The Los Angeles Rams dropped to 3-2 on Thursday night when they lost an overtime heartbreaker to the undermanned San Francisco 49ers.
The Rams came out flat and faced a two-score deficit as a result. They managed to fight their way back and force overtime despite a number of self-inflicted wounds.
Trailing by three in the overtime period, Sean McVay decided to go for it on fourth-and-one from the 49ers 11-yard line. The Rams could have kicked a field goal to tie it but instead went for the win.
That was the right decision considering how much Matthew Stafford and the offense had been cooking in the second half. Unfortunately though, McVay called a run play and Kyren Williams was stuffed at the line of scrimmage to end the game.
“It’s a bad call. It’s a bad call by me,” McVay admitted after the game. “The play selection was very poor. I’m sick right now because I put our players in a shitty spot. I’ve got to live with that.”
While McVay gave credit to the 49ers, he knows that’s a game the Rams should have won and was beating himself up about that fourth down play call.
“Give the Niners credit. They made enough plays to be able to win the football game,” McVay said. “We had plenty of chances throughout this game. We stayed in it. We fought, we battled, but there’s a lot of things that we have to be able to clean up. A lot of football left but I’m pretty sick right now. I’m sick of this spot that I put our group in to win the game. But hey, these are the tough beats that you’ve got to be able to learn from and move forward, and that’s what we’re going to do.”
The Rams now have 10 days to think about this loss and learn from it before they return to the field against the Baltimore Ravens in Week 6.
Sean McVay: Rams didn’t play winning football in loss to 49ers
The Rams had a number of self-inflicted wounds in their loss to the 49ers, including two fumbles, a blocked extra point and numerous penalties.
Even though they fought their way back, Sean McVay knows they can’t make that many mistakes and win.
“We had a chance to close the game out and ultimately it didn’t go down for us. There was a significant amount of things – for us to even be in it was a real credit to the resilience of the group. That’s not winning football tonight. There was a lot of really good plays at different points that kept us competitive, gives us a chance to go to overtime, but we certainly did more to lose that game than we did to win it, and it did compound, for sure.”
