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Rams off to London after wrapping up Jacksonville road show
Rams coach Sean McVay and his team left Jacksonville Thursday for London, where they will play the Arizona Cardinals on Sunday. (AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli)
y VINCENT BONSIGNORE | vbonsignore@scng.com | Daily News
October 19, 2017 at 4:11 pm
JACKSONVILLE — As a horn blasted into the early afternoon, Sean McVay called the Rams into a circle at the middle of a soccer field at the University of North Florida, said a few words and then dismissed them from practice.
And with that, the Rams six-day business trip to Jacksonville had come to an end. Awaiting them were four large buses that would eventually deliver them to the nearby Jacksonville airport for their 9-hour flight to London, where they will host the Arizona Cardinals on Sunday before scattering for their bye week.
The week in North Florida had been good to them, beginning with a 27-17 win over the Jacksonville Jaguars that pushed them to 4-2 for the first time in 11 years and put them in position to make a serious division run. Ahead are winnable games against the Cardinals and New York Giants to offer the very real possibility of their best start to a season start since 2001.
They remained in Jacksonville to practice this week, rather than leave immediately for London, in part to install their Cardinals game plan prior to the long flight, but also to minimize the distractions associated with spending 11 days away from home base.
“I think the biggest thing for us was, we felt like it was going to be the best way to approach the week, getting them adjusted to an eastern time zone, then staying here, we have a great setup where we’re at, staying in Jacksonville,” Coach Sean McVay said. “I think it will be great for us to not have to travel quite as much, because if you do that then you end up not traveling back home, you go to London for a week.
“So we felt like this was going to be the best thing for our players. Get them adjusted, get the initial game played, really the majority of the game plan for the Cardinals in through Thursday before we travel, and then try to limit as many of the distractions that take place when you do travel that far, and get ready to play an excellent football team.”
The players seem to have embraced the set up well enough.
“It’s been nice. It’s been kind of like a mini training camp a little bit,” said quarterback Jared Goff. “You get to hang out with all the guys again. To be around the coaches some more is always fun and meeting rooms are right near our rooms. It’s kind of like training camp again. It’s nice, and it’s definitely better than flying back to California and then having to fly all the way back out to London.”
Said McVay: “I think it’s gone really well and I think, really, you look at just the first couple days of your weekly preparation, you’re just doing it in a different place. The players handled it great. We actually got a little bit of a jump on our install where we got some of the third downs in just so we can get our entire game-plan installed to our players before we travel to London tomorrow night. They did a great job coming out, having a good locked-in focus and concentration and it’s been outstanding. I think it’s been a great opportunity for us to kind of get away and continue to connect like we’ve talked about. Up to this point, it’s been exactly what we had hoped.”
Not everyone is a fan. In spite of being back near his old stomping grounds in Georgia, Rams running back Todd Gurley isn’t keen on being away from home as long as it requires a West Coast team to make the London trip.
“Not at all,” Gurley said. “I mean it’s cool playing over there. Don’t get me wrong. It’s just more the long week. Messes up a bunch of people’s schedule. I’m pretty sure y’all wanna be in y’all’ bed right now. But nah, it’s all good. It’ll be love. The fans over there are great.”
That said, two points of emphasis were obvious over the course of the week.
The Rams understand the 4-of-13 third-down conversion rate Sunday against the Jaguars is not sustainable moving forward. And while they aren’t panicking, clearly it’s an area they want to get cleaned up in a hurry.
Meanwhile, the chemistry between Goff and wide receiver Sammy Watkins continues to be a work in progress. Watkins has just two catches and 10 targets over the last three weeks, and even when he has been targeted it just doesn’t seem like he and Goff are on the same page.
Goff threw deep to Watkins twice against the Jaguars, but neither pass was particularly close to hitting the intended target. Watkins, a dynamic force who the Rams traded for to provide an element of athleticism and big-play ability that has been missing for years, has to become a bigger part of the offense if the Rams are to maximize their potential
“I was disappointed we didn’t hit any of those deep balls,” Goff conceded. “But the game dictated that a little bit by the way we were moving the ball on the ground.”
