The Los Angeles Rams knew last month they had to rack up wins against struggling teams before facing a tough end to the regular season. They lost to the Miami Dolphins, who had only two wins at the time, but bounced back with a victory over the New England Patriots, who had three wins.
Coach Sean McVay views the ups and downs, the inconsistent efforts followed by improvement, as part of the process of building a successful team with one of the youngest rosters in the NFL.
The coaching staff’s work is starting to pay off as the Rams (5-5) have followed up their 1-4 start with a strong 4-1 stretch, keeping them in the playoff race for another week.
“I’ve been pleased with our group’s ability to get themselves back into the fight,” McVay said on Monday. “Winning four of five, there’s been different and unique ways that we’ve done it, but I think there is an element of learning how to be able to finish games and come away with the results you’re hunting up with the amount of youth that we have.
They’re taking these lessons in stride, and some of the veteran players have done a good job.”
One of those veteran players is Matthew Stafford, who is still performing well in his 16th NFL season. Stafford threw four touchdown passes in the win over the Patriots, bringing his total to 10 touchdowns in the last four weeks since wide receivers Cooper Kupp and Puka Nacua returned from injury.
“You’ve got to string wins together,” Stafford said. “That’s what you’ve got to do. You’ve got to try to build off momentum, things that you do positive, and find ways to get better at the things that maybe didn’t go your way in the game.”
Stafford completed 18 of 27 passes for 295 yards and didn’t throw an interception, ending his six-game streak of throwing a pick.
He played a key role in the Rams’ improvement in the red zone, where they scored three times on four trips against the Patriots, after failing to score a touchdown at all in their previous game against the Dolphins.
With Stafford, Nacua, Kupp, and running back Kyren Williams all working well together behind a solid offensive line, the Rams are looking strong, though not yet unbeatable. McVay hopes to see more of the same in the next two weeks as they aim to stay in the playoff hunt.
