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Transcript: LAR Postgame (at Giants) Head Coach Sean McVay December 31, 2023

January 01, 2024 10:10AM
LAR Postgame (at Giants) Transcript: Head Coach Sean McVay

December 31, 2023

First of all, a lot of credit to (Giants Head) Coach (Brian) Daboll and the Giants. They gave us everything
that we had, and there are a lot of things that we can learn from. We're never going to take for granted
being able to get wins. There were a lot of things that we tried to do to not win this game today, but our
guys found a way. Sometimes you need to be able to have these types of games to increase your sense
of urgency. We were a little off. We had our opportunities, but they just kept staying together.
There's going to be a lot of good things that we can look at and correct together, and that's what it's
about. But I'm proud of this group, I'm proud of them finding a way to be able to get the win. Like I said,
a lot of credit goes to the Giants. I thought Coach Martindale (Giants Defensive Coordinator Wink
Martindale) did a great job of applying pressure. We had our chances, but they did a good job of being
able to create some of the issues that we had, whether it was turning the ball over, or taking sacks, and
it'd be a great opportunity for us to be able to look at this, learn from it, and then move forward next
week the right way.

Q: At this point in the season, does it matter how you win?

A: No, it doesn't, unless you tell me that we get more points for winning for more than one point. So, it
does not, but what I do think is there was a lot of things that were uncharacteristic of playing sharp,
good football, that I know we're capable of. We had some uncharacteristic mistakes by some of our
guys, and I'm excited about being able to say, ‘Hey, it's going to be a lot more fun cleaning these things
up after a win.’
That's a good positive question from you there. I'm proud of you, man.

Q: How do you evaluate special teams?

A: It was tough. There are a lot of things that we have to be better at. So, I want to be careful not to say
too much until I am able to look at the totality of it all. I’m very engaged in the offense and defense and
some of the different things that didn’t occur today. We’ve got to do a better job there, so that wasn’t
good enough, but there’s a lot of things, not exclusive to teams, on offense and defense. And then there
was enough good for us to be able to find a way to win the football game. So, we’ll take that and then
we’ll be able to learn from it and move forward accordingly.

Q: Do you believe there was something the Giants picked up on, particularly when they were playing
on defense?

A: No. In terms of what?

Q: In terms of being able to find the slots and gain sacks and stuff like that?

A: No. There were a couple where we had some miscommunication on some protections. They did a
good job of being able to bring more than what we could block, on that last third down where definitely
could have had us in a better play. But I’ve got a ton of respect for Wink Martindale. He does a great job;
I thought their players executed well. There were some things that we would like to think that we had
answers for; clearly, they did a better job of executing in some of those situations. But I thought there
was a lot of good stuff, too, in terms of some of the explosives. You certainly don't want to take away
from the credit they deserve for forcing the turnovers and getting some of the sacks. So, kind of was
rude the way that I started that answer, I apologize there. But there are some things that I thought we
could have executed better, and then there's always going to be situations that I know I can do a better
job for our players.

Q: You guys built kind of a lead there early in the third quarter, a nice little buffer. It seems like you
guys had trouble moving the ball and taking time off the clock. How much of a concern is that?

A: It was really—I thought doing what they did was— they were being really aggressive. It was going to
be just like early in the game. You’ve got to be able to just take completions, be efficient. We had some
opportunities, I thought, to be able to execute, and we just weren't able to do that at the level that
we're accustomed to. There was definitely some miscommunication in regards to targets, protection
targets…
But you give them credit. They came out today, they had a really aggressive game plan where they
wanted to just kind of be able to keep you on tilt. If you do end up not picking some of those things up,
they feel like they're on the attack, and then if you're able to get some of those catch-and-runs, and you
saw. Because there were a lot of explosive plays that we had as well, but we’ve got to be more
consistent. I'm excited to be able to go look back at it and say, ‘Where are the things that I could have
done a better job as well?’ And I want our players to feel that same exact way. When you turn it over as
many times as we did, in situations that we really haven't, that's what's going to end up happening. For
us to be able to come away with a win in spite of everything that occurred is really very abnormal, and
so that's where I'm grateful.

Q: Is it more dangerous playing a team like this late in the season rather than earlier in the season?
They’re out of the playoffs.

