By now you’ve probably heard that Baker Mayfield wasn’t on the Rams very long before leading his new team to a dramatic win over the Raiders on Thursday night. He got to L.A. on Tuesday night and was a hero some 50 hours later.
In between, there was a lot of studying and not a lot of practice with his teammates. Sean McVay told reporters after the game that in the one practice Mayfield participated, he got in a whole 20 plays. There were two 10-play periods he was on the field for and “he made some throws and was able to do some different things.”
“Yeah, we spent a lot of – there’s a lot of concept carry over with things that he’s done and you should see his notebook and how quickly he got himself up to speed,” McVay said. “But it was one practice. We had two 10-play periods, whatever it would be on a Friday, on Wednesday, so yesterday. Made some throws and was able to do some different things. I just can’t say enough about how impressed I am with just the command, the comfort, even just the operation. (Baker) being able to just call the plays within the 40-second play clock or even 25 seconds out of a clock stoppage or it. I’m still kind of like, what the hell’s going on right now?”
Mayfield told Amazon’s postgame show that he’s glad the Rams were able to practice their two-minute situation with him a little bit before the game because that’s what it all came down to. He had to go 98 yards in 1:45 with no timeouts for the win and somehow pulled it off.
Fortunately for Mayfield, he now has 11 days before his next game, another prime-time battle on Monday Night Football with Aaron Rodgers and the Packers.
