Frustration is starting to mount in the Rams’ locker room, and understandably so. After Sunday’s 16-13 loss to the Buccaneers, the Rams dropped to 3-5 on the year and have one of the worst offenses in the NFL.
The defense has done its job, for the most part, but Sean McVay’s offense is lagging behind. And Jalen Ramsey, for one, is tired of the defense needing to close out games. In the locker room after the game, Ramsey expressed his frustration over the fact that the offense doesn’t have the mentality that it’ll put away the opponent by picking up a first down.
That’s all the Rams needed with less than two minutes left: one first down.
“We have so many games where the defense will get a stop and we’ll got to the sideline and they’ll be like, ‘Y’all stay locked in. Y’all stay locked in. Y’all gonna have to go back out there again.’ It shouldn’t be like that. We gotta have some dogs who are gonna be like, ‘We’re gonna close this (expletive) out,’” Ramsey said.
He had more to say about the offense’s struggles.
“The defense should not have had to go back on the field. Simple,” Ramsey said, via NFL.com. “Gotta have some dogs who are gonna go get it. We shouldn’t come to the sideline after a big stop like that and our coaches or the other side or whoever telling us, ‘We gonna to need y’all one more time. We gonna to need y’all one more time.’ Like what the (expletive)? We just made a big stop, turnover on downs, with a minute and some change left and no timeouts for nobody.
“Gotta have some dogs who are like, ‘Man, (expletive) all that, we are going to end this game right now. Good stop. We are going to end the game for y’all.’ We gotta play off each other in that sense. You know what I mean? That’s what I mean by we should not have had to go out there. It is what it is. It ain’t the first time that this has happened. This has happened multiple times this year, really.”
The offense went three-and-out and punted again, giving the ball right back to Tom Brady, who drove 60 yards in six plays to win the game for Tampa Bay.
Inability to get a first down and run out the clock was widespread. In fact, the inefficiency of the offense has reached a critical time with head coach Sean McVay said things will change, be it personnel, his play calling, scheme shifts.
— Steve Wyche (@wyche89) November 7, 2022
Starting center Brian Allen agreed. He knows the offense should’ve been able to close out the game, only needing one first down to put the Bucs away.
That was a somber locker room, but many #Rams players spoke and answered tough questions. Here's a quote from C Brian Allen: "They (defense) shouldn’t be on the field. We should finish that. We put them in that position. We gotta find a way to get a first down. … It’s on us."
— Gilbert Manzano (@GManzano24) November 7, 2022
The Rams are a lost team right now with no real help or reinforcements on the way. It comes down to scheme, play calling and simply performing better on the field on game days. Because as McVay said, it hasn’t been good enough.
