Sunday night’s win over the Chicago Bears wasn’t perfect, but the Los Angeles Rams certainly looked like a complete team in the 34-14 victory. There weren’t many areas of weakness or concern, moving the ball well on offense with Matthew Stafford, and limiting the Bears to only 322 yards on 69 plays.
But as any coach would, Sean McVay saw one thing that he would like the Rams to improve on offensively. He was asked on Wednesday if there was anything he’d like to see Matthew Stafford do better, and he turned it into a more general criticism of the offense – and his own play calling.
“I think overall I want to see us be better on the third downs,” McVay said. “We had success in the first half, and we had minimal plays, but we also did have that three-and-out sequence. We were 0-for-4 on the third downs, some of which definitely could have been helped by better play calls by me. But I think the position is so difficult, snap in and snap out. You want to just consistently be able to do things the right way, whether that’s the timing, the accuracy, the decision-making, the base-body balance and body position that you’re putting yourself in to make some of these throws and then being able to clean things up above the neck, but he did a really good job. There’s always going to be things that you can improve on, but it kind of depends on what phase of our offense are we talking about. There’s always room for improvement. It was definitely a good, clean start, but I think he’d be the first to tell you that, ‘Hey, did a lot of really good things, which was definitely represented in some of the success we had all offensively, but can do some things better, as well.’”
Stafford was also asked where he can improve in Week 2, and although he didn’t directly point to third-down situations, he did have a few plays he wishes he could’ve been better on – specifically remaining calm in the pocket and going through his progressions.
He mentioned after the game on Sunday that he missed Robert Woods in the end zone on third down early in the game, resulting in a field goal attempt, which was one play he wishes he had back.
“Kind of hard to articulate it. There were just some plays in the game that I wish I was a little bit better on, wish I was a little bit more calmer in the pocket on a few where I could’ve just kept progressing and getting to get into a different guy and just finding the completion,” he said. “I think there were a couple that didn’t get completed that I think I could have and obviously continue to just try and hit the open guys when they’re open.”
It’s only been one game and Stafford should only continue to get better as he gains comfort in the offense, but this was quite the start from the veteran. He was nearly perfect with a 156.1 passer rating and three touchdowns, earning NFC Offensive Player of the Week honors for just the second time in his career.
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