INEXCUSABLE: Rams Lose to Depleted 49ers Team, Sean McVay “Sick” After Loss, What Needs to Change?!

INEXCUSABLE: Rams Lose to Depleted 49ers Team, Sean McVay “Sick” After Loss, What Needs to Change?!

Are the Rams Super Bowl pretenders or Super Bowl contenders? And this specific thing needs to change for the Rams to be the team that they think they are. That’s coming up next on Locked on Rams. You are Locked on Rams, your daily Los Angeles Rams podcast, part of the Locked on Podcast Network, your team every day. What is up, Ramly? Welcome to another episode of Locked On Rams, your daily podcast covering your Los Angeles Rams. Free and available rev your podcast. Locked on Rams, part of Locked on Podcast Network, your team every day. We’re also available over on YouTube. So, if you haven’t yet, do us a huge favor. Hit the subscribe button, hit the notification bell, hit the like button for your Los Angeles Rams. Also, podcast listeners rise view or read on the show. My name is Doug McCain. You can follow me on exit Instagram at dmac_. I’ve covered LA Sports for over a decade. 247 Sports, Bleacher Report, SI Dodgers Nation. As always, I’m joined by the Rams prealf and postgame show host for the Rams flagship radio station, ESPN 710 LA. He’s in his 11th season covering your Los Angeles Rams. I’m sure those callers were pretty nice yesterday. The People’s Champ, Mr. Travis Rogers. You can follow him on X, Travis Rogers. On today’s episode, we are going to continue to unpack another crushing Rams loss. What needs to change? Our big takeaways. But first, today’s episode of Locked on Rams is brought to you by Mazda. Like our players, we sweat every detail. Currently in the first quarter, because when you make every move count, pulling off the unexpected is only the beginning. Stay tuned later for highlights in this week’s Moving the Game Forward. Mazda move and be moved. All right, Travis. So, let’s get right into it. Another crushing loss. Terrible first quarter. You make M. Jones look like he’s Tom Brady. The defense did not adjust well early on. We’ll talk about that. Kyle Williams, bad fumble, the decision to go for it on fourth and one and the play call there to run it right up the middle. Where do you want to start? Just what’s your your biggest takeaway, Travis? So, let me start with the one bit of positive news I think that I can take away from what happened to me last night. I ran into Ricky out of my postgame show who is an avid uh locked on Rams listener. So Ricky, what’s up? Thank you for checking in. Uh other than that, what a catastrophe. Just a an absolute meltdown. Le let let’s start with this, Doug. You you laid out a bunch of stuff and I think, you know, you could pick any one of those things is the thing that lost them the game, right? their their inability to do anything um early in the game, their inability to get uh like you mentioned, get pressure on M. Jones early. Kendrick Bourne turned into Jerry Rice last night. It was just it was bizarre. But I guess we’ll start here. They came out completely unprepared to play. They came out completely flat and disinterested and lifeless and and listening to Shawn McVey afterwards, he said the same thing. This is not like a hot take or any of this. And and I just don’t get it. I just don’t get where a team that’s coming in that is a wounded animal, the 49ers, they’re missing five of their best players. You get them on a short week in your place. You get a chance to really kind of put them in the rearview mirror a little bit, win your first division game, and you come out like you’re completely disinterested for the first, you know, half hour of the game. It was It was bizarre. It was completely unlike a Shawn McVey team. I get that there’s going to be some es and flows along the way, Doug, but I I I I I could not have been more disappointed in how they came out of that game. I know they got caught they got hot late in the game and and and Stafford was terrific in the second half, but just just a disastrous start. They they they lost that game 50 different ways, but it started from the opening kickoff. 