Even before the final seconds of the Los Angeles Rams’ 27-7 Week 1 loss to the San Francisco 49ers in Melbourne, Australia, ticked off the clock, NFL fans posting on social media started roasting Rams head coach Sean McVay for his team’s travel schedule.
While the 49ers arrived in Australia a week before the game to fully adjust to the time difference, the Rams arrived roughly 28 hours before kickoff. Following the Rams’ double-digit defeat, McVay was predictably asked about the travel-related elephant in the room.
Rams’ travel schedule was what Sean McVay thought was “best” for the team
“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.”
Neither McVay nor 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan hid over the past several months that they weren’t thrilled about having “to go 19 hours away to play a game” that counted in the standings. As Peter Schrager of ESPN shared, the Rams “sent 15 staffers over the last two years” abroad “and have tracked their bodies and sleep rhythms” in an attempt to determine the best way to travel for such a contest.
Such work didn’t prevent the Rams from being held scoreless in the game’s second half and in three of four quarters.
“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.”
Sean McVay: Loss to 49ers is humbling for Rams
Before the Labor Day holiday weekend, ESPN and other outlets aired segments about whether or not a Rams team that made multiple big-name acquisitions during the offseason could go unbeaten from Week 1 through Super Bowl LXI. That’s no longer possible, and McVay will now have to ensure his side is ready for the Week 2 “Monday Night Football” home game against the New York Giants on Sept. 21.
The Giants host the Dallas Cowboys for a prime-time clash this coming Sunday night.
“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 noted that the loss to the 49ers “will define us only if we allow it to.” If nothing else, the Rams should be well-rested by the time their matchup against the Giants gets underway.
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