Sean McVay not worried about Rams overlooking winless Jets
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theramswire.usatoday.com]
Cameron DaSilva
In the last five weeks, the Los Angeles Rams have won four games against teams that were .500 or better. They knocked off the Seahawks, Bucs and Cardinals before blowing out the Patriots in Week 14.
Their only loss since the Week 9 bye came against the 4-6 49ers, who stunned the Rams with a 23-20 victory on Nov. 29. Los Angeles will face another sub-.500 team on Sunday, but this one isn’t nearly as likely to upset the Rams.
The 0-13 New York Jets will visit SoFi Stadium in Week 15 as the Rams host what’s been a historically bad team led by Adam Gase. The Jets were just crushed by the Seahawks, 40-3, two weeks after getting blown out by the Dolphins, 20-3.
After being so many quality teams, it might be easy for the Rams to overlook the winless Jets. But Sean McVay isn’t worried about that happening. He knows his players and coaches will be motivated and ready to go come Sunday afternoon, even with such an easy opponent on the schedule.
“I do trust the maturity of this football team,” McVay said last week. “I mean, you look at it, the Raiders are a really good team. Shoot, I’ve seen them in a couple of prime-time games, they beat the Saints, they go to the wire-to-wire with the Chiefs and they’re a Hail Mary away from losing to (the Jets). Even when you flip on the tape, the way that the Jets played the Patriots about a month ago on Monday Night Football, this is a team that – sometimes you throw records out the door, the tape is where the truth really is revealed. There’s a lot of different ways that games are won or lost in this league. I don’t worry about our football team’s maturity to handle getting ready to ultimately try to clinch a playoff spot by winning that game. But, stay on track to give ourselves a chance to compete for trying to win a division.”
Unlike the Jets, the Rams are coming off a mini-bye after playing against the Patriots on Thursday night. They’ll have four extra days of rest to get healthy for this Week 15 matchup, and will be at home waiting for the Jets to travel across the country.
The Jets may not have anything to lose, but the Rams also have a lot to gain by beating New York on Sunday – which should have McVay’s squad fired up to continue its winning ways in the second half of the season.
“I do think it’ll be good, and it comes at a good time for us to have a couple days of rest and then get ready to go attack our 10th win against the Jets, who I know have played really good football in terms of competing and being in games. I know that we won’t take them lightly, that’s for dang sure,” McVay said.
