Sean McVay promises more fight from Los Angeles Rams after losing to 49ers

The Los Angeles Rams dropped their second game in a row and their fifth in a row to the San Francisco 49ers, by a final score of 31-10. With this most recent loss, the Rams failed to gain ground on the Arizona Cardinals and dropped to 1-2 in the NFC West. After the game, Head Coach Sean McVay promised the Rams will return from the bye week with more fight. Here are some additional takeaways from the press conference, as well as comments from Odell Beckham and Von Miller.

McVay on the Rams’ approach for the rest of the regular season

“We’ll look inwardly, we’re gonna figure this thing out, and were gonna come back freaking swinging, I promise you that, over the last seven games of the regular season.”

What else can you say after a loss like that? Over the last two weeks, the Rams were outscored 59-26, with 10 of the Rams’ points coming in garbage time after the respective games had long been decided.

McVay on how the 49ers were able to pull off the upset

“They did a good job. They were able to kind of just churn out yards. They were efficient on some of the third downs. To have two turnovers to start the game offensively, we’re not playing complementary football.”

Starting off behind the eight ball is clearly not where this team feels comfortable. After falling into a 14-0 hole for the second consecutive week, it’s starting to seem like the Rams may be a team that struggles playing from any deficit. San Francisco converted 57 percent of their third down chances, while the Rams were successful at only 30 percent of their third down opportunities.

McVay on the Rams’ losing streak

“Everybody had a hand in this tonight and that’s where we gotta look at ourselves. Look inwardly first and foremost and then be able to move forward accordingly, because I choose to believe that these last couple of weeks is not who we are. I refuse to believe that, even though you know what, you’re only as good as you last game. These last two weeks have certainly been humbling.”

During this press conference, McVay repeatedly stated things he chooses to believe. I personally feel like part of what you believe must be based in some sort of reality. The Rams are a 7-3 football team, but those seven wins have been at the expense of teams with a combined record of 21-42-1.

Beckham acknowledges Rams were outplayed in all phases

“Tonight the ‘9ers came out and played better than us in all phases of the game and that’s just the moral of the story. There’s no trying to find what happened. They just outplayed us.”

That’s exactly it. San Francisco performed better than L.A. in all aspects, including coaching.

Fuller on defensive struggles on third down

“I would say we’ve got to execute better. That’s what it comes to on third down, really.”

The defense struggled mightily on third down, which has been a theme under this Raheem Morris led defense. They did improve in the second half, but the offense was unable to take advantage of the defensive stops.

Stafford again admits he was too aggressive on a pass that ended up being an interception

“Just too aggressive throwing it down the field. Shouldn’t have done it. The second one, I’m throwing that ball to Higgs (tight end Tyler Higbee) just like that every time. Uncharacteristic, just something that is a hazard of playing the position.”

The first interception looked like a Hail Mary when it left Stafford’s hand. The first players that came into the camera shot as the ball dropped out of the sky had red jerseys on. The second interception was one of those “please, not like this” moments. Jimmie Ward undoubtedly got the game ball in the 49ers’ locker room.

Stafford’s take on Beckham’s performance and role going forward

“Yeah, I think we’ll figure that out. I think there will be probably sometime where we can spend together to try to get him as up to speed as we possibly can. This is something that took me some time, takes a lot of people time to learn this offense. I thought he did a great job of coming in and executing the tightened down game plan we had for him. I imagine that role to continue to expand the more and more that he can handle.”

With the Rams losing wide receiver Robert Woods for the rest of the year, Beckham’s role will certainly expand. For more reasons than one, the bye week is coming at the perfect time.

Miller excited about future with Aaron Donald

“We didn’t have too many rushes, but the two or three that we did have, man I’m excited to play with 99.”

This wasn’t the game script conducive for a Miller-Donald highlight package. The 49ers executed their game plan to perfection, keeping the ball on the ground with 42 carries (not including two carries from Jimmy Garoppolo) and limiting the pass rushing opportunities for L.A.’s defensive front.

Miller to use the bye week to get healthy and study the playbook

“Bye week is always good. I feel like I can get a little bit more healthy. I feel like I was healthy enough to play tonight, but still got a little bit to go.”

The former Denver Bronco also added that he will use this bye week to get a better grasp of the playbook. Hopefully, Raheem Morris will use this bye week to make some adjustments to the playbook itself.