100%. I’m glad we start there because it the the instinct probably is to just pile on Kyrie Williams fumble which we will talk about a little later. We will yeah we’ll get to that. We could talk about the the overtime. We talk about fourth quarter, but you have to this game was lost with the way they came out. Flat, lacadasical, disinterested, and in a standalone Thursday night football game against a division rival against the San Francisco 49ers where it felt like 80% 90% of the crowd was wearing red. for you to come out against backups at key positions and perform the way you did. Let’s call it what is. It was embarrassing. It was humiliating. It falls on Shawn McVey and they were what I was told just cussing and they were really angry in the locker room and this and that. My question is why didn’t you have that same energy to start the game? Because I don’t understand why you’re so upset, why you’re cussing now when you came out and as you point out, you let M. Jones go out there and just drive the football. makes short intermediate throws, screen passes to McAffrey. And this is why, look, Kyle Shanahan has always had so much success against Shawn McVey. And the reason why is football is the most complicated, the most simple game at the same time. Kyle Shanahan is so good at finding the weaknesses and defenses and just exploiting it. He knew where those soft parts in that zone were going to be. He knew what to do. And for some strange reason, Chris Schula did not adjust. You saw soft coverage the entire night. You didn’t see any physicality with the secondary. They got exposed. And then you also saw the Rams pass rush get neutralized because of hey, I don’t care how good your pass rush is. You can have Aaron Donald and Deacon Jones and Demarco Far and Michael Brockers and Travis Rogers. I mean, you can have all these guys on the defensive line. Doesn’t matter how if the ball’s out, it’s the pure physics of it. If the ball’s not there, there’s no ball to get. You’re not getting to anyone. So Shanahan knew this and it was just it was a great great game plan. A and this is the thing he so he was 33 for 49 with 342 yards and two touchdowns. But you look at just the overall offense from it. Most of those came from 10 yards or less. I mean just it was just insane. I mean 28 of 37 20 of 37 258 yards were were under 10 yards. I mean, it’s just it was ridiculous that start of the game for the Rams defense. Look, I I I get that they’re professionals and I get that you know it they’re going to take every game seriously and you know all the cliches that are true on any given Sunday and even the bad teams in the NFL are good and if you know if you’re not prepared they’re going to come in and they’re going to be able any team can beat any I get all that and that’s true. But what else is true is I think that human nature takes over sometimes. I I think the Rams looked at what the 49ers were going to come in with and they’re like, “Oh, okay. Th this this is easy money. There’s no Nick Bosa that’s going to come after Matthew Stafford. There’s no uh you know uh any sort of threat with George KD. He’s not going to be there. There Joan Jennings isn’t going to be there. Pierall isn’t going to be there. They actually did a really good job on Christian McAffrey. He was the one that wasn’t particularly, you know, dangerous for them yesterday. Yeah. And but there’s no other explanation for coming out like that. It’s just they thought that it was going to be much easier than it was. They got slapped around. M. Jones came out ready to play. I mean, if I would have told you, Doug, Mh. Doug, if I would have told any of the the everydayers that, oh, hey, by the way, M. Jones is going to have to throw 50 passes. You’d have been like, “Let’s go.” Like, I mean, great. Awesome. That means that they’re behind. That means that they’re trying to catch up. They’re trying to score a bunch of points in a short period of time. He threw 50 passes and it was the best game plan I’ve ever seen. There wasn’t one that was nearly intercepted. He was on the money time after time. Even when they started hitting him in the second half, he showed a great deal of resiliency. Um, you know, I the Rams got turned inside out yesterday. It was just it was a it was a failure on every single level. And you know, we haven’t even said yet, they got another blanking kick blocked. You know, this this this is another thing that just is inexplicable to me. This is you shouldn’t have four kicks blocked in an entire season. You shouldn’t have two kicks blocked in an entire season. They’ve had four kicks blocked in the first five weeks of the year. It’s just inexcusable. Just across the board, it was a failure yesterday. Yeah, the Rams long snapper is having issues, but Josh Cardi missing a 53 yard kick. The 53 yard kick is the new 43 yard kick in the NFL. And to get a few extra point block is inexcusable. And to defer in overtime and then have a penalty like Joshua Cardi did that would set them up at essentially the 40 yardd line. That’s just inexcusable. I if I get a notification on my phone that Joshua Cardi is gone and the Rams have signed Yongho Coup, I’d be absolutely coup with that because I honestly like I I don’t at this point I don’t care about kickers. I really don’t. Like one bad game, you’re gone. I’m totally okay with that. especially when it’s there’s just something