McVay, Goff …. 10/18… transcripts

Los Angeles Rams HC Sean McVay

(Opening Remarks)

From an injury standpoint, (C John) Sullivan, (T Andrew) Whitworth and (OLB Connor) Barwin were their typical rest days that we give them early on in the week. (CB) Kevin Peterson was out today with an illness, he should be okay though. (LB) Mark (Barron) was out with his thumb. (S) Cody Davis was out with a thigh and then (CB) Troy Hill and (S) Lamarcus Joyner were both back, full participants, so they’re in good shape.”

(On if S Lamarcus Joyner is on track to start in this game)

“Yes, if everything goes according to plan. He said he felt good today. It was a little bit modified tempo just dealing with the atmosphere, but he felt good and the anticipation is that he’ll be ready to go and start for us.”

(On how fortunate he feels to have all his starters healthy for a game at the mid-way part of the season)

“Right, very fortunate. I think a lot of it, like we’ve talked about, is a credit to (Director of Sports Medicine & Performance) Reggie Scott and his training staff. They’ve done an excellent job implementing plans. We try to follow those and the players really follow them. There’s certain injuries that ultimately can’t really be avoided that are just kind of freak accidents. But I think within the framework of the things that you can control – some of the muscle pulls, just taking care of yourself throughout the course of the week getting ready for those games – our players have done an excellent job and really our support staff with Reggie and (Head Strength & Conditioning Coach) Ted (Rath) and Joey (Blake) our nutritionist. We can’t say enough about what they’ve done to put us in this position.”

(On how he has felt this trip has gone from a coaching perspective and the preparation that was put into the trip)

“I think it’s gone really well and I think, really, you look at just the first couple days of your weekly preparation, you’re just doing it in a different place. The players handled it great. We actually got a little bit of a jump on our install where we got some of the third downs in just so we can get our entire game-plan installed to our players before we travel to London tomorrow night. They did a great job coming out, having a good locked-in focus and concentration and it’s been outstanding. I think it’s been a great opportunity for us to kind of get away and continue to connect like we’ve talked about. Up to this point, it’s been exactly what we had hoped.”

(On being in a goal line formation on defense in the middle of the field against the Jaguars)

“Well that’s a credit just because they run the football so well. We put in an extra personnel grouping where you get (OLB) Cory Littleton in there versus their ‘12’ and their ‘21’ packages. They’ve led the league in rushing. They’ve been able to run it versus those heavy box counts. I think that’s a credit to (Defensive Coordinator) Coach Wade (Phillips) and our defensive staff seeing what they had put on tape and I thought it was a great way being able to defend some of the things that they presented. That’s why they are a great run defense, but you have your weekly game plans and that was why we implemented that plan right there.”

(On if that was a specific package for that Jaguars game)

“It was. Absolutely.”

(On QB Jared Goff mentioning that he didn’t get the ball downfield as much as he would have liked and if there is something he noticed when reviewing the film)

“Yeah, I think there is just a couple opportunities. It wasn’t necessarily not getting down the field, just connecting on those shots. You have a couple opportunities that we expect our guys to be able to make, but again, Jacksonville is one of the top pass defenses in the league for a reason. They’ve got great ‘DBs,’ excellent in terms of how they match things up on the back end – played a couple different coverage principles. But, things that we had talked about and kind of had a chance to maybe make some plays, and credit to them, we didn’t do that. But, that’s going to be a point of emphasis really every week, just being efficient in the pass game and when you get your opportunists to make some of those plays, especially off the play action and the movement, you want to try to hit a high percentage and our guys have done that. Last week was a tough one for us.”

(On if he ever counsels Goff and WR Sammy Watkins together about chemistry on deep routes)

“Yeah. We do offensive meetings and we meet consistently a lot of the times with the receivers and the quarterbacks, just talking about that rhythm and timing, that rapport. It is an imperfect game, but a lot of times if things happen in the rhythm and timing of the play that we want, we have landmarks on a lot of these things. The quarterback, we tell him to read with his feet and as long as everybody is on the same page, you give yourself a chance to improve. I really can’t say enough, not just exclusive to Jared and Sammy, but about our players with how receptive they are with just continuing to learn, continuing to grow and get better and every game and every, really, practice provides a learning opportunity. They did a good job coming out here today.”

(On if landmarks for a receiver are where they need to be at a certain point)

“You’d like to and again, a lot of it’s predicated on what type of coverage, are you getting free access? Some of our routes are on steps and timing, but you have ideal spots so that you can anticipate. You never want to predetermine things, but we talk about anticipating decisions and where things end up hitting if the rhythm and timing is like what you want. When you do that, you give yourself a chance to play pretty efficient football in the pass game, but you also have to take into account that you have 11 guys that are trying to stop you and sometimes you get rerouted on your routes. But, there are a lot of those routes that are predicated on the rhythm, timing and hitting it on certain spots and we’ll continue to work those.”

(On if those are two-way conversations)

“Absolutely. We talk about it all the time as it doesn’t really matter what we know as coaches, it’s about the players. They’re the ones out there. We want to make sure that they have an understanding and the thing that I think is really special, too, is we say certain things, but there’s a lot of dialogue that takes place between the players that I think is very healthy, where they’re the ones out there, they’re the ones communicating – there’s so much communication that goes on in the huddle that coaches aren’t exposed to and I think that’s healthy for us. But, it’s our job to be able to kind of set that table and then make sure that they understand it and then let them develop and continue to have an understanding for each other and what we’re trying to get done moving forward.”

