Rams Head Coach Sean McVay – Postgame Press Conference – October 11, 2020

(On the game today)
“Unbelievable job by our defense today for [DT Aaron Donald] AD and [LB] Troy Reeder to both have three sacks a piece and then just the consistency that they played with and, you know, you could see it but you can’t always feel the weather and how much it affected it. But, our defense I thought capitalized on that all day. There really wasn’t much that you could get going and there were definitely phases offensively where even just getting a handle on the ball was difficult for either side. Love the way that we came out offensively, kind of petered out a little bit. A lot of that stuff was altered by some of the weather. Say an excuse or not, that is a real thing that you could feel when you were out there. I thought [P] Johnny Hekker was outstanding today and, you know, we’ll look at the tape and we’ll get better and get ready for San Fran next week.”

(On Donald’s first sack of QB Kyle Allen)
“Yeah, I mean that’s an igniter type play but that’s how Aaron is all the time, so you know you don’t you definitely don’t take it for granted but that’s kind of par for the course. You’re so appreciative of him but that’s what he does. He changes the game week in and week out and you know today was no different than the norm for him.”

(On sacking QB Alex Smith)
“I mean, I think there’s a mutual respect the players have, but also you know because of some of the rules they had just stopped for progress they had blown the whistle dead there. I know the kind of character Aaron has. He’s going to compete hard and smart, but within the you know the rules and everything and I think the respect that these players have for each other mutually is demonstrated by stuff like that. But, that was also one of those where forward momentum was stopped and they kind of blew it that and a smart by Aaron there.”

(On watching Smith on the field)
“Even just watching him warm up—I mean it’s just incredible what he’s overcome and to be in a situation where he’s competing and being able to move in the pocket and make some plays off schedule. You almost wish for him as a football fan that it was in a little bit better conditions as far as being able to play where you can throw and catch a little bit more easily than what some of those elements entailed. But, weird saying that when it was our defense that made it very difficult. So, just impressed by him.”

(On Donald’s sacks of Smith)
“Yeah, you don’t want to ever see guy get injured. So I mean, those are things that—I hate seeing injuries anyways, but especially when you look at something that this guy has overcome to even be in that position so you know just the respect is through the roof. I’m just so impressed with him.”

(On RB Darrell Henderson Jr.’s first-career receiving touchdown)
“Yeah, it’ll be interesting to go back and look at this film because it was really an interesting dynamic just based on the way we came out, scored on our first three drives, went into a little bit of a low at the end of the half, and then you know some of the weather and different things like that made us a little bit more limited with the play selection. But, I did think that once it started to slow down rain-wise that was the drive that Darrell had a couple tough runs ended up being able to finish it to get us to 30 to 10. It was a great little option route that he ran where are you broke somebody off inside and it was the big-time play. I thought Darrell was the star that drive for sure that, we needed it. Just to be able to, you know—a little bit different in terms of calling it and getting the rhythm and routine. It’s always about winning the football game, but that was a sequence there that I thought was important we capitalize on. Some good field position—we hit [WR] Josh Reynolds on the big play there and it was good to be able to end the day all offensively like that after there was a lot of positives and a lot of things that we can get cleaned up.”

(On QB Jared Goff’s downfield passing)
“Yeah, we did that because of Gary [Klein]’s question earlier in the week so that I don’t have to listen to that anymore. We’ve been calling some of those, but now Gary can’t ask me that and say we’re not throwing it down the field anymore. But, I thought Jared made some big time throws you know the one to [WR] Robert Woods was huge. And then, you know, to his credit, here’s the thing that I would say because of the expectation standards: He played really well, and we can’t have those ends of the half sequences. He’s better than that. He knows what I love most is the way he’s able to respond from that but being able to miss a couple of those opportunities and then turn it over. He’s playing too good to have those things come in, and that’s where you start saying hey the expectations that we have for you. You see what a fine line, it is between playing an outstanding game and then having a sequence that we can have in some of these types of games.”

(On Goff’s fumble)
“Oh yeah, I saw it. It slipped right out of his hand. That’ll definitely be on the highlights that, we’ll get after him pretty good. I did see that. I was just so excited that we ran it in and scored that those things kind of just erased. But when you bring it up, I do remember watching the terrible spike attempt.”

