The Los Angeles Rams may have changed the course of their season after beating the Arizona Cardinals on the road in Week 14.
The Rams have had a rough few weeks and looked like underdogs against the Cardinals, who held the best record in the NFL. However, Los Angeles played arguably its most complete game of the year and put themselves right back in the race for the NFC West crown.
Head coach Sean McVay was fired up after the win and praised nearly every player on the roster in his postgame opening statement. “Unbelievable job by our team,” McVay said. “So many guys stepped up. There was a lot of whether you want to call it adversity or late changes that we had to make, but can’t say enough about the leadership of this group.
“You look at the way that Aaron Donald played from the jump. I thought Darious Williams did a great job where he ascends himself into the No. 1 corner role. You never replace a guy like Jalen Ramsey, but Kareem Orr came in and did a nice job. The turnovers are huge for us. For Aaron to get his hands up, Ernest Jones to get the turnover, for Leonard Floyd, both of those end up turning into points for us. That was big. I thought Matthew Stafford was outstanding. I thought he made great decisions. He had some unbelievable big shots that he took advantage of. Was great on third down straightening up some of the protections. Cooper (Kupp), Odell (Beckham Jr.), Van (Jefferson) on the big play, Sony (Michel) ran hard, and then pretty amazing for Andrew Whitworth to be one-of-one. Only guy in the history of the league to start at left tackle at the age of 40, incredible by him. There are so many guys that contributed. I thought our coaches did such a great job. I was really pleased with this.”
The team had been hit hard by the coronavirus (COVID-19) earlier in the week and were forced to place Tyler Higbee and Jalen Ramsey on the Reserve/COVID-19 list on game day. McVay was surprised by the news but was impressed by how the rest of the roster responded.
“My initial reaction was, ‘You’ve got to be shitting me.’ On Saturday morning we find out that we’re losing three really important players and in (Rob) Havenstein, ‘Double D’ (Dont’e Deayon) and Darrell Henderson – or on Sunday that was. And then on Monday morning you say, ‘Oh by the way, now you’re losing Jalen Ramsey and Tyler Higbee.’
“Can’t say enough about just the guys’ ability to not flinch. You don’t replace those kinds of guys, but that’s why you have 48 guys that play on gameday, and we certainly used everybody today. Really proud of these guys. Proud to be associated with this group and just be a small part.”
There were plenty of reasons to feel pessimistic about the Rams’ chances in this one, but the group persevered and set themselves up for an end-of-season run that could potentially result in a first-round bye in the playoffs.
