The Los Angeles Rams‘ terrible, horrible, no good, very bad night in the Windy City prompted questions about why the league’s second-ranked offense struggled so mightily in prime time.
L.A. was averaging 34.9 points and 439.9 yards per game entering Sunday night’s clash with the Chicago Bears, but was held to just six points and 214 yards, both lows in the Sean McVay era.
The Rams coach took full responsibility for L.A.’s offensive woes following the 15-6 defeat.
"Really, just consistently over and over, I continually put our players in bad spots," McVay told reporters. "Certainly a humbling night, but it’s one that you get a chance to look at yourself critically, find a way to get better, move forward accordingly and that’s exactly what we’re going to do, that’s all I know to do. I’ve got to be better for our football team. This loss is on me. I didn’t do nearly a good enough job for us today. I trust that we’ll respond the right way."
McVay wasn’t the only one to heap blame on himself. Todd Gurley, the league’s leading rusher entering Week 14, was held to a season-low 11 carries, 28 rushing yards and 58 total yards.
"I looked like a skunk. That’s what I looked like," Gurley told The Orange County Register’s Rich Hammond. "It was just one of those games."
Asked what Chicago was doing to frustrate the Rams, Gurley said, "Everything. They did a great job. We played like s—. They held us to six points. Simple as that."
The Rams have been held under 300 yards under McVay before, but not this season. Rams quarterback Jared Goff compared Sunday’s loss to Los Angeles’ 24-7 defeat in Minnesota in Nov. 2017 when the Rams mustered just 254 yards and 15 first downs in the den of an NFC North power. L.A. recorded 214 yards and 14 first downs on Sunday night, but Goff saw more optimistic parallels between the two losses.
"This game, and then last year, you think about the Minnesota game, the two that you kind of look at as really big adversity, especially on offensively, that we faced," Goff explained. "We responded from that, and we expect to respond from this. We’ve got a lot of resilient players and I know myself and a lot of those guys have been a lot worse situations than 11-2 with three weeks left."
"I know this, we’re not going to allow this to be a bad thing no matter how you cut it. You learn from this. You’ve got to move on. It starts with me," McVay declared. "Really, I think every week provides a new narrative and this one was a humbling night for us. But we’ve got an opportunity to be able to look at ourselves, respond the right way and get ready for a tough game against the Philadelphia Eagles coming up at our place."
The 6-7 Eagles will be L.A.’s last true test before the postseason. The 11-2 Rams wrap up their regular-season festivities with bouts against the 3-10 Cardinals and 49ers.
Then, it’s the playoffs, where the Rams might see the Bears again and rewrite the narrative.