00:00Sean McVay was as angry as we've ever seen him after the loss in primetime to the Bills.
00:05He was going to make changes.
00:07He did fire the punter, fire the kicker.
00:09We'll see what happens with the entire special team's apparatus.
00:13But do you expect McVay to coach any differently or be different going forward with their team now two and
00:20three and they're three and a half games back after week five of the 49ers?
00:24Does that change things in terms of the way McVay is going to approach the rest of the year?
00:28I actually do a little bit, you know.
00:33Yeah, I do.
00:34And to answer your question, Matt, I was surprised at Sean McVay's play calling.
00:41And look, I went back and looked at that series.
00:44Once they got to around the 35 yard line, they got in field goal range in overtime after the fumble
00:49recovery by Aaron Donald punched out by Nate Landman that, you know, made it look like the Rams are going
00:55to go down and win.
00:56And he gets to the 35 and most people thought he looked a little conservative on some of those plays.
01:02If you look at one of the first plays of that series, he had like a Texas route for Kyron
01:08Williams to pop off and rotate to the center of the field.
01:12Kyron has the wherewithal, I think, to see that they're thinking he's going to kind of curl around.
01:17So Kyron just starts streaking down the center of the field.
01:20He's wide open.
01:21And Matthew Stafford, you know, maybe he did a three-step drop.
01:24He's throwing off his back foot as the pocket's collapsing.
01:27He misses him by maybe a yard or two.
01:29That's a touchdown.
01:31There's no safety back there.
01:32That is a touchdown.
01:33That's a play that Sean McVay probably wishes he has back.
01:36Matthew Stafford wishes he has that throwback because we're talking about the Rams with a walk-off touchdown win in
01:40overtime instead of that.
01:41They then throw and get five yards, I think, to Puka on second down.
01:45And third down, I think Sean tried to, you know, maybe get cute, catch him off guard with a rushing
01:50play to Kyron Williams.
01:51It goes nowhere for no gain.
01:53But if he had busted that, you know, there's something else.
01:56I don't think – I'm wondering if – and I didn't get a chance to ask him yesterday, but I'm
02:00wondering, Matt, if in Sean McVay's head he saw what happened between Washington and the New York Giants earlier in
02:06the week where they couldn't get the playoff and that game ends in a tie.
02:10They couldn't even get a field goal off.
02:12He sees James Cook fumble the play before.
02:14Or I'm wondering if he's like, you know what, let's just be conservative and kick the ball here and get
02:19out of here with a win.
02:20Whereas most of the time, he doesn't – he's never really had the confidence in Harrison Mevis, the thicker kicker,
02:26for those 50 and greater yard kicks.
02:29He just hasn't.
02:30And he hasn't with any field goal kicker since Greg Zerline, you know, back when he first came here almost
02:3510 years ago.
02:37And so – and they've looked – they've been penny-pinching on the special team side of the ball for
02:41a long time now.
02:42And look, justifiably so because, you know, special teams can help you lose games, of course, as we've seen over
02:48the years with the Rams.
02:49But they're not going to help you win games to the point where your offense and defense are on the
02:52field, which is for like 95% of the snaps.
02:55And so he tends to try to bargain shop when it comes to those positions.
02:59And hiring Bubba Ventrone to fix this unit in the offseason was a step in the right direction.
03:05That's going to take time.
03:06We're seeing some of the same mistakes.
03:07But they've already moved on from their punt returner, Xavier Smith.
03:10I'd like to see him give Dean Connors, a guy, a chance.
03:13They call him like the mini Christian McCaffrey.
03:15I think he'd be a great return guy rather than Alex Bachman, who they promoted off the practice squad right
03:21now,
03:21who's at least more reliant at catching the ball and making better decisions.
03:24But he's not – you don't have any fear that Alex Bachman is going to take it 60 yards to
03:28the house.
03:29So there's things they can improve.
03:30And to answer your question from the beginning, I think because of that and because of what's happening with this
03:35field goal unit,
03:36until, you know, Blake Grice, you know, the little Blake Grice, going from the thicker kicker to the little guy,
03:43until he can prove he can consistently make those 50, 55 to 60-yard field goals,
03:49Sean McVay is going to be going for it.