that’s not working with the special teams group and if someone has to fall on the sword as Joshua Cardi then maybe that’s that’s the result of it because that was just that was a killer that that 53 yard kick is something that he’s got to make especially when dude on the other side is making a 59 yard kick in a controlled environment at Sofi Stadium but want to go back to something you said about about M Jones and just allowing him to eat on underneath routes why is Chris Schula so reluctant to just take his script like you point out, take the game plan and just throw it away when things aren’t working. The coverage was too soft. And this is the issue I have is we know that they were so comfortable playing the style that they were playing where you have receivers that are good on getting yards after the catch. That is how they were picking up these first downs. I mean, you look at the first two drives, the first drive, you had a first and 15 and a first and 20 for the 49ers. They were still able to convert. You had a third and eight in the second drive. They were able to convert. They were three for three on all their four down conversions. In all three of those cases that they converted, it was two scoring touchdowns after that. You allowed him 258 yards on throws, 10 yards or under. That was the second most on shorter throws in the NFL in any game this season. So, I just don’t understand why you bring pressure late and you start to figure things out. Why you could not have done that earlier? Because I I I really think that this is one of the things about this team is, oh, this defense is so elite. This team has so much talent, but in this one, you really just lost to backups, man. You You lost to I mean, so what does this mean, Travis? Does this mean that if they’re fully healthy, the Rams lose that game by 25 or it just means that they only play the level of their competition? Yeah, I think it’s the second thing. Let’s hope it’s the second thing because if it’s the first thing, then there’s not much you can do about that. If it’s the second thing, I think you can get a little better. You can get more competitive. You can change some game plans along the way. I just want to throw one other thing in before we move on to the next topic about the 53 yard field goal that was missed by um by Cardi earlier in in the first half. That should have been a 30 something yard field goal. Blake Cororm dropped a pass that would have been an easy first down that would have moved him up another 15 yards or so. Who knows what happens after that. It was just a it was a series of just terrible terrible plays. Drops, penalties, missed throws, missed kicks, block kicks, fumbles by both of the running backs. just a just a zero across the board. Really, other than Stafford late, it was there’s not much to hang your hat on. Yeah, Stafford honestly played great. He really honestly did. And unfortunately, John McVey said, “You know what? The guy’s playing great. We got an MVP. Let’s put the hand Let’s put the ball in the hands of Mr. Fumble, right? Let’s put the hands in the in Ken Williams ball in Kenya Williams hands when the game is on the line.” So, we’re going to talk about that next. And also, does Shawn McVey have to consider giving up play calling duties? That’s coming up next on Locked on Rams. This episode of Locked on Rams is brought to you by Square. Your favorite neighborhood spots run on Square. There are certain businesses that make the neighborhood the neighborhood, right? These are the places that become an extension of home. The third place that we always talk about, right? 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See you in the neighborhood. Also, this episode is brought to you by Mazda’s moving the game forward. For those who believe it’s not just about playing the game, it’s about redefining it. There are moments that do more than put points on the board. They move crowds, they move culture, and they keep moving the game forward. And this week’s moment that moved the game forward, unfortunately, is talking about Kyron Williams putting the ball on the ground at the end of regulation and just absolutely kind of a gut punch for the Rams at that moment. But, however, they did keep themselves moving forward. They actually got a stop after that. They got the ball back. They gave it to their Hall of Fame quarterback who went down there and they able to score a field goal and send the game to overtime. So, even in a tough spot, they kept moving forward. And when you follow what moves you, the unexpected is only the beginning. And just like there’s more to every highlight, there’s more to a Mazda vehicle. Mazda, move and be moved. And we are off and running here on Locked On Rams. Thank