A: I think what these guys do in this league is they play hard every week. I think humility is only a week
away and a day away. I’ve got a ton of respect for that coaching staff for those players, and then they
were ready to go today. They ended up giving everything that we had, they had their opportunities, and
they earned their opportunities. So, I’ve been around this league for a while and you're continuing to
accumulate experience where you just know that, hey, I don't care what you did the previous week or
the previous month, you’ve got to show up in that three-and-a-half-hour window. They were clearly
ready to go, and I was proud that our guys found enough to be able to get over the top there.

Q: Those two turnovers by (quarterback Matthew) Stafford were pretty uncharacteristic. Was his
thumb bothering him?

A: I don't think so. I think it just sailed on him a little bit, where we had some in-breaking routes that he's
been really good on, and the ball just got away. I think what you can't tell is the wind swirled a little bit
more. He’d be better equipped to tell you, but I’ve got nothing but confidence in him. He's been the
reason, as big a reason why we're in a position that we are to be able to get a winning season, the way
that he's played. Nobody's going to be harder on himself than he is. My confidence doesn't change one
iota, and I want to make sure that I'm looking at myself and what we can do collectively to play better. I
think we can catch the ball more consistently. I thought there were some opportunities for us to do that.
Everybody’s in this together. When we don't get some of the things that we want, and then when we
do, and so we're going to continue to stay connected. Like I said, I’ve got so much confidence and faith
in him. There's nobody that's going to respond better than Matthew, and he did a lot of good stuff
today, too. So, I don't want to take away from that.

Q: I know you’re still processing this, but the 49ers won, the Eagles lost, and you could get some help
from the Steelers with the Seahawks. If that doesn’t happen, going into the final weekend, you guys
can say if you win, you’re in. What’s it like to be in that position?

A: We've been kind of in that mode for the last handful of weeks, so doesn't really change much other
than knowing—because if we didn't take care of our business today, I don't know what the percentages
were, but I know they’d significantly drop. We’ve been basically in playoff mode, and it's a phenomenal
team. So, we'll look at that, and then we'll see what else happens and then we'll have our plan
accordingly. But our focus and concentration will be on cleaning up these mistakes from this game and
then doing a great job with our preparation against the number one seed in the NFC.

Q: He mentioned the Seahawks game. When you’re watching the game as a third party, do you have
any superstitions or anything?

A: No. No superstitions. We’ll see if the WiFi works on the flight back so that we can watch it and see.

Q: Heading into the playoffs, how important is a gritty win like this? You’re up 20-10, you talked about
that it wasn’t a great win, but a win is a win. How important is that coming to playoff time?

A: It is, and we really kept ourselves in a position to potentially be able to extend our season. There are a
lot of things that can take place, but I love what this team has done. To be able to say alright, we break
this season up into quarters, and then one of those sequences has five games with us playing 17 now,
but we had eight games left after we ended up coming off of our bye. We were 3-1 in the third quarter,
we’re 3-0 in the fourth quarter and got to be able to finish it off, and we'll see where that leaves us. But I
was proud of the grit. There's a mental and physical toughness this team possesses and sometimes
you’ve got to be able to get wins like that. There are no style points just like Gary asked at the very
beginning, so we'll take it and like I said, I'm looking forward to being able to clean this stuff up, move
forward, and have our eyes up and have a great week of preparation for the Niners.



LAR Postgame (at Giants) Transcript: QB Matthew Stafford

December 31, 2023

Q: How would you kind of describe what happened?

A: That was a crazy one. Golly, we obviously didn’t play our best on the offensive side of the ball. Our
defense did a great job getting some critical stops there late. Special teams was a huge factor in the
game on both sides so that was a crazy game. Not the cleanest of football but found a way to win the
game. Man, are there plays that I wish that I had back? Absolutely. Felt like I was seeing it really well,
just obviously, made two mistakes with throwing the football. Just two poor throws to be honest with
you. The rest of the day felt pretty solid so a lot to clean up, but a win is a win, and we’ll take it.

Q: How much was that the wind swirling? Was your thumb bothering you at all?

A: That was just two bad balls. To be honest with you, the first one, I’m trying to probably do a little bit
too much and move 58 (inside linebacker Bobby Okereke) on to the pivot with a little bit of eyes and he
was probably moving there without me and probably could’ve just put it on (Rams wide receiver) Puka’s
(Nacua) facemask. Then the second one, just a little indecision on my part on how to throw that ball and
when you have indecision out there, it’s not probably going to be a good thing, so I’ve just got to be a
little more decisive on how to throw that ball on that one. Another thing to learn from, those things
happen. Sometimes those fall and hit the ground and you don’t think anything of it but today they didn’t
and to be honest with you, they probably shouldn’t so those are plays I want back. But continue to fight,
I thought everybody fought until, obviously, the very end and got us a win.

