Sean McVay puts a big emphasis on joint practices, scheduling sessions with two different teams this year: the Chargers and Raiders. They’ve wrapped up their two days with the Chargers, but the second of the two did not leave McVay pleased.
He was disappointed with the way the offense played against the Chargers, sharing his thoughts after practice on Saturday. It wasn’t so much the performance of the players, but the lack of energy displayed on the field.
“It was OK. We were sluggish. I thought it seemed like the defense had good energy. Offensively, not even close to good enough,” McVay said. “I thought they finished the day strong, which is what’s important and our guys kept it together. I think you’ve got to give credit to the Chargers. They came out, they had some good juice, specifically their defense. It’s always a good learning opportunity for us. That’s really what this is. You get a chance to try some things that maybe you wouldn’t do against your defense and you get it in a full-speed setting against a really good team where you’re playing against their good players.”
McVay isn’t often heard sounding this disappointed in his players, but it’s clear the offense was not up to par. It wasn’t all on Jared Goff, either, who’s the leader of the offense. When asked whether the poor practice session was a reflection of Goff, McVay made it clear that wasn’t the case.
“I don’t think so. What I think says as much about him as anything is that I’m talking more of myself, the reflection of the entire unit,” McVay said. “But what says as much about Jared is that in the midst of things not going great, he finds a way to settle in. In a situation where we’ve got to have a two-minute drive to score a touchdown, he made some great throws, recognized coverage, got the ball where it should’ve gone. And really, to be able to just stay that even-keeled demeanor like we talk about all the time says as much about him as anything.”
As underwhelming as the offense’s performance was, McVay came away pleased with the way the Rams practiced for two days against the Chargers – who are a legitimate championship contender in the AFC.
“I thought it was excellent work really for the two days by both teams to be able to get something out of it,” he said. “It’s going to be great tape for us to be able to look at, learn from and then be able to move on. Just the overall energy that I expect, specifically from our offense, we got to start better than that and I trust that we will. We’ll use it as a good learning opportunity.”