you for making Locked On Rams your first listen every single weekday. Free and available wherever you get your podcast. Locked on Rams, part of Locked on Podcast Network. your team every day. Also want to give a special shout out to all the everyday listeners, the true fans. Doesn’t matter if you win by 50, lose by 50, have crushing, brutal losses like we’ve seen a couple of this seasons. You are a dieh hard. You’re never going to not love your Los Angeles Rams and this is the show for you. So, thank you guys always. And if you’re not an everyday listener, today’s the time to join. Join everyday listeners club. That way you’ll be the most informed Rams fan. You won’t miss a thing about your favorite football team. All right, Travis. Yes. So here in our second segment, we are going to jump all the way till the end of the game. It’s a 26-23 game. The Rams had held the 49ers to a field goal early in overtime and then they get the ball back. They drive down the field. You’re at the 11 yd line. It’s fourth and one. And rewinding just a little bit here. You got Matthew Stafford under standard. You got Shawn McVey. They keep cutting to him. He looks like he’s sweating. And you got what looked to be a little bit of a jet sweep possibility with Book AU and I’m screaming, “Oh, cool. This is the play that worked at the Super Bowl to Cooper Cup. That’s going to work.” And then we get the timeout, some time elapses, and then you go with Kyrie Williams on fourth and one and you get stuffed and that’s how the game ended. Yeah. I I Okay, so let let’s kind of go through this, right? Like the the decision to go for it, I have no problem with it at all. I I I like the decision to go for it. They were trying to win the game. and they’re trying to get that first down and with what they’ve been dealing with in the kicking game that they decided to go away from the kicking game is is I I don’t have a problem with that at all. The decision to go was not my objection. It was the play call that made no sense at all. And Sean McVey was talking about it afterwards and I wrote I I was pulling my notes out here a second ago. That’s a bad call by me. I’m sick at it. I did not put our guys in a position to do it. We weren’t ready to go and it’s not winning football. Yeah. Right. on all three accounts. And look, Matthew Stafford was 21 out of 34, 280 yards, and two touchdowns in the second half. He was dealing. He did not miss a throw for about an hour and a half in the second half. He was just absolutely carving them up. He’s going to the Hall of Fame. He’s on a heater. He’s hitting everybody. He’s finding uh Whittington. He’s finding 22 Atwell. He’s feeding Puka. Everybody is a part of what’s going on there. You had no idea where that ball was going to go and you give it to Kairen Williams that that’s a play that the Rams aren’t good at. That’s not, you know, this is they don’t have a tush bush. They don’t have a quarterback sneak. We How many times have we seen M. Jones pick up a first down on a quarterback sneak last night and they give it to a guy not only who that that’s not his bread and butter, but you give it to a guy that’s got, you know, put the ball on the ground again. I get trying to go back to your guys and all that, but I’m gonna go with the guy who got me there, and that was Matthew Stafford. That they decided to not let number nine decide the game makes no sense to me whatsoever. Sean McVey is a great coach. He obviously is, you know, gets his team ready to go year after year after year. And this is not a grand takeaway, but that was a catastrophe of a decision. It was just awful in the second year, and it was just blown up right at the start. there was no chance of that play working. It just I I just can’t I just can’t figure out why that was the play call. And even listening to him afterwards when he said, you know, it was a bad call by me. That that’s how bad it was is that the guy just immediately jumped on the grenade and I I guess there was no other choice. And the question becomes, why was it a bad call? Like what went into the process of making that decision would be my question because as you point out, absolutely go for it. Go for the win. We even with a a M. Jones that he looks like he’s he’s either going to go to the hospital or the Hall of Fame after the game, right? The way that he’s walking around, pants going down. I mean, guys look like he’s in Yeah, he’s struggling there, right? So, you get the ball, you you tie it, maybe you get the ball back. There’s a chance, but that would show no confidence in your offense. That would show no confidence in just the players and the personnel that you have to go out there and make those plays. And here’s the issue I have. As you pointed out, it