Sean McVay wasn’t interested in blaming the flight after the Rams’ rough start in Australia.
Los Angeles was thumped 27-7 by the San Francisco 49ers in Week 1 in Melbourne, and the travel setup became part of the conversation almost immediately. The 49ers got to Australia a week early to deal with the time change. The Rams arrived about 28 hours before kickoff, and once the final seconds ticked away, McVay was asked straight up about whether that decision played a role.
“I don't believe that that's why we didn't play well enough,” McVay insisted, per Nick Wagoner of ESPN. “I really don't. ...
I'll always make decisions that I think are best for the football team. It's easy in hindsight to be able to say it was a miss, but those are responsibilities that I'll take.”
McVay and Kyle Shanahan had both made it clear in the months leading up to the game that neither coach loved the idea of having “to go 19 hours away to play a game” that counted in the standings. And according to Peter Schrager of ESPN, the Rams had already put serious work into figuring out the best way to handle it, sending 15 staffers over the last two years abroad and tracking “their bodies and sleep rhythms” for a better read on travel planning.
None of that changed what happened on the field. The Rams were blanked in the second half and failed to score in three of the four quarters.
Shanahan, for his part, brushed aside the travel debate.
“Win or lose, I know everybody was going to make a big deal about that for either team,” Shanahan said about the differences in how the 49ers and Rams traveled to Australia. “You never know how much that factors into it.
You just try to do the best to prepare for 3½ hours. I liked how we prepared, but more importantly, I liked how we played.”
The loss also shut down any early-season chatter about the Rams rolling from Week 1 all the way to Super Bowl LXI without a defeat, talk that had picked up before Labor Day after their offseason additions. Now McVay’s attention turns to Week 2, when the Rams host the New York Giants on Sept. 21 on “Monday Night Football.”
The Giants, meanwhile, are set to face the Dallas Cowboys this coming Sunday night.
After the loss, McVay called the day a reality check.
“We’ll see where we can improve and be better moving forward,” McVay added during his postgame comments, per Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk. “But this is a good humbling day.
This is what can sometimes happen in sports. I love this locker room and, you know, the first thing that I’m gonna look at is myself, and I have to do a better job for a group collectively, with our coaches, with our players, and we’ll look at this film, and we’ll get back to work because, clearly, that’s obviously what we’ve got to do, and sometimes sports can humble you, and today was one of those days.”
McVay also said the defeat “will define us only if we allow it to.”
For the Rams, the next step is simple: flush the trip, fix the film, and be ready when the Giants come to town.
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For a defense that has long leaned on Donald as its centerpiece, the wait is the reality fans were hoping to avoid, even if it was always part of the plan. Donald last played in the NFL in 2023, and the earliest expectation for his return is Week 2, leaving the Rams to navigate the opener without one of the most important players in franchise history. [Read more 🡒]