The Los Angeles Rams won their first game of the season Monday night and that allows coach Sean McVay to stop beating himself up about the season-opening loss in Australia.
McVay, you should know, had been stewing about that loss to the San Francisco 49ers abroad for going on two weeks leading up to Monday night’s game. He took it personally, and blamed himself, maybe because he recognized he was part of the problem.
McVay finally confessed to that after beating the New York Giants in a game his team showed much more energy and better execution.
Why?
“We have the right people,” McVay said. “Sometimes you win, sometimes you learn. Sometimes you have a dumbass coach that makes travel plans that put you in a bad spot.
“So there you go. That’s a dropped mic.”
There it is: The haunting trip to Australia, with its unorthodox travel planning, is now in the rearview mirror. The Rams see themselves back on course as a Super Bowl contender.
It wasn’t, excuse the metaphor, an easy road to recovery because McVay took a while to let go of the Australia experience.
He criticized himself afterward for days. He didn’t like the way he coached and said, “I didn’t do a good enough job getting us ready to go.”
And days later, McVay’s simmering frustration boiled over when he turned his ire on the country where the game was played.
“We’re not playing in Australia ever again, I hope,” McVay told reporters. “Not because it wasn’t a great atmosphere; that’ll get taken out of context.”
The context is McVay was unhappy with the Rams’ travel schedule. And he was unhappy with himself because he had a hand in setting that schedule and definitely was responsible for approving it.
The Rams flew 16 hours to Australia and played the 49ers the following day. The team flew overnight out of Los Angeles on Tuesday and landed in Melbourne on Thursday morning local time.
The game was played Friday morning local time.
NFL ALLOWS STOLEN LAND ACKNOWLEDGEMENT DISGUISED AS A WELCOMING CEREMONY BEFORE AUSTRALIA GAME
McVay’s goal was to outrun the jet lag by staying completely on Los Angeles time, playing, and immediately flying back home.
The 49ers, also a West Coast team, handled it differently. They arrived in Australia six days prior to the game as part of an acclimation strategy.
San Francisco 27.
Los Angeles 7.
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That result remains etched in the standings but is finally blurred from McVay’s mind. The anger, the criticism, and the frustration of missing an opportunity have faded after a victory over the Giants.
The players are happy about that. And they’re happy to be home.
“I thought our guys came out and played great,” quarterback Matthew Stafford said. “We played with a bunch of passion, energy, excited to be back home in SoFi.”
