Rams Head Coach Sean McVay – Postgame Press Conference – October 18, 2020

Can you run us through your evaluations of both sides of the ball tonight?
“Offensively, we just were never able to really get any sort of continuity. We had a lot of missed opportunities tonight. Some decisions that clearly I’ve got to do a better job with, but I think as a whole, there were just too many things that we’re not accustomed to doing. You give credit to the 49ers, they did a nice job, but we made a lot of uncharacteristic decisions. We had a lot of our players that we count on that didn’t come through in some situations that they typically do, but it’s a great learning opportunity for us. Defensively, a little bit of a slow start. I love the way we settled in. I thought they played excellent in the second half. There was a lot of physical, tough tackling, good third down stops. They gave us every opportunity to be able to get back in that game. Then with special teams, it was up and down. There were some good things, some things that we certainly have to do a much better job of, but overall I always feel much better when I go back and look at the tape and I’m able to give you clarity on everything that occurred.”

Are you comfortable with how your team was, or was not tackling, particularly after first contact on some of those yards after the catch play?
“There were a couple plays you look at, especially early on, where [49ers WR] Deebo, Samuel did a great job of coming out of that, I thought he was down. So, there’ll be a lot of things that we can learn about just wrapping up and finishing. They’ve got a lot of great players that do an excellent job of breaking tackles. We certainly want to tackle consistently and want to bring guys down on first contact, but you do give credit to the other guys for doing a nice job of creating those broken tackles.”

What happened with the RB Cam Akers tonight? It didn’t look like he played. Can you take us through the play calls on the third down and fourth down near the goal line?
“It was more of a result of Cam not being able to get into the flow because we had such a minimal amount of drives in the first half. We got him in there a little bit in the second half, but we ended up throwing it on a one play sequence. That’s where it was incomplete. Then it’s second and ten and we ended up putting [RB] Malcolm [Brown] in the game. On the third down, we just had a little half roll and typically where we make that throw and catch, we dropped it. Then on the fourth down, we had a bunch concept that they did a nice job matching up on.”

Can you take us through that first couple of series? So far this season, it seems like you’ve really relied on the run to start the game and today it seemed like the game plan was more to pass the ball to begin with. Is that accurate?
“Not necessarily. Sometimes we have different things called that they give us different looks and we had some pretty good looks to be able to throw and catch that we didn’t do in those first couple plays. We had the things that we wanted, but we’ve just got to be able to execute.”

What were they doing to seemingly neutralize your pass rush?
“They do a good job of really mixing it up. They balance the run with the play actions. They had some good screens early on and I think [49ers head coach] Kyle [Shanahan] does an excellent job. It was just the ability to be able to stay efficient on some of those early downs and then be able to commit a lot of guys to the protection. Then when they didn’t they had some screens and some different things that put a lot of stress on defenses.”

It seemed like QB Jared Goff and WR Cooper Kupp were kind of out of sync the whole game. From what you saw, what was going on and what made it so tough for them?
“They just missed on some opportunities that typically those guys connect on. I think you really just said it. They were just a little bit out of sync. We had some opportunities in some chances. I do believe that those two guys will definitely connect on a lot of those opportunities when we get them moving forward, but tonight was kind of one of those nights for us where we missed a lot of things that we’re accustomed to making happen.”

Can you just talk about the production of RB Darrell Henderson and how he’s been just a very patient runner waiting for the holes to open up and be able to execute that way?
“I thought he did a good job tonight. He had some tough runs. I thought he leveled his pads off really well at the end. I thought he saw the lanes pretty clearly on some different varieties that we activated. I’d love to be able to punch the one down in there in the red area. We’ve got a block a little bit better, but also sometimes it’s being able to create on your own a little bit, but Darrell did a lot of positive things tonight.”

How would you evaluate Jared Goff’s game overall tonight?
“I think it was some good, some bad, some things that I think we’ll want back. He did give us a chance at the end, but it’s always more helpful for me to go back and look at it before I give you a true evaluation.”

I know you said that no one should underestimate the 49ers, but what do you think tonight’s game says about the NFC West and what’s ahead for everyone in that division?
“What we’ve already known is that every single team is tough. We knew what kind of football team this was that we were playing and you’ve got to give them credit. They did a great job tonight, but I also think we had our hand in not playing up to our capabilities. You have to bring it and you have to show up and play at your best in those three and a half, four-hour windows that you get every single week. If not, these are the results that you get.”