didn’t have a chance. And here’s I looked it up after the game. They had 15 rushing attempts by running backs on in the game where you didn’t get a where every single time you got a single yard or more, right? You got you didn’t get a single yard, right? You didn’t get a single yard, but the one that they didn’t was on the last one on that fourth and one. So, you really all for the entire game you were able to get at least a single yard in those situations. But the difference is the Rams versus stack boxes and ones that are a little more open where you can kind of use Kyrie a little more creatively kind of on the outside and try to maybe he’s not a guy that makes guys miss either, but those are kind of better spots for him. The Rams this year when you’re going up against light boxes, they’re first in success rate. So if it’s a light box, you’re going to get that. But against stack boxes, they’re 19th. They’re not a good team running into stack boxes. So for a team that’s as advanced as a team that embraced analytics that was a dumb decision and as you point out the big and forget about all the other stuff too and I don’t know if this you know a part of me in my back of my mind was like visualizing the the victory speech had the Rams have converted there and gone and scored a touchdown it would be Shawn McVey with the ball in his hands like Kairen Williams he fumbled but he came back he persevered and he resilience and critical and critical and given the ball there like trying to change the narrative of Kairen Williams you have Stafford You Devonte Adams had more yards last night receiving than Puka 88 to 85. He was playing well 22 well at a big catch. You have the MVP in the league and Matthew Stafford and Dvonte Adams. And you go to Kyrie Williams. I I think it’s look I mean it’s tough to kind of round because he’s owned up to it being a bad call. But it it it really just blows my mind that they were that predictive in that situation. Yeah. Look, like you said a minute ago, Doug, that sometimes we make things more complicated than they need to be. And and I I don’t care what the sport is, you know, when the game is on the line, put the ball in the hand of your best player. This is not this is not that hard, right? Like at the at the end of a game, Luca Donuch will have the ball for the Lakers at at at at the you know, at the end of the game, Shay Gilis Alexander is going to have the ball for the Oklahoma City Thunder. the the ball goes to the best player. You don’t you don’t need to trick anybody. Let your best player be your best player. Matthew Stafford was your best player. Puka is Puka. He seems to be able to get open at will. Devonte Adams, like you mentioned, was really good there towards the end. You had a million different options. Let your best player decide the game and they didn’t. They went away from their best player and it was a huge mistake. A a big mistake there. Hindsight is 2020, but I would have lived I would still been extremely disappointed. I’ve been very frustrated just because you lose to a bunch of backups, but I would have felt better that at least you go out firing your best bullets, you go out guns ablazing, right? I mean, it’s like if Jo Otani strikes out with the bases loaded, I’m better for it. If it’s my Conforto, then I’m uh then it’s like, ah man. Of course, baseball’s different. You can’t control like football and basketball, but still at least you want to see your best guys. It’s pretty simple. Like we can get as deep as you want, but give the ball to your best players in the big situations. If if they had gone on with a different play on that fourth down play and Matthew Stafford had tried to wedge it in to Puga Nakua, is anybody talking about the play call? No. No. It It’s like, hey, look, their best guy tried to throw it to their best guy. Okay, it didn’t work. Fine. But that’s not what happened. They went away from it in a way that made uh that made no sense at all. Um, look, they’re they’re really lucky they’re not riding a three-game losing streak. If not for Mitchell fumbling that ball out of the back of the end zone as he was going across, who knows what the mood would be, but you know, a lot of very unramslike things have happened in the last three weeks. We saw that second half in Philadelphia that was the most unrammlike thing I’ve seen. You saw, you know, what what happened in this game at the start, what happened at the end of regulation. You know, we we talked about this, Doug, like the decision to go on fourth down in overtime should have never come down to that. They should have won the game in regulation, but Kairen Williams put the ball on the ground for the seventh time since 2023. He’s got seven lost fumbles since 2023. It’s the most