Puka Nacua wasn’t able to finish Sunday’s game against the Seattle Seahawks because he was ejected for throwing a punch in the second quarter. The incident occurred just before halftime after Matthew Stafford’s interception, a rare mental mistake by the Rams’ star receiver.
He ended the day with just one catch for 11 yards, but thankfully, the Rams were still able to come away with a win over their division rivals. Afterwards, Sean McVay mentioned that it’ll be a “great learning opportunity” for Nacua during his opening statement.
“It’ll be a great learning opportunity for Puka. He’s emotional. That’s one of the things we love about him, but he’ll be able to learn from that,” McVay said.
McVay was asked what he told Nacua after the ejection happened, and while the coach acknowledged it was a mistake, he doesn’t sound worried about his star receiver letting it linger.
He expects Nacua to learn from it and looks forward to him responding “the way I know he’s capable of.”
“We’re smarter than that,” McVay said of what he told Nacua. “Love him. I think the biggest thing you know about him is one of the best traits he has is the emotions and the way he loves competing with his teammates and doing everything that he can to contribute and also understand how important it is to what AD used to always call controlled aggression. He’ll learn from it. He is exactly the right kind of guy and this is a learning opportunity and we all make mistakes and I’m looking forward to seeing him respond the way I know he’s capable of.”
Nacua has played just three games this season and he was unable to finish two of them; in Week 1, he injured his knee in the first half and on Sunday, he was ejected. In the one game he did finish, he caught seven passes for 106 yards in Week 8 against the Vikings.
