Week 1 was essentially a breeze for the Los Angeles Rams. They faced very little adversity or trouble in their 34-14 win over the Chicago Bears, cruising to a 1-0 start.
There were some speed bumps along the way in Week 2, however. Matthew Stafford threw his first interception, Kenny Young was ejected, Darrell Henderson Jr. left with a rib injury and a special teams gaffe led to an easy touchdown by the Colts.
Yet, despite all of that, the Rams were still able to pull out a win on the road in a tough environment. Sean McVay was predictably thrilled with the way his players responded to a tough sequence in the second half that resulted in Young and Henderson going out and the Colts taking the lead.
He made it clear that Young can’t erupt on an official and get himself ejected, but he’s also confident the linebacker will learn from it.
“It was a lot, and a lot of teams would’ve folded in those circumstances but there was so much going on,” McVay said. “Shawn Smith did a good job clarifying, you know, Kenny made contact with the official. We’ll learn from that. I know Kenny will learn from it, but we can’t have that. And then there was a penalty on one of their guys that made it first-and-goal on the 9. They found a way to get it punched in, and unbelievable, kind of fortunate tip for them where (Jack) Doyle ends up getting the two-point conversion. They do a good job getting a stop for us, Darrell ends up going down and then we had the mistake occur on our punt operation, but our guys stayed the course. And then to be able to get the ball back and go four plays right down the field, Matthew Stafford was outstanding. Obviously, Cooper Kupp was big time. I thought it was big to be able to get one run in there and then on the first-and-goal to be able to quickly get through something and hit Cooper for what ended up putting us back in front, that was big time.”
After briefly surrendering the lead for the first time with 14:12 left in the game, the Rams quickly responded with a 70-yard drive that took only 2:03 off the clock, going back on top 24-21 with the 10-yard touchdown pass from Stafford to Kupp that McVay referred to.
They were in complete control until late in the third quarter, and it’s great to see them eke out a win on the road after giving up a lead. Not every win is going to come easily, and the Rams showed that on Sunday with a gutsy victory.
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