in the league. Like, you can just start throwing around blame pie slices like crazy because it wasn’t just one thing. It was a hundred things. I totally agree. But here’s the big question. We saw in the first half having us the Eagles some bad red zone play calling, some bad offense. Is there a situation I mean is it is it too hot of a take to suggest that maybe at some point Shawn McVey has to consider giving up play calling duties because I think at this point if you’re going to rank best red zone play callers in the NFL like his name is not even close to being one of those names you mentioned and we know that his strengths they far outweigh his weaknesses and I still believe that if you’re going to draft head coaches in the NFL he’d be right up there at the top but I mean this we have a lot of examples at this point of just not good play calling in big spots. Yeah, I don’t know if I’m there yet as far as saying that they need to move on to somebody else making those decisions because, you know, more often than not, the decisions that are being made work out pretty well. The Rams win a lot of games. They make the playoffs every year. I I still think that they’re a likely playoff team this year, but, you know, twice in the last three weeks, it’s certainly worth discussing. I I I’m not there yet. If it happens a time or two more, then sure, we can we can dig on it a little more. But, uh, I I’m going to be slow to to criticize McVey too much. I mean, the the decision at the end of, uh, overtime there to to the play call, I should say, was I I can’t wrap my head around it, but uh, I’m still fully in the bag for Shawn McVey. I’m all the way in the bag, too. I’m just saying. I mean, better play calling. This team is 5-0. Like, I I I don’t think there’s any doubt about that. They’re a five and0 team with better play calling. You’re probably right. Yeah, especially in that first half. The offense came out extremely flat, too. But, uh, coming up next, we’re going to talk some more Kiran Williams and just what’s next for this Rams football team. That’s coming up next on Locked On Rams. 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Explore the new Pelaton crossraining tread plus at onepelon.com. and welcome back to locked on rams. Thank you for making locked on rams your first listen every single weekday available rev gear podcast. Locked on rams part of locked on podcast network your team every day. Okay, so let’s talk a little bit of Kairen Williams. I mean look at the fumbles. It was it was tough because he was having a really really good game. I mean I know fantasy owners probably thought he was the the player of the game with how many points he was racking up because the versatility had 14 carries for 65 yards, a 4.6 sixyd average, broke a 20-yard run, which is like an explosive run for Kairen for sure. And then he also was a threat as a receiver, had eight reception for 66 yards and two touchdowns. So, I mean, he’s having a really good game, but unfortunately for Kairen Williams, it was another costly fumble at the worst possible time. I don’t know if you saw that, but apparently it’s legal to get punched in the dome like in a game. Like, I mean, my man hopefully he’s okay. is not concussed, but dude got got hit in the dome and he fumbled there and and let’s be honest, he gets it in there and we’re talking about the Rams come back down 17-7 and win that one at home and we’re riding high at 4 and one. I mean, that’s how big that fumble was. Yeah, it’s the it’s the classic, you know. Other than that, Mrs. Lincoln, how did you enjoy the play? Right. It’s it’s it’s you know, I I don’t care. He he he that was awful. It was it was just an inexcusable mistake. Look, fumbles happen. I get it. He leads the league in fumbles since 2023. That’s the seventh time he’s lost a fumble in his NFL career. It’s the 10th time he’s put the ball on the ground in his NFL career. He hasn’t been in the league for a million years. He’s a relatively new player. This is just his third real full season in this league. He’s a fumbler. That’s a huge problem that typically does not go away. You know, this, oh, that was a bad exchange. Ah, somebody punched it out. Ah, this happened over here. Ah, that happened over there. Dudes put it on the ground seven times in in less than three seasons in the league. It’s way too much. I don’t know how you fix it because Corm fumbled one, two. He did not look nearly as good. Um, he is a he’s a good pass blocker. He’s pretty good in the receiving game, but every single time he touches the ball, every Rams fan is holding their breath that it doesn’t get put on the ground again. And look, I’m not saying he cost in the game because a lot of guys cost in the game last night. But if