Said McVay: “It wasn’t necessarily not getting down the field, just connecting on those shots. You have a couple opportunities that we expect our guys to be able to make, but again, Jacksonville is one of the top pass defenses in the league for a reason. They’ve got great DBs, excellent in terms of how they match things up on the back end – played a couple different coverage principles.
“But things that we had talked about and kind of had a chance to maybe make some plays, and credit to them, we didn’t do that. But, that’s going to be a point of emphasis really every week, just being efficient in the pass game and when you get your opportunities to make some of those plays, especially off the play action and the movement, you want to try to hit a high percentage and our guys have done that. Last week was a tough one for us.”
McVay has been proactive on the Watkins and Goff front, even overseeing counseling sessions in which coach, quarterback and wide receiver hope to all get on the same page.
“We do offensive meetings and we meet consistently a lot of the times with the receivers and the quarterbacks, just talking about that rhythm and timing, that rapport,” McVay said. “It is an imperfect game, but a lot of times if things happen in the rhythm and timing of the play that we want, we have landmarks on a lot of these things. The quarterback, we tell him to read with his feet and as long as everybody is on the same page, you give yourself a chance to improve.
“I really can’t say enough, not just exclusive to Jared and Sammy, but about our players with how receptive they are with just continuing to learn, continuing to grow and get better and every game and every, really, practice provides a learning opportunity. They did a good job coming out here today.”
Those conversations, according to McVay, are open ended. And players are encouraged to speak up.
“Absolutely. We talk about it all the time as it doesn’t really matter what we know as coaches, it’s about the players,” he said. “They’re the ones out there. We want to make sure that they have an understanding and the thing that I think is really special, too, is we say certain things, but there’s a lot of dialogue that takes place between the players that I think is very healthy, where they’re the ones out there, they’re the ones communicating – there’s so much communication that goes on in the huddle that coaches aren’t exposed to and I think that’s healthy for us. But, it’s our job to be able to kind of set that table and then make sure that they understand it and then let them develop and continue to have an understanding for each other and what we’re trying to get done moving forward.”
And with that, the Rams were good. Bidding farewell to Jacksonville, their home for the past six days. Up next, London.
[www.ocregister.com]
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Rams coach Sean McVay and his team left Jacksonville Thursday for London, where they will play the Arizona Cardinals on Sunday. (AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli)
y VINCENT BONSIGNORE | vbonsignore@scng.com | Daily News
October 19, 2017 at 4:11 pm
JACKSONVILLE — As a horn blasted into the early afternoon, Sean McVay called the Rams into a circle at the middle of a soccer field at the University of North Florida, said a few words and then dismissed them from practice.
And with that, the Rams six-day business trip to Jacksonville had come to an end. Awaiting them were four large buses that would eventually deliver them to the nearby Jacksonville airport for their 9-hour flight to London, where they will host the Arizona Cardinals on Sunday before scattering for their bye week.
The week in North Florida had been good to them, beginning with a 27-17 win over the Jacksonville Jaguars that pushed them to 4-2 for the first time in 11 years and put them in position to make a serious division run. Ahead are winnable games against the Cardinals and New York Giants to offer the very real possibility of their best start to a season start since 2001.
They remained in Jacksonville to practice this week, rather than leave immediately for London, in part to install their Cardinals game plan prior to the long flight, but also to minimize the distractions associated with spending 11 days away from home base.
“I think the biggest thing for us was, we felt like it was going to be the best way to approach the week, getting them adjusted to an eastern time zone, then staying here, we have a great setup where we’re at, staying in Jacksonville,” Coach Sean McVay said. “I think it will be great for us to not have to travel quite as much, because if you do that then you end up not traveling back home, you go to London for a week.
“So we felt like this was going to be the best thing for our players. Get them adjusted, get the initial game played, really the majority of the game plan for the Cardinals in through Thursday before we travel, and then try to limit as many of the distractions that take place when you do travel that far, and get ready to play an excellent football team.”
The players seem to have embraced the set up well enough.
“It’s been nice. It’s been kind of like a mini training camp a little bit,” said quarterback Jared Goff. “You get to hang out with all the guys again. To be around the coaches some more is always fun and meeting rooms are right near our rooms. It’s kind of like training camp again. It’s nice, and it’s definitely better than flying back to California and then having to fly all the way back out to London.”
