McVay Says He Is 'Sick' After Settling for the Kick That Was Blocked in Overtime

Sean McVay had the game in his hands and chose the safest pair of hands on his roster he trusts least. After a James Cook fumble opened overtime on Monday night, the Rams drove to Buffalo’s 30, where any score would win the game. On third-and-5, McVay called a run that gained nothing and sent out his kicker for a 48-yard field goal. It was blocked, Buffalo won 37-34 on the next drive, and McVay spent his press conference blaming the call rather than the kick.

What exactly did McVay do in overtime?

He stopped attacking at the moment attacking was working. Fox News describes the drive reaching the Buffalo 30 on the back of five consecutive pass plays, with Matthew Stafford pushing a defense backwards. Then, on third-and-5, McVay called a run off right tackle for Kyren Williams, who was stopped for no gain, Rams Wire reports. It was a call designed to protect the field-goal attempt rather than to improve it or end the game with a touchdown. Harrison Mevis came out for the 48-yarder, Greg Rousseau blocked it, and Josh Allen drove Buffalo into range for Tyler Bass’s 45-yard winner, the New York Post reports.

What did McVay say about the call afterwards?

He said it twice, in almost the same words, and took all of it himself. McVay said he wishes he had called a better play and gotten the offense a lot tighter, that he is sick right now with himself, and that he will be regretting kicking instead of having a better call to go for it on third down, Rams Wire reports. He added the same verdict on the kicking operation as a whole, calling the field-goal and extra-point units not close to good enough and saying that side of the team cost the Rams the game. There was no hedging about the players who battled, as he put it. The regret was aimed at the coach.

Why does the kicker’s record make the call harder to defend?

Because McVay already knew the risk he was settling for. Rams Wire reports he has had little trust in Mevis all season, punting and going for it on fourth down in places where most teams would attempt long field goals. Sports Illustrated adds the numbers behind that caution: Mevis is 4-for-8 in his career from 45 yards or longer, and he has now missed kicks in consecutive games, one of them blocked in each case. Mevis had also missed from 50 yards earlier on Monday night. The conservative call, in other words, was not conservative at all. It moved the game onto a 48-yard attempt by the one specialist his own coach has spent the season coaching around, behind a protection unit that had already seen a kick blocked by Philadelphia in a loss last season, Rams Wire notes. A week earlier the Rams’ NFC West rivals produced a kickoff moment in Chicago where a kicker’s retaliatory leg became the story; this week the kicking story is about a coach who knew better.

Was McVay alone in owning a Week 5 disaster?

No, and the company is what makes the week unusual. Fox News counts three head coaches who have taken teams to a Super Bowl publicly owning game-deciding mistakes in the same week, a shift from the previous week’s story, when the league was suspending its own officials for their conduct toward players. Dan Quinn took responsibility for Washington letting the overtime clock run out against the Giants and taking a 27-27 tie instead of kicking. Nick Sirianni took full blame for the returnable kickoff that set up Jacksonville’s 57-yard winner with one second left in London. McVay’s is the sharpest of the three because the alternative was live in his own hands: the offense that had just walked down the field was asked to stop, so a struggling unit could try to finish the job. Quinn mismanaged a clock and Sirianni chose a kickoff strategy. McVay chose his weakest unit over his strongest one, with the game one first down from being safe.

What happens next for the Rams?

The kicking job is the first question of the week. McVay said the Rams will evaluate everything in the kicking game, Rams Wire reports, a phrase coaches use when a change is on the table, and Sports Illustrated argues a change at kicker would not be surprising this week. The cost of the loss is already set: Los Angeles is 2-3 in a crowded NFC West race, the New York Post reports, on a night when Stafford threw for 383 yards and three touchdowns and Puka Nacua caught a record-breaking 17 passes. Sports Illustrated notes Stafford has now lost four games in two years after throwing for at least 370 yards, three touchdowns and no interceptions, the only quarterback it has happened to. McVay’s warning to his own team was that Buffalo cannot be allowed to beat the Rams twice. The first step is deciding who kicks for them next.