he holds on to the ball right there, they win. It It’s as simple as that. If he goes in, they win the game. We’re having a totally different discussion. Josh Cardi isn’t worried about getting, you know, put out on the street. The special teams coordinator isn’t worried about it. Whoever’s keeps missing, like, we’re talking very, very differently if he holds on to the football. And I’m going to say it again. It’s the seventh fumble he’s lost in less than three years in this league. That is an inexcusable amount. The fumbles have continued to pile up and you look at just the the moments too. It’s one thing to fumble in the first second quarter, you win those games, you forget about them. But I mean, the critical fumbles in the fourth quarter last year in the division round loss and we’ve just seen so many examples now where where my concern is this is yes, you can be accountable. You can say this loss is on me. You can walk around the facility with the ball in your hand and guys try to punch it out like it’s high school or something like that. But I always fear this. Is it going to be the last time? Because usually it’s probably not, right? It’s I mean once a fumbler, always a fumbler type thing, but like it’s like will this happen again? How do you correct this issue long term? And it’s certainly something that he has to prove for a long period of time that he can just protect that football. I mean, you you point out, I mean, it’s you forgive a couple of fumbles and you look at them as as as aberrations, but even though he did get hit in the dome, I mean, the ball was loose. I mean, it was just like it was not tucked in. It was not it was not sound. I mean, since week four of the 2023 season, 33 games. I mean, 11 times. I mean, that that’s one fumble every three games. So, it’s going to happen again. And it’s hopefully won’t hurt them in a bad spot. And by the way, by the way, I mean, I believe you said Abraham Lincoln’s wife, what did she say? Would it kill you to take me to a show once in a while? What did she say? Well, I mean, and look, the the this play I don’t know if it was the play right before the fumble or maybe it was two plays before the fumble. I’m having trouble remembering exactly what it was, but you could see as he was getting ready for contact, he put both hands over that ball. He was really protective of it because he knows that that’s his bugaboo, right? That this is what he brings. You know, everybody’s got that fatal flaw, I guess. And it was just and again it it was it’s the easiest one to tack on to. It’s the easiest one to point a finger at because of when it happened and where it happened. But it wasn’t the only thing. We could we could do a whole podcast on their special team that that like you mentioned DMAC. The the kick to open overtime was a disaster. It just just a really bad day for the Rams. I’m glad they got a little time to get right for Baltimore cuz who knows what happens to them coming up uh against the Texans this weekend. And the Jaguars look decent. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And I will say this, Travis. I mean, look, I mean, people comment, by the way, it’s funny enough, you know, Ricky. Yeah. I I met him at the Dodger game a couple days ago. Oh, did you really? Yeah. I I There could be two Rickies. We got a lot of fans, right? But but I the reason why he’s like he he was mentioned locked on Rams. So, so I’m hoping it was that same. He was wearing a hat. Well, I mean, who doesn’t wear hats to games, but black hair kind of hockey dude. Yeah. Yeah. So, shout out to Ricky, man. Uh, he’s a big fan of all of our shows. But what I’ll say is this. We keep we pride ourselves on being the Keep It 100 Ram Show. I think the Rams have to earn their expectations back. I I think they have to earn the expectations back. And I I still think this team has a lot of highlevel talent and great coaching and they still have the potential to win this division, to make a deep run in the NFC. possibly make it to the Super Bowl. But right now, I’m not willing to go there until I see them bounce back. And I think they can do it, but I need to see. I’m not just going to blindly say they’re this team and they’re that team. And I I want to ask you too, Travis. You said a couple weeks ago that that Eagles loss was the worst loss in the Sha McVey era. Does this top that? Because I think that’s a loss on the road against a really good team, defending Super Bowl champions. This is a loss at home to a division rival on Thursday Night Football where they’re missing their starting quarterback. They’re all pro defensive end, three receivers, and a tight end and George KD on a big stage. I I think this is probably equal, if not worse. It’s debatable, right? Yeah. One