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www.turfshowtimes.com] Sean McVay doesn’t have the answers to fix the Rams’ issues this season
Rams drop to 3-6 leaving McVay searching for non-existent positives to draw from
By Christopher Daniel Nov 14, 2022, 8:45am CST
NFL: Arizona Cardinals at Los Angeles Rams
Jayne Kamin-Oncea-USA TODAY Sports
The Los Angeles Rams drop yet another game by a double-digit margin, losing to the Arizona Cardinals 27-17, all but wrapping up any hopes of a postseason appearance for L.A. Not only did the game end any chance of defending the Rams’ Super Bowl championship, it comes with the heavy loss of Cooper Kupp suffering a leg injury. Head coach Sean McVay addressed Kupp’s injury, as well as his lack of answers on how to fix the Rams multitude of issues.
No official update on Kupp, but it doesn’t look good
“I don’t have anything on Cooper right now. I just know it didn’t look good. It didn’t sound good. I haven’t had any dialogue with Reggie (Scott, Vice President of sports medicine and performance), but well obviously have further updates later on.”
All eyes will be focused on the status of Cooper Kupp, after the Super Bowl MVP was knocked out of the game with a leg injury. His right leg was trapped awkwardly, after leaping for an overthrown John Wolford pass. With the Rams’ playoff hopes all but gone, there should be no rush to get Kupp back to action with any urgency. Saying this is bad news is possibly the understatement of the season. Kupp was already the Rams sole bright spot on offense. One has to wonder where McVay will find any consistent offensive production moving forward. Early reports indicate Kupp avoided a catastrophic injury, but he must have further tests to confirm extent of injury. Not that this is a fix, but it’s time to see what preseason darling Lance McCutcheon has to offer.
Game-time decision on Stafford’s availability was legitimately close
“There was a possibility, like we had talked about. Going in alignment with all the things that we had discussed, airing on the side of being smart and safe above all else and making sure that he’s feeling good and obviously clears all those steps and we weren’t quite there.”
One would assume if Stafford was close to playing Sunday against the Cardinals after being placed in the concussion protocol early in the week, he should be able to suit up with another week of rest. To be clear, this is just me reading between the lines, as McVay did not implicitly say anything about Stafford’s status next week.
Continued inability to generate any semblance of stability on offense present once again
“When you’re able to be efficient on those early downs, and then when you’re not, then you can’t get into any sort of rhythm, and then you’re off the field if you don’t convert on third down.”
The offense had been an ugly sight to see with Stafford under center, so there was no reason to expect any combination of Wolford and Bryce Perkins to look any better. Wolford was what you would expect from a backup quarterback behind a subpar offensive line, completing 24 of 36 passes for 212 yards, one interception, and his first career passing touchdown. That lone touchdown and 65 of those passing yards came in garbage time on the Rams last possession. L.A. was only able to muster up 256 total yards on the day. No one on offense stepped up around the backup quarterback. Third down was predictably bad, with L.A. going a measly 3/11 on the all-important money down.
No apparent answers to end season with a respectable finish
“I don’t know exactly what those answers are. But, in a lot of instances, some of the things we talked about: being able to capitalize on momentum, being able to make some of the plays when they’re there to be had. ...We’ve just got to be able to have a better product out there, start to see some improvement. And that’s the challenging thing is there really hasn’t been examples of that occurring.”
I don’t know why, but it was sobering to hear McVay acknowledge there haven’t been any signs of improvement. It’s been evident to anyone who has watched Los Angeles play this year, but it was still interesting to hear the head coach verbalize it. It’s clear that this is going to be a long, drawn out end to the season, with no clear direction on how to fix this year’s iteration of the Rams.
