The Los Angeles Rams offense was firing on all cylinders in the second half and into overtime of their ‘Thursday Night Football’ game against the San Francisco 49ers.
But on the biggest play of the game, the team couldn’t find a yard on fourth-and-1. San Francisco left SoFi Stadium with a 26-23 overtime win in a key matchup in the NFC West race.
That fourth-and-1 call was a run to the right by running back Kyren Williams. The Rams’ top back had 65 yards on 13 carries before then but the team had nearly 400 yards passing.
Los Angeles coach Sean McVay answered questions about his play call at the key point in the loss.
‘Bad call by me,’ he said during the Rams’ post-game press conference. ‘Thought about maybe trying to draw them offsides, I took one [timeout], they took the other and it was a poor decision by me right there.
‘I’m pretty sick right now. I’m sick of this spot I put our group in to end the game but hey, these are the tough beats you have to learn from and move forward and that’s what we’re going to to do.’
McVay quickly said no when asked if he had given any thought to kicking a field goal on that overtime drive. That would’ve tied the game with roughly five minutes left in the overtime period.
‘In hindsight, I wish I would’ve,’ he said. ‘We came in here to try to win the football game. It didn’t go down for us, that wasn’t even a thought. But the play selection was very poor, I’m sick right now because I put our players in a s—-y spot and I got to live with that.’
McVay said they did more to lose that game than win it but is taking this as a way to improve ahead of a Week 6 matchup on the road against the Baltimore Ravens.
‘This will certainly not make for a great weekend but it will offer an opportunity for us to continue to show that we’re made of the right stuff, which I have zero doubt,’ he said.