(On Goff’s long pass to Woods)
“[It was for] a guy that’s watching us hard and said we didn’t throw it down the field. So, I said you have to put this play in for Gary Klein. No, it was a it was a situation that you know we’ve been running a lot of actions off of that same deal and Robert ended up doing a great job get down the field and for Jared be able to make that throw off of emotion where Roberts the vertical element. It was a big time play and ended up coming back to that same play and hit Josh on the second level of that three-level throw on that last scoring drive. So, it was a big-time throwing catch. A lot of positive things are basically just some of the coverage contours that they had played made us feel like we could get over the top on that one.”

(On preparing for the challenging schedule ahead)
“We ended up—we’re at 4-1, and we got to get ready for what we know is an outstanding football team in the 49ers next week. It truly is the cliché, but it’s the truth you got to take it one game at a time. So many things change week by week, certain guys get injured, you start looking ahead at your schedule that’s when you start not taking care of business and being where your feet are planted. And for us, it’s really about getting ready for our sixth football game next week. We know, the reigning NFC champs, reigning division champs are going to be ready to go. We’re going enjoy this ride home and then get ready for a great football game next weekend.”

(On what he learned playing East Coast teams)
“Yeah, I think just what we’ve already kind of known this is a mature team they can handle a lot of things. I think it’s really just whatever our rhythm and routine that we’re comfortable with and I think the guys have gotten comfortable in a short amount of time making these three trips in a very, you know, in the last month if you will and coming in the day before getting up getting ready to go. I know for me personally I’ve liked it because it allows the guys to be able to stay in their bed one more night. When you get there there’s not a lot of dead time you know sometimes when you get in on a Friday night you’re sitting around all day Saturday, you’re like what do you do? You just end up kind of almost getting a little bit more tired lackadaisical. Whereas you get in Saturday night you have some quick meetings they get their dinner they get a snack, they get to bed and then you get up and you get ready to roll. And our guys have been ready to go early. I’m up so early in the morning it feels like normal time to me. So, I haven’t really noticed much of a difference, but I’ve been very pleased with our guys. I thought we came out ready to go today better than we did in the Buffalo game and that was reflected by just the start in general.”

(On Reeder and the upcoming schedule)
“Troy Reeder was outstanding. You know, you could really see it. I think we’ll stick with this schedule to answer your first question. It was a lot in a lot of instances, you kind of are just saying alright because of the COVID, the protocols, and some of the limitations. We’re kind of forced to do this, but I think it’s worked out well for us. Regardless, I definitely think that’s something that we’ll explore. We’re always going to do what we think is best for our players. They’re the most important thing. It’s always about them, and getting their feedback is very important to me and I think they’ve enjoyed this up to this point as far as how we’ve traveled even when you’re going, a couple time zone changes. As far as Troy Reeder, he was outstanding and did a great job stepping in and running the show. He’s a guy that’s played a lot of football, and so I thought it was so seamless for him last week against the Giants, then they come up with three sacks. A lot, a lot of production. Outstanding. Very happy for Troy and [linebackers coach] Joe Barry does such a great job of those inside linebackers.”

(On RB Cam Akers and returning to coach in Washington)
“Yeah, I mean, I think the only thing that’s weird is you know you get to the stadium—I’ve never been in the visiting locker room and you’re on the opposite sideline. But, it just doesn’t feel the same without the fans and so many people that I don’t know. I mean there’s still some really special people to me that are here, but it’s a very—I mean we got more people that were with me, that we were together in Washington in our coaches’ locker room that are still left. It was great to get a win. Even the players that know such a small amount of these guys and really happy to be able to just get that done. Cam Akers was great. I thought he had a couple of tough runs and then he got hawked by [DE] Montez Sweat. I’m not going let him live that one down. That was a great run be able to get that going. And then you see a four-D and that was like a big freakin impressive guy chasing him. But, he was good. I think it was good to get him going again. You see the athleticism, you see the dynamic runnability and I thought he created his on his own a little bit. He had some good tough runs and it’s a good way to get Cam going. So, with that I think you can expect his workload to increase next week against the 49ers.”