and one. Go ahead. You you you know, that’s one of those drafts you can pick first. I don’t care what I get at second because it you know, it’s it’s about the same thing. Um, I I think I’d still give it to Philadelphia by a hair just simply because Philadelphia is a better team. You had a chance to beat a really good team and and you had a chance to not only beat them, but kind of run them out and you you failed to do it. The the Rams played bad yesterday. That was that was kind of bad from beginning to end with the like the obvious exception of of Stafford. So, I I would give the narrow edge to uh to Philadelphia. I I do agree with what you said, Doug. I and by the way, I think they’re better served as I don’t want to say underdogs cuz I don’t think they’re underdogs. They have too many good players to be considered an underdog, but I I think they they function better when it’s a Yeah, I don’t know about the Rams, right? I think that seems to be a better default position for them as opposed to hey, you know, you guys might be the best team in the NFC. I don’t know how well they wear that um the Yeah, I don’t know. You’re not Philly, you’re not Green Bay, you’re not Detroit, you’re not San Francisco, you know, prove it to me. I I like them in that role a little bit better. They It seems like they come out with a little more intensity. I agree. And like the players say, don’t you can’t let this blast beat you twice. And we’ll see how they respond. I still think they’re contenders. I definitely do. But this this has to be the ultimate wakeup call. This has to be rock bottom for this season. Let’s be honest. This has to be rock bottom. And I I agree with you. I said on the squad show cuz they were saying that this 49ers loss was the worst loss in the Shanov era. For me, I still say it was the Eagles because that I think would have just been a better win because you’re being a better team. This is the most embarrassing loss though, possibly. I’ll sign them for that. That sounds right to me. I mean, they they had they had ample opportunities to win that game and they failed on all three levels. They failed on special teams, they failed on defense, and they failed on offense. It was just it was And they, by the way, they failed on the sidelines, too. That both Chris Schulah and Shawn McVey had very bad nights. Yep. So, now I’m going to go get some cookie dough ice cream and watch the 2021 NFC Championship game. Okay. So that’s how I’m going to recover from this. I’m not I’m down bad. I’m down bad. Travis show Otani on Saturday afternoon. Everything’s going to be fine probably. Man, I got to show it, man. So I was I was chilling by the elevators, right? And I I go into up to the press box and the thing he opens up and I see it’s show the wife, the daughter wrapped up, the dog. It’s just them. And I I I I like what’s up show? Hey, you know, he kind of heads nods. You know, he knows me a little. I’m I’m telling you, the man was emitting light. Like there was light that was coming out of the body for a glow where he was elevating and ascending. I don’t even think the elevator was working. He he was just like making it go up through the ascension. And I’m telling you, like I’m never going to call any other athlete aura maybe like Michael Jordan cuz that I I’m telling you the man there was I I was like, is there do they install LED lights in the elevator or something? I I I I never experienced that. I’ve seen this dude. It’s one thing we see in their uniform, but when you see him in their street clothes, there’s like a different vibe, you know what I mean? And I was like, man, there’s all these guys were like diamonds and stuff, no ice, but the dude was shining brighter than all that. It’s crazy. Like, I don’t know, man. Like, yeah, let’s just get nine innings out of him on Saturday afternoon and stay away from that pen and everything will be good and then we can we can get back to the Rams on Monday. Yeah. Yeah. There you go. Show. Hey, pick up the vibes in LA. That’s what Travis is trying to say. That’s over this episode of Locked on Rams. My name is Doug McCain. You can follow me on X and Instagram at DMac_LA and you follow the People’s Channel, Mr. Travis Rogers. And definitely after watching this, tune in to his show. That’s going to be a great one today. DeMarco and Travis on ESPN LA. I cannot wait to listen to that. That’s must listen to radio, must view on YouTube as well. So check that out and we’ll see you guys Monday. Until next time, whose house is locked on Ram’s

D-Mac and Travis break down the Rams brutal loss to the 49ers, discuss Sean McVay’s fourth down decision to run it with Kyren. What’s next for the Rams, and more!

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