Rams Head Coach Sean McVay – Postgame Press Conference – October 4, 2020

(Opening Remarks)
“It was a great job by the defense, special teams. I thought the play that (WR Cooper) Kupp made to put us up eight was real big. Struggled to get into some momentum today offensively but defense made stop after stop. I thought even after the turnover to be able to only allow them to three points on the sudden change was big. And then what can you say about (CB) Darious Williams? What an unbelievable pick to end the game. No win is easy, we don’t take any for granted. There’s a lot of good things that we can look at this film and be able to clean up but hats off to (Giants Head) Coach (Joe) Judge and the Giants. They came in ready to go and they gave us everything that they had. We’ll get to 3-1 and we’ll be able to have a lot of things that we can look at after this first quarter to continue to improve.”

(On what it says about the defense having two big stops and a pick and what happened on offense)
“We just couldn’t get into a rhythm offensively, but defense did a great job. You know, you win as a team and thought they made enough plays to be able to win. You could kind of feel the momentum. We were probably a little bit more conservative than I would’ve liked to have been offensively but couldn’t get anything going in the run game. We just really never were able to get into a rhythm outside of that first drive and a lot of things that we can look at to do better.”

(On what some things that the Giants’ defense did specifically going from a team that didn’t force a punt last week to giving that trouble that was talked about today)
“Yeah I’d have to go back and look at the film to see. A lot of it really boils down to, they did a good job, give them credit, but it’s more execution on our end.”

(On what happened there at the end with after the game when CB Jalen Ramsey was in the middle of a mess)
“I’m not really sure I was shaking hands and I just kind of got in the middle. Fortunately got it broken up and nothing occurred from there.”

(On when they have a sluggish start and what kind of adjustments he makes or what he says to the team to get out of that)
“Yeah, I mean, you just have to make some plays. I thought the one drive, you know, really if we had gotten a couple more opportunities, I think you would have seen us get into a rhythm. We just sent it up kind of getting it where we were up eight on that last possession, wanted to keep the clock running. That’s something where we can never go out of bounds either there, Cooper knows better than that. But, if you’re really attacking, like we were, I think just the feel for the flow of the game and the way our defense was playing, let’s run off as much clock as we can. Ideally, you don’t ever have to punt it back. I think I would have switched momentum. I would have switched some of the things that we were doing where, you know, you’re just not letting them really get set. Sometimes when you let a big front like that settle in, it plays to their advantage and those are things that we can all learn from. Ultimately, we ended up getting the win, the guys made enough plays and that’s what it’s about. There’s no style points in this league.”

(On how he feels the team stands after the first quarter of the season and what he thought was his problem as a play maker getting into a rhythm)
“My problem? I have to go back and look at it. There was a lack of continuity and being able to get some drives going. We weren’t good on third down, so I’d have to go back and look at the film and see, but overall, we finished the first quarter 3-1. There’s a lot of good things. There’s a lot of things we can clean up and we’ve got to continuously improve. I thought defense took a major step forward, as did special teams, and offensively, we’ve got a lot of things that we can do significantly better, but one game will never define you. It’s still a short sample size, but I love this team’s mental toughness and resilience and glad to come away with the win today.”

(On CB Darious Williams growth to be able to make plays like he did today)
“I think he’s just a clutch player. Even he’s been doing that ever since he got an opportunity to play really last year. He’s a guy that if he gets his hands on the ball, he’s usually going to catch it and be able to get it back to the offense and right there, that was a game clenching play and a situation that we had to have. He was bumped, they ran kind of a stem in, breakout and for him to be able to make that play was unbelievable. It was a great catch and another great pick for him in a crucial situation, even more important than the Philly game a couple of weeks ago. So big time play by Darious. Really happy for him.”

(On putting pressure on QB Daniel Jones and why the defense is so disruptive)
“I think they did a good job. I thought (Defensive Coordinator) Brandon (Staley) called a good game, mixed it up a little bit. There was a couple where he kind of got out of it when you felt like you had him sacked and Daniel Jones made a couple of good plays, but I thought there was a lot of different guys that created some disruption in the backfield today. It’s always a collaborative effort and we’ll go back and we’ll look at it, but I thought it was a good mix of some pressure that we were applying with four-man rush and then when we activated more than four.”

(On WR Cooper Kupp’s touchdown being the longest play from scrimmage this season and what made that work)
“They actually busted a coverage and we were able to get over the top and Cooper ended up doing the rest himself. When we were going fast, that was something that we probably should have done a little bit sooner and Jared and Cooper made a great play right there. I thought our guys were protecting and ultimately, we’ve got to be better on third downs, but that was a big-time play. A great job by Cooper and Jared making it happen there.”

(On his evaluation of how Jared played today)
“He did a nice job. I think there wasn’t as many opportunities. It really wasn’t a very good overall offensive performance and a lot of that stemmed from just the lack of plays and drives that we could really get off, but I thought Jared controlled what he could and he made the biggest plays when he had to. We put it in his hands, basically threw it every drive, on the scoring drive that we did have and he ended up making enough plays for us to be able to win it. That put us up eight and then defense closed it out from there, so he did a nice job. I thought he was his best when it was the most important and that’s the most important thing for us.”

(On what went into the last third down call when leading 17-9)
“I just wanted to keep the clock running right there. I felt good about our defense and wanted to ensure that they either had to use a timeout or we were going to run it down to two-minute there.”