsey Thiry:
“Yeah, I got to do a better job getting us ready to go and really it was in all three phases, it wasn’t good enough. This loss will demoralize us only as much as we allow it to. It’s gonna be embarrassing, sick to your stomach about it, but we do have two games left and we have got to find a way to rebound and respond on a short week, not really a short week but this week, as we get ready got the Seahawks. But very humbling and it’s going to one humbling, but we’re going to move forward and that’s exactly what we’ll do. That’s all I know how to do.”
The tendency to play down to inferior opponents has been a point of concern throughout the 2020 campaign. This was evident when they dropped both games against the San Francisco 49ers and barely escaped with a win over the New York Giants.
This week had all the makings of a trap game with the Jets desperate for a win and the Rams’ already looking ahead to the Seahawks. Meanwhile, the latter managed to take care of business with a dominant 40-3 home win over New York last week and are now in the driver’s seat over the next two games.
There is a silver lining in the fact that L.A. already holds the tiebreaker over Seattle should they find a way to even things up in Week 16. However, back-to-back divisional matchups to close out the year coming off such a disappointing loss is hardly an encouraging sign.