(On how he thought Cardinals RB Adrian Peterson looked to him)

“He looked pretty good last week, 134 yards and a couple touchdowns. One of the things that you’ve always been impressed with him is his patience to the line and then when he makes a decision, he can explode and accelerate in and out of cuts. He can go through you, he can make you miss, so he showed those things. You look at, he bounces one of their duo plays and gets on the corner and make a really good corner in (Tampa Bay CB) Brent Grimes miss in space. He can go up the middle and I thought he gave their offense as a whole and, really, their team a bunch of juice. You look at the way guys were competing up front, creating some holes and they were very efficient. Anytime offensively you’re able to make some plays in the pass game and then have that balance in the run game, it makes you really difficult to defend and I think that’s why they put up so many points and had the success they did.”

(On if any members of his family that live in Georgia came down to see him)

“Not really. My parent were here for the weekend and then my brother and his fiancée, so it was good to see them. But, haven’t had anybody else come in town. But, it was really good to see my family. It’s always good to have them here.”

(On what it says about his team that he has four players who have been named NFC Player of the Week so far this season)

“I think we’ve got good players that have made some big time plays to be able to put themselves in a position to achieve an honor like that. I can’t say enough about (WR) Pharoh Cooper and what he’s done and his leadership, what he’s provided to the special teams unit. I think he’s continuing to improve as a receiver as well and we talked about him the other day, he’s just a good football player. Really, really pleased with Pharoh and I think (Special Team Coordinator) John Fassel does a great job putting those guys in position to have success. We’re very happy for Pharoh.”

(On WR Robert Woods not scoring a touchdown being just a matter of time before he scores)

“I think so. You look at it right there, he had a chance in the Dallas game where dependent upon who is making that decision, maybe you call it a touchdown, maybe you don’t. But, he’s going to continue to make the most of his opportunities. Certainly, we would like to get him in that end zone, but it’s about us scoring points as an offense. But, Robert has been really productive week-in and week-out, been one of the example in that receiver room and I think it is only a matter of time until he’ll end up getting into the end zone and continuing to produce there.”

***

QB Jared Goff

(On what it’s been like staying in Jacksonville all week)

“It’s been nice. It’s been kind of like a mini training camp a little bit. You get to hang out with all the guys again. To be around the coaches some more is always fun and meeting rooms are right near our rooms. It’s kind of like training camp again. It’s nice and it’s definitely better than flying back to California and then having to fly all the way back out to London.”

(On if the circumstances of this trip takes the team out of their routine at all)

“No, I don’t think so. I think everyone has their own routine they do at home, but I think for the most part most guys just kind of go home. That’s equivalent of just going back to your room. It is nice having the meeting rooms so close and having all the facilities and film and all that so close, where we can actually maybe even get a little bit more work if we need to.”

(On if he noticed anything from the Jacksonville game that he wants to clean up for Arizona)

“Definitely throwing the ball down the field. I was disappointed we didn’t hit any of those deep balls, but the game dictated that a little bit by the way we were moving the ball on the ground. Anytime you get a win, you’re happy with it and I was very happy with the way we closed the game out for sure.”

(On what prompted him to start the GoFundMe page to help fire victims in Northern California)

“Yeah, I was thinking about that for a while. I wanted to do it a while back and just kind of hadn’t really gotten around to doing it. Yesterday I had the day off and just took me 10 minutes to set it up and wanted to help the people up there. Being from where I’m from, it’s something I want to do to try to give back.”

(On if he’s picked an organization for the money to go to)

“Yeah, it’s called the Sonoma County Fire Association, which will go to all the victims of the fires as well as firefighters that were affected by it and all the fire people up there.”

(On if his efforts to raise money for fire victims was prompted by what other NFL players have recently done such as what Texans DE J.J. Watt was able to do in his efforts to help Houston in wake of Hurricane Harvey)

“I mean, that was unbelievably huge what he did, especially with the devastation they had there, but yeah that definitely gave me an idea. Maybe I could do something like that. Not nearly of that scale, but definitely prompted the thought for sure.”

(On if the weather they had today is getting him ready for the London weather)

“Yeah exactly, the field is a little muddy. It’ll get us ready for the London field and the weather as well. Yeah, it’s been nice.”

(On what has to happen for him to make that deep ball connection with WR Sammy Watkins)

“We’ve done it before. I don’t think we need to start changing anything. I think we’ve done it before – just continue to get reps and you keep trying to dial it in and be more consistent. But we’ve done it before and plan to do it again hopefully sometime soon.”

(On anything he notices on film that can help them clean up third downs)

“I think just execution of each play. I think we had some good plays on there and just didn’t quite execute them on everyone’s part. I can throw a couple balls a little better I think and we could do a little bit better at running routes and stuff like that, but for the most part just execution. I think we’ll look to bounce back this weekend in that regard.”

(On if it’s a matter of time before he connects with WR Robert Woods in the end zone)

“Yeah, that’s another one. I think he may be leading our team in catches and doesn’t have any touchdowns. Sometimes that’s the way the game works and obviously, you want to get him in the end zone and reward guys like that. But I don’t think he’s too upset about it. I know he wants to get in the end zone, but he obviously sees we’re winning right now and is happy with that.”

(On if it feels like they left a little bit on the table in the first six games)

“Yeah, definitely. I think we have been happy with where we are, but at the same time disappointed in some of the things that caused us to lose two of those games. So yeah, there’s definitely that, ‘not being content and wanting more,’ and I think it’s a great sign of a good team and it’s something that’s good to see around here.”