The Los Angeles Rams had every opportunity to beat a shorthanded San Francisco 49ers team on Thursday, but instead walked away with a 26-23 overtime loss. Head coach Sean McVay, visibly dejected, shouldered the blame in a rare moment of raw honesty.
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McVay admitted that the crucial late-game decisions he made put his team in a bad spot. “It’s a bad call,” McVay said bluntly about the failed fourth-down run in overtime when Kyren Williams was stuffed at the line.
“The play selection was very poor. I’m sick right now because I put our players in a shi**y spot. I’ve got to live with that,” McVay added, talking about how, instead of settling for a 29-yard field goal that would’ve tied the game and extended overtime, he opted to go for the win.
The coach admitted afterward that it “wasn’t even a thought” to kick. “In hindsight, I wish I had. But we came in here to try to win the football game. It didn’t go down for us,” said McVay.
The Rams had tried to draw the 49ers offside with a hard count before calling a timeout. But even after that failed, McVay stuck with the aggressive call, one that ultimately backfired.
While the overtime decision will define the game, McVay acknowledged the Rams hurt themselves throughout the contest. Rookie Blake Corum lost a costly fumble, Kyren Williams coughed up the ball at the 1-yard line on what could have been a go-ahead touchdown. And Los Angeles had a PAT blocked in the fourth quarter. All these mistakes piled up against them.
“We had a chance to close the game out, and ultimately it didn’t go down for us,” McVay continued.
“There was a significant amount of things… For us to even be in it was a real credit to the resilience of the group. That’s not winning football tonight. There were a lot of really good plays at different points that kept us competitive, gave us a chance to go to overtime, but we certainly did more to lose that game than we did to win it, and it did compound, for sure,” elaborated the coach.
McVay also credited San Francisco’s resilience despite its injuries. “Give the Niners credit. They made enough plays to be able to win the football game. We had plenty of chances throughout this game. We stayed in it. We fought, we battled, but there [are] a lot of things we have to clean up,” he said.
McVay admitted the weekend ahead won’t be pleasant. “This isn’t going to make for a fun weekend,” he said.
“But hey, these are the tough beats that you’ve got to be able to learn from and move forward, and that’s what we’re going to do,” he added.
The Rams will enjoy a quick turnaround with a mini-bye before their Week 5 matchup against the 1-3 Baltimore Ravens, who are likely to be without Lamar Jackson.
