Although the Los Angeles Rams finished with yet another 30-point outing in the 2017 NFL season, there were a few notable concerns early on. Among them was head coach Sean McVay’s seemingly careless usage of his timeouts.
McVay essentially used all three of them by the time the second quarter had barely started. The rookie head coach said afterward during the Rams press conference that his timeout management was ‘inexcusable’:
“I’m not gonna make any excuses. I’ve gotta be better there,” he said. “And that’s something over this bye week, you’ve gotta be critical of yourself. It’s inexcusable. But, no excuses, it’s something that I’ve gotta get fixed and that’s really the bottom line.”
There was a moment later in the quarter following his final timeout where the Rams were unable to challenge a questionable first down catch by the Arizona Cardinals. Fortunately, it did not come back to haunt them later that drive, nor has it the entire 2017 NFL season.
It is almost encouraging to see the Rams stressing about timeout management, rather than actually being able to put points on the board like last season. Regardless, it is clearly something that McVay is looking to improve on moving forward.