Q: How do you feel – there’s still a lot of things that could happen in terms of playoffs and stuff but
how do you feel going into the final week?

A: Shoot, just excited to be playing meaningful football. Obviously, really tough opponent coming up,
one of the best teams in the league. Have been a really good opponent, challenge for us since I’ve been
here so just excited about the opportunity. Playing games that mean something this late in the season is
a lot of fun.

Q: We’ve asked you about (Rams running back) Kyren (Williams) a lot, obviously, the last several
weeks but three touchdowns today and he had that 28-yarder. What did you like about what he gave
you today?

A: He did a great job. I mean, they were – I’ve got to go look at the number, but I think it was 80-85
percent of the game they were pressuring us and that’s difficult for the guys up front in run game and
stuff like that so I thought our guys up front did a heck of a job. Kyren was patient, it wasn’t like every
single run was ripping for eight, nine, 10-yards. Obviously, had the big one. I thought he did a great job
of just picking and choosing his spots and when we got down there in the redzone, man, just putting it in
for us. They wanted to play a little bit of two-high zone in the first one down there, so we ran it in and
after a long Puka play, he just stuffed it in himself, which was great. Then the final one there was just a
great job. I mean, that was zero, again, zero, all out pressure. Our guys up front did a great job of kicking
out the front side, shutting down the back side and then our guys on the perimeter did a great job, too.
There were a few DBs left, our guys covered them up and then Kyren did the rest.

Q: What did you see as the Puka play unfolded? You got the ball out on the right side and then did you
think the play was over or what –

A: I could see him battling over there a little bit, (cornerback) Adoree’ (Jackson) did a great job of driving
that. I mean, I felt like I had to put it way outside, outside shoulder. He came up to me after the game
and was like, he thought he was going to take it the other way, so it was almost a touchdown for
somebody. But no, it was a great catch, you know, to haul that in, guy draped all over him and then just
being a strong runner after the fact. I had no idea if he’d stepped out of bounds, it’s really hard for me to
see but he took off and to go 75, whatever he went, 80 yards was pretty impressive.

Q: What does the resiliency of this team tell you? It seemed at times that the offense got a little bit
stagnant but when you guys needed to make plays, you guys stepped up and y’all made plays.

A: I wish we could’ve finished it a little bit better than we did there late in the fourth with us having the
ball to really kind of kneel it out and take the game over there. Got to give them a lot of credit on
defense and (Defensive Coordinator) Wink (Martindale), they present about as tough of looks as you can
present to an offense in some of those situations. Can handle those better and finish the game off on
offense, I would love to do that next time but it’s a mentally tough team, physically tough team, we just
kept battling. Make then snap it one more time on defense was huge for us today, had a couple fourth
down stops that were huge. I mean, we turned the ball over basically four times today on offense, right?
Three turnovers, two picks, a fumble and a fourth down that we didn’t convert and still found a way to
win the football game. I mean, that’s a resilient group and just proud of the guys for keeping on fighting.

Q: So much was made about the youth of this team early in the season. How much different is this
team now than it was at that point?

A: I think that we’ve continued to grow. I think we put the work in week in and week out and since the
bye week I feel like that we’ve had the mentality of every week was basically a playoff game for us. We
had to go out there and win a bunch of the last eight, we’re still not there. We’ve got to continue to
have that mentality and that mentality has served us well so far. It’s going to continue to serve us well as
we move forward.



#HelmetHornsMatter

“Well, the color is good, I like the metallic blue,” Youngblood recently said while laughing, via NFL Journal. “The horn is terrible. It looks like a ‘C.’ When I first saw it on the logo I honestly thought it was a Charger logo.

“Now when I see it on the helmet, it just isn’t a ram horn. There is no distinct curl like a mature ram horn. I don’t know how the Rams could get that wrong. That is your symbol and it has been for what? Seventy years or more? Longer than I have been alive? It’s just not us, it’s not the Rams.”---Mr. Ram Jack Youngblood


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  Transcript: LAR Postgame (at Giants) Head Coach Sean McVay December 31, 2023

Ramsdude59January 01, 2024 10:10AM