These are the Los Angeles Rams that many picked to win the Super Bowl.
Playing without reigning Defensive Player of the Year Myles Garrett and All-Pro wide receiver Puka Nacua, the Los Angeles Rams wiped the floor with the New York Giants Monday night to the tune of a 28-6 win.
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Matthew Stafford threw four touchdowns. Davante Adams tallied 195 yards and two scores. And a Rams defense bolstered by the return of Aaron Donald didn’t allow the Giants to score a touchdown.
Even while considering that New York played the lion’s share of the game with backup Jameis Winston at quarterback, this was an impressive effort that shifts the forecast for the Rams back in their favor following their Week 1 Australia debacle against the San Francisco 49ers.
Rams coach Sean McVay was asked about his team’s 180 from one week to another in his postgame news conference. He pointed to a popular theory for why the Rams were so bad in their 27-7 loss to the 49ers on Sept 10.
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“Sometimes you win, sometimes you learn,” McVay said. “And sometimes you have a dumbass coach that makes travel plans that put you in a bad spot.”
The “dumbass coach” in this instance is McVay. He left the Rams press corps in laughter with his quip and used the opportunity as a mic-drop moment to walk away from the podium.
In case you missed it, the Rams and 49ers flew from California to the other side of the planet to play each other in Melbourne in Week 1. This was the NFL’s idea as it seeks to extend its grip on the sports world to global proportions. The Rams and the 49ers were the league’s guinea pigs for the jet-lag inducing approach.
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The two teams took disparate approaches to addressing the time change. The 49ers arrived in Melbourne roughly six days ahead of kickoff to allow their bodies to adjust to the time change.
Employing team studies that bely the first-hand knowledge of any American who’s flown cross-country, much less 17 time zones away, the Rams arrived in Melbourne roughly 28 hours before kickoff. The strategy was an extension of an approach they previously and successfully executed for their relatively short jaunt to London for a 35-7 win over a good Jacksonville Jaguars team just last season.
But a trip to London and a trip to Melbourne from Los Angeles are two different beasts. The Rams proceeded to play in Melbourne like a group of men who were mentally and physically unfit for the task in the 20-point loss to the 49ers.
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McVay has since said that he doesn’t want the Rams to play in Australia “ever again.” If they do — with or without McVay as their head coach — here’s guessing they don’t arrive Down Under at the last minute.