Said McVay: “I think it’s gone really well and I think, really, you look at just the first couple days of your weekly preparation, you’re just doing it in a different place. The players handled it great. We actually got a little bit of a jump on our install where we got some of the third downs in just so we can get our entire game-plan installed to our players before we travel to London tomorrow night. They did a great job coming out, having a good locked-in focus and concentration and it’s been outstanding. I think it’s been a great opportunity for us to kind of get away and continue to connect like we’ve talked about. Up to this point, it’s been exactly what we had hoped.”
Not everyone is a fan. In spite of being back near his old stomping grounds in Georgia, Rams running back Todd Gurley isn’t keen on being away from home as long as it requires a West Coast team to make the London trip.
“Not at all,” Gurley said. “I mean it’s cool playing over there. Don’t get me wrong. It’s just more the long week. Messes up a bunch of people’s schedule. I’m pretty sure y’all wanna be in y’all’ bed right now. But nah, it’s all good. It’ll be love. The fans over there are great.”
That said, two points of emphasis were obvious over the course of the week.
The Rams understand the 4-of-13 third-down conversion rate Sunday against the Jaguars is not sustainable moving forward. And while they aren’t panicking, clearly it’s an area they want to get cleaned up in a hurry.
Meanwhile, the chemistry between Goff and wide receiver Sammy Watkins continues to be a work in progress. Watkins has just two catches and 10 targets over the last three weeks, and even when he has been targeted it just doesn’t seem like he and Goff are on the same page.
Goff threw deep to Watkins twice against the Jaguars, but neither pass was particularly close to hitting the intended target. Watkins, a dynamic force who the Rams traded for to provide an element of athleticism and big-play ability that has been missing for years, has to become a bigger part of the offense if the Rams are to maximize their potential
“I was disappointed we didn’t hit any of those deep balls,” Goff conceded. “But the game dictated that a little bit by the way we were moving the ball on the ground.”
Said McVay: “It wasn’t necessarily not getting down the field, just connecting on those shots. You have a couple opportunities that we expect our guys to be able to make, but again, Jacksonville is one of the top pass defenses in the league for a reason. They’ve got great DBs, excellent in terms of how they match things up on the back end – played a couple different coverage principles.
“But things that we had talked about and kind of had a chance to maybe make some plays, and credit to them, we didn’t do that. But, that’s going to be a point of emphasis really every week, just being efficient in the pass game and when you get your opportunities to make some of those plays, especially off the play action and the movement, you want to try to hit a high percentage and our guys have done that. Last week was a tough one for us.”
McVay has been proactive on the Watkins and Goff front, even overseeing counseling sessions in which coach, quarterback and wide receiver hope to all get on the same page.
“We do offensive meetings and we meet consistently a lot of the times with the receivers and the quarterbacks, just talking about that rhythm and timing, that rapport,” McVay said. “It is an imperfect game, but a lot of times if things happen in the rhythm and timing of the play that we want, we have landmarks on a lot of these things. The quarterback, we tell him to read with his feet and as long as everybody is on the same page, you give yourself a chance to improve.
“I really can’t say enough, not just exclusive to Jared and Sammy, but about our players with how receptive they are with just continuing to learn, continuing to grow and get better and every game and every, really, practice provides a learning opportunity. They did a good job coming out here today.”
Those conversations, according to McVay, are open ended. And players are encouraged to speak up.
“Absolutely. We talk about it all the time as it doesn’t really matter what we know as coaches, it’s about the players,” he said. “They’re the ones out there. We want to make sure that they have an understanding and the thing that I think is really special, too, is we say certain things, but there’s a lot of dialogue that takes place between the players that I think is very healthy, where they’re the ones out there, they’re the ones communicating – there’s so much communication that goes on in the huddle that coaches aren’t exposed to and I think that’s healthy for us. But, it’s our job to be able to kind of set that table and then make sure that they understand it and then let them develop and continue to have an understanding for each other and what we’re trying to get done moving forward.”
And with that, the Rams were good. Bidding farewell to Jacksonville, their home for the past six days. Up next, London.
[www.ocregister.com]
Reply
