THOUSAND OAKS, Calif. (AP) — After their high-powered offense bogged down with turnovers and gaffes in the red zone in a loss to Seattle, the Los Angeles Rams vented their frustration in a variety of ways. Coach Sean McVay was
THOUSAND OAKS, Calif. (AP) — After their high-powered offense bogged down with turnovers and gaffes in the red zone in a loss to Seattle, the Los Angeles Rams vented their frustration in a variety of ways.
Coach Sean McVay was watching the tape and taking a hard look at his play-calling. Sammy Watkins, meanwhile, took to Twitter.
Watkins, who failed to record a catch for the second time in his four-year career, responded to a tweet from former Rams receiver Torry Holt by saying, “Something gotta be going on,” followed by an emoji of a face with the mouth zippered shut. He also retweeted several fans saying Watkins should have been targeted more than four times.
McVay spoke with Watkins on Monday and was satisfied with his explanations for those tweets.
“Sammy is a player that he wants to be involved,” McVay said. “Looking at some of those social media exchanges, I think he was more just responding to those things and he knows that he’ll do the right things moving forward.”
Watkins has one catch for 17 yards since his breakout game in Week 3 against San Francisco, when he caught six passes for 106 yards and two touchdowns.
“These last couple weeks I don’t think are indicative of his production for the rest of the season,” McVay said.
How Watkins, Tavon Austin and running back Todd Gurley were used against Seattle was certainly a topic of conversation online. The Rams got three points out of four red-zone possessions and ended the 16-10 loss with a turnover on downs at the Seahawks’ 20-yard line.
“I think it was extremely frustrating after the game and still frustrating when you go back and look at it,” McVay said.
Gurley lost a fumble at the 1-yard line that hit the pylon for a touchback on the opening possession. He didn’t touch the ball in the red zone again.
The Rams have scored one touchdown in their last eight trips inside the opponent’s 20. McVay is reevaluating how he calls plays in the red zone before Sunday’s visit to Jacksonville, the first of three straight games away from home, including a trip to London to play the Arizona Cardinals.
“These are positive problems when you have got a lot of playmakers,” McVay said.
“We’ve got a lot of players that we have confidence in. Ultimately, I think people have a tendency to blame the quarterback on getting guys involved, but that to me is on me as a play-caller, because we try to call plays to get players involved to attack certain coverages.”
McVay is already exercising his authority in delegating touches by giving Austin a “break” from returning punts. Austin muffed and lost a fumble against Seattle, one of five turnovers the Rams committed. Wide receivers Cooper Kupp and Pharoh Cooper will compete this week to take over those duties.
It could be the first step taken to address the many self-inflicted errors that cost the Rams a chance to assert themselves in the NFC West.
“When you look at it, I think the thing that’s encouraging for us as a team is a lot of the things that we didn’t get done are fixable mistakes,” McVay said.
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