Peter King: 10/29/18
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This from MMQB:
https://www.si.com/nfl/2018/10/29/n...agles-seahawks-adam-vinatieri-adrian-peterson
THE RAMS ARE FOCUSED, SELFLESS AND STILL UNBEATEN
You think the Rams have it working right now? How about this: Every week their coaches set goals for them going into Sunday. And one on the list for this week came up like pretty much everything else has this year for the team and its coaches: aces.
“We had a goal to take the ball away on special teams,” receiver Robert Woods explained to me on his way out of the Coliseum postgame. “And it literally came down to the last minutes of the game, in the fourth quarter, and it happened.”
John McCoy/Getty Images
When Ramik Wilson jarred the ball loose from Ty Montgomery with 1:56 left, it did more than just rob the Packers and the rest of us all from the sight of Aaron Rodgers getting the ball with a chance to take down the unbeaten Rams. It did more, too, than deliver the Rams to 8–0.
It affirmed what we’ve all seen in L.A. through two months—a loaded team playing with crazy confidence in Sean McVay and his staff. Andrew Whitworth explained it like this to me a few weeks back: “When I played in college for Nick Saban, you felt like every single week you went with a plan where all you had to do was execute the plan and you’d win. With Sean McVay, we feel the same way.”
And McVay delivering for his players is reciprocated through moments like the one we saw at the end of Sunday’s game.
After the recovery of Montgomery’s fumble, with the Rams up 29–27, Todd Gurley took a toss left with 1:05 remaining and knifed through the Packers defense to convert a third-and-10 from 21, and then some. As he crossed the 5, with the first down picked up and the path to end zone clear, he did something pretty smart. He hit the deck.
And he did so despite the fact that, with 15 touchdowns already on the year, he has a pretty good shot at breaking LaDainian Tomlinson’s single-season record of 31 scores, even though scoring would’ve left the window for the Packers to come back open about wide enough to slide a credit card through. What he did know is that if he went down, the game was over. So he did.
“That’s our team,” Woods said. “It’s ‘we, not me.’ We know those things will come. We know [Gurley’s] leading right now, on pace for something great. But our biggest goal is a team goal. So he finished the game, he sealed the game, and he’s a selfless player, you could see that there. We always say, ‘It’s gonna come, it’s gonna come, you don’t have to force anything.’ And that’s a great play, a great leader play.”
So if you consider that McVay and his staff set a specific goal that the Rams met at the most critical moment of the game, and that a star like Gurley is giving up individual achievements the way he did at the end, it makes sense that the players are even starting to sound their coaches a little. It’s true.
When I talked with McVay midweek and asked what he’s most proud of during his team’s hot start, he said it was how “connected” the group was. So guess what word Woods used when I asked him if he thinks what Gurley did could have a trickle-down effect?
“This team is a connected group,” the receiver said. “We’re all after the same goal, we all have the same mindset. Nobody’s thinking anything else but to take the clock out.
“I’d just say it’s a selfless team. We don’t think about situations like that—we think about sealing it off, about closing the game.”
It won’t get any easier from here. The Rams gets the Saints next week, the improving Seahawks after that, then travel to Mexico City for the Thanksgiving week showdown with the Chiefs. But based on how things are shaking out, the team that McVay is leading into those big ones doesn’t figure to fazed by any of it.
https://www.si.com/nfl/2018/10/29/n...agles-seahawks-adam-vinatieri-adrian-peterson
THE RAMS ARE FOCUSED, SELFLESS AND STILL UNBEATEN
You think the Rams have it working right now? How about this: Every week their coaches set goals for them going into Sunday. And one on the list for this week came up like pretty much everything else has this year for the team and its coaches: aces.
“We had a goal to take the ball away on special teams,” receiver Robert Woods explained to me on his way out of the Coliseum postgame. “And it literally came down to the last minutes of the game, in the fourth quarter, and it happened.”
John McCoy/Getty Images
When Ramik Wilson jarred the ball loose from Ty Montgomery with 1:56 left, it did more than just rob the Packers and the rest of us all from the sight of Aaron Rodgers getting the ball with a chance to take down the unbeaten Rams. It did more, too, than deliver the Rams to 8–0.
It affirmed what we’ve all seen in L.A. through two months—a loaded team playing with crazy confidence in Sean McVay and his staff. Andrew Whitworth explained it like this to me a few weeks back: “When I played in college for Nick Saban, you felt like every single week you went with a plan where all you had to do was execute the plan and you’d win. With Sean McVay, we feel the same way.”
And McVay delivering for his players is reciprocated through moments like the one we saw at the end of Sunday’s game.
After the recovery of Montgomery’s fumble, with the Rams up 29–27, Todd Gurley took a toss left with 1:05 remaining and knifed through the Packers defense to convert a third-and-10 from 21, and then some. As he crossed the 5, with the first down picked up and the path to end zone clear, he did something pretty smart. He hit the deck.
And he did so despite the fact that, with 15 touchdowns already on the year, he has a pretty good shot at breaking LaDainian Tomlinson’s single-season record of 31 scores, even though scoring would’ve left the window for the Packers to come back open about wide enough to slide a credit card through. What he did know is that if he went down, the game was over. So he did.
“That’s our team,” Woods said. “It’s ‘we, not me.’ We know those things will come. We know [Gurley’s] leading right now, on pace for something great. But our biggest goal is a team goal. So he finished the game, he sealed the game, and he’s a selfless player, you could see that there. We always say, ‘It’s gonna come, it’s gonna come, you don’t have to force anything.’ And that’s a great play, a great leader play.”
So if you consider that McVay and his staff set a specific goal that the Rams met at the most critical moment of the game, and that a star like Gurley is giving up individual achievements the way he did at the end, it makes sense that the players are even starting to sound their coaches a little. It’s true.
When I talked with McVay midweek and asked what he’s most proud of during his team’s hot start, he said it was how “connected” the group was. So guess what word Woods used when I asked him if he thinks what Gurley did could have a trickle-down effect?
“This team is a connected group,” the receiver said. “We’re all after the same goal, we all have the same mindset. Nobody’s thinking anything else but to take the clock out.
“I’d just say it’s a selfless team. We don’t think about situations like that—we think about sealing it off, about closing the game.”
It won’t get any easier from here. The Rams gets the Saints next week, the improving Seahawks after that, then travel to Mexico City for the Thanksgiving week showdown with the Chiefs. But based on how things are shaking out, the team that McVay is leading into those big ones doesn’t figure to fazed by any of it.
