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Sean McVay admits he got 'a little bit impatient' with play calls against Titans
Cameron DaSilva
November 9, 2021 4:59 am PT
The Rams’ game plan was turned on its head rather quickly against the Titans, falling behind 14-3 in a span of 11 seconds during the second quarter. It was the direct result of Matthew Stafford’s two interceptions, handing the Titans 14 points off turnovers.
With the Rams falling behind, Sean McVay leaned more heavily on the passing game – especially after the Titans took a 21-3 lead before halftime. He stayed aggressive, which was needed in order to stay in the game, but the Titans were generating pressure on Stafford and didn’t worry much about stopping the run.
After having some time to digest the game and watch the film, McVay regrets his call on fourth-and-1 where Stafford threw incomplete to Van Jefferson.
“The one call that stands out, I think the fourth-and-one when we were down 21-9 on a kind of similar play that we had run,” McVay told reporters. “We had Van on a low crawl on a crossing route earlier on. Anticipated what the defense was. To their credit, they did a nice job, Dupree did a nice job kind of reading out of it and enforcing Matthew to kind of get off of his spot and throw the ball earlier. But I thought there was a lot of better plays that I could have selected there.”
McVay wasn’t pleased with the play he drew up, but he also wishes he would’ve communicated to the offense that they didn’t need to push the ball downfield and force the issue to pick up big chunks of yardage at a time.
He said he got “a little bit impatient” with his calls, suggesting he was too aggressive with some of the plays he selected.
“It’s not even necessarily the play selection as much as kind of just the ways that you can help communicate the intent of it. Just being able to say, ‘Alright, we don’t have to get everything back right here. We can patiently take completions and still get it in chunks,’” McVay said, referring to the fourth-down call to Jefferson. “And if we’re able to score in an efficient manner, it doesn’t exclusively have to come through a 30- or a 40-yard gain. You can take 10 at a time or six and five. I think I just got a little bit impatient. And then like anything else, I think the execution and the standards that we have, and that our guys have offensively, and the confidence I have in those players, there were some instances where they could play better as well.”
Fans have been critical of McVay’s reluctance to stick with the running game, often pointing to how quickly he abandons the run if the Rams don’t maintain a lead. He’s unlikely to change that aspect of his play calling much, but at least he acknowledged that perhaps he was too aggressive and impatient on Sunday night.
