The ending to the regular season was bittersweet for the Los Angeles Rams as although they lost to the San Francisco 49ers in overtime after leading 17-0 in the first half, they still clinched the NFC West title with the Arizona Cardinals losing to the Seattle Seahawks.
With that, the Rams will go into the postseason as the No. 4 seed in the NFC and will host the Cardinals in the first round of the postseason on Monday Night Football.
While Sean McVay expressed how proud he was of his team for winning the division, he also admitted it was tough to celebrate after the rough loss to the 49ers.
“Yeah, I mean, in the moment right now, this is a tough feeling. Our guys did a good job being able to navigate through the season. To be able to still win the division is a good accomplishment, but I don’t know that right now is a time to celebrate that. We’ll look at this film, we’ll clean it up, and we’ll move forward the right way. This is a resilient group.”
The 49ers are a team that’s had the Rams’ number over the first few years, and McVay believes this loss just came down to their inability to finish after getting off to a fast start.
“You’ve got to finish. Our guys came out ready to go but you’ve got to play four quarters, or five quarters in this instance. Credit them, they did a good job. I have to do a better job, we can all do a better job, and fortunately this isn’t the end for us.”
The 49ers are the least of the Rams’ worries though as McVay concluded that the focus now shifts to the Cardinals and the postseason.
“You just move on the right way,” McVay said. “You look at it, you’re honest with the assessment of it and we’ll keep it moving and we’ll start our preparation as soon as tomorrow.”
Even though the loss to the 49ers was disappointing, the goal all season has been to win the Super Bowl and that is now in front of them.
While beating the Cardinals won’t be easy, the Rams have fared well against them in recent years and Arizona comes in losers of four of their last five, so this has to be an opponent that McVay is welcoming as they begin their journey to the Super Bowl next week.
