Rams Are Facing a Four-Game Gauntlet. Can They Handle the Pressure?

The Rams Are Facing a Four-Game Gauntlet. Can They Handle the Pressure?

ALBERT BREER

https://www.si.com/nfl/2018/10/25/los-angeles-rams-four-game-stretch-packers-saints-seahawks-chiefs

Sean McVay got a call from a concerned party this week, worried that the pressure of being 7-0 and barreling toward the stretch run might wind up getting to the Rams coach a little bit, as he works through another week and toward another opponent. He is, after all just 23 games into this head-coaching thing, and expectations couldn’t be much higher than they are right now.

It was his mom, on the other end of that phone call.

“She worries about me,” McVay said over his cell as he wrapped up practice. “So she just says, ‘This is a lot of pressure.’ And I said, ‘It is, but you know, you don’t really feel it, because you got such good people around you, with your players, with your coaches.’ And then, the only thing I know how to do is to work as hard as I possibly can, do the job to the best of my ability, not be afraid to say ‘I don’t know’ or ask questions and keep making sure I’m keeping [myself] accountable.

“If you do that, then that’s all you can really do.”

It sure has been enough thus far. Will it be over the next month?

That’s an open question, and not because of how the Rams are playing—they’re seventh in total defense and fourth in points allowed, second in total offense and third in points scored, and they’ve won four games by double-digit margins—but because of what’s in front of them.

The iron of the schedule is here for McVay’s crew. They get a visit from Aaron Rodgers and the Packers this week, travel to the Superdome to face the Saints on Nov. 4, host the team that played them closest, Seattle, on Nov. 11, then play an electric Chiefs team in Mexico City on a Monday night three days ahead of Thanksgiving.

You have questions about the Rams? We’ll all have plenty of answers four weeks from today. And should they make it through 11-0, then maybe, just maybe, there’s a realistic shot at becoming the second team to make it all way through a 16-game regular season without a blemish.

Don’t bring that up to McVay, though. He won’t be hearing it, mostly because it’s against everything that got the Rams this far.

We’re starting with the unbeaten Rams and the gauntlet they’re set to enter, which is where my conversation with McVay started late Wednesday afternoon. And in answering my first question—Do you want your guys to embrace this as a defining month?—the reigning Coach of the Year slipped a little something in that brings insight into what he and his staff are putting in front of the team.

“The biggest thing that we do, we try to approach it where we try to have a great week of preparation and try to be the best version of ourselves,” McVay said. “And with the confidence that we have in our guys, I think they feel like that would be enough. And we certainly don’t shy away from the opponent and knowing what’s at stake in going against a quality player like Aaron Rodgers.”

Right there in the first line: the best version of ourselves.

McVay wanted to make sure, of course, he was saying it with all the respect he could muster for Rodgers and Drew Brees and Russell Wilson and Patrick Mahomes, as well as Mike McCarthy, Sean Payton, Pete Carroll and Andy Reid. But as he sees it, and as his team does too now, this really isn’t about those guys. It’s about seeing how far the Rams can take what they’ve already built.

That, as we said, is a team that’s top quarter of the league in yards and points on both sides of the ball. It’s a team with a quarterback completing 70 percent of his throws with a passer rating of 112.7. A team with a running back on pace for nearly 1,600 yards and 25 touchdowns, and a star defensive linemen with eight sacks and four different defensive backs with interceptions.

Can the Rams top what they’ve already done? That’s kind of the idea here.

“It’s heavily influenced by the John Wooden approach, where really all you can do is compete to the best of your ability in every single thing that you do,” McVay continued. “And we feel like if our practice, our preparation, our planning is done with intent, is done with a detail and a precision that is to the best of our ability, then that allows us to go play with a quieted mind and know we’ll have no regrets.”

The cool part for McVay now is seeing, as he has, the players take ownership of it, so he barely has to say anything anymore. It’s happened on offense, with the big bro of the locker room, left tackle Andrew Whitworth, pushing quarterback Jared Goff and running back Todd Gurley to find their voices. It’s happened on D, with injured cornerback Aqib Talib as a guiding light and defensive tackle Aaron Donald, the reigning Defensive Player of the Year, setting a high bar in every way without being overly vocal.

From there, things trickle down. One example McVay raised was how veteran wideout Robert Woods took it upon himself in Seattle in Week 5 to instill confidence in young receivers Josh Reynolds and KhaDarel Hodge after Cooper Kupp and Brandin Cooks went down. Another is where certain things, like consistent performance along the offensive line, have come along faster than expected.

And sure enough, that interplay also came up when I asked McVay what he’s most proud of when he looks at the 7-0 start.

“The one thing that you’re proud of is that … you just kind of watch and I’ve had a handful of people say it, you can just tell it’s a connected team,” he said. “The guys enjoy playing together, they play for each other. They’re mentally tough. When bad things happen throughout a game, they support one another. And I feel like our coaching staff represents that too.”

That, of course, is why you go for it on fourth down in Seattle to win the game. It’s why you’re able to avoid a potential pothole in Week 7 in San Francisco against a team without its starting quarterback. And it’s why McVay still feels like the best version of the Rams hasn’t hit the field yet.

“The goal is to continuously improve,” McVay said. “I think if there’s one thing that’s consistent that I’ve learned in the short time I’ve been coaching, it’s that the really good teams get better as the season progresses. And we’ve got, for sure, nine opportunities to get better in a game-type setting. And for us, now, it’s doing a great job with our game this week. “

Safe to say, McVay’s mom doesn’t have much to worry about. Sure, there’s pressure to maintaining a perfect record. There’s stress associated with preparing to take on Rodgers.

But all in all, her son feels pretty good about where he’s at.