RAMS HEAD COACH SEAN MCVAY
Thoughts on the possible game-winning field goal attempt.:
"He just missed it. We have a lot of confidence in Greg. It's one kick, he has made a lot of kicks for us. He will continue to make a lot of kicks for us. There were a lot of plays in this game, one play will never really determine the outcome. I know that was the final one. We did a lot of really good things on both sides of the ball. Special teams' did some stuff. I thought it was a very high caliber football game. Credit Coach Carroll and the Seahawks, they did enough to get the win tonight. We will take a couple of days and get ourselves healthy. We will look in the mirror and figure out what we can do better and we will respond."
Does your team doing a lot of good things make the loss harder:
"Ultimately we came in here with the expectation to try and win a game. Like I said, credit them, they did a good enough job to get the win. But there are 11 games left this season for sure. So we have a lot of football left. The season never stops after five games. It's been two disappointing weeks for us. I promise you, we will find a way to bounce back. Our team is mentally tough, we're resilient and we have a great team coming up when we get back from this thing. It's disappointing but we will stay connected will find a way to response, I trust that.
Was there an effort to get Todd Gurley going early:
"We wanted to get him going. I thought he did a good job. He got some tough, hard earned yards against a good defensive front. They have done an excellent job through the first quarter of the season, stopping people. I thought he had some good runs. I thought we did a good job on some things and that opened up somethings in the passing game."
Thoughts on losing two games in a row:
"We started 3-2 a couple of years ago. We lost to Seattle in week five as well. Again we're five weeks in and there is 11 weeks for sure left. So for us we are going to continue to look at it one day at a time and try and get better. We will get healthy with a couple of days off and we will come back and get ready to play a really good San Francisco 49ers team. So there are a lot of things to look forward to. Is it disappointing, absolutely? But it's something that is not going to be debilitating and prohibit our ability to move forward as a team."
Was there something you saw at halftime to want to get your tight ends more involved:
"I think Jared did a good job getting through progressions and finding guys. I thought Gerald and Tyler did a nice job in making the most of their opportunities."
Talk about the defensive backs:
"Those guys continue to show up. They made really timely plays. Eric had some really tough tackles. Marcus had some good breakups. The two-point play was huge. It gives you a chance to win the game right there because he ends up getting that break up. Until you really go back and look at the tape, its hard to exactly say. I thought there were a lot of positives. Certainly we will move forward the right way."
Did the offensive line take a step forward:
"Yeah, I thought so. I thought there was some good continuity. We got a couple of touchdowns. Really, we were rolling except for the couple of times we were backed up in that second half. At the end of the day, we have to find a way to get it done. That's something we will deal with as a team. And we will move forward in the right as a team as I mentioned before."
What was the Gurley and the run game effect tonight:
"Just being able to get some runs off enables you to stay in those normal down and distances. It opened up some other things. I thought he did a nice job throughout the night. He had two big touchdowns for us so that was big.
WR COOPER KUPP
On if there are positive things to take away from this game despite the loss:
"Football is not about one play. It's been said over and over again. There's things that we as a team just need to clean up across the board. Things that are in our control we just have to be dialed in on. The focus, the preparation just has to be there so that it becomes a game reality for us. It's on us to take that up a notch."
On if it is easier to get move on from the loss when they know they were in a close game that could have gone either way:
"It's good to be in a place where you're saying the problems that we have are things that are under our control. It's not like we don't have an answer, it's things that we look within ourselves as players. How can we be better individually for the betterment of this team so that when we step on the field as a team we're more productive, more efficient. We have to take that mindset. We have to take these next few days, refocus and we just have to be better."
On what he things they need to clean up specifically:
"Obviously, any kind of pre-snap penalties are something that are completely under our control. No one else is dictating how the ball gets snapped or anything like that. We have control of that so anything that happens pre-snap is something that needs to get cleaned up. There's the focus and execution of the little things. The line being able to do some motions, be able to get into some different formations we have to be on our P's and Q's with that. Make sure we're getting what we want out of it. As receivers we need to be able to get lined up quickly, make sure Jared (Goff) is getting the looks he wants, he needs. And then obviously just the execution of things."
On how it helped the offense to get Gurley going in the running game:
"I think you see it in some of our play-action game. Todd ran so well and the O-line blocked tremendously. When we can get things going in the run game, obviously it's a huge benefit for us not being one-dimensional, being able to setup that play-action."
On what he was doing with his time during the first quarter on the sideline:
"Take things in and make sure that if you're on the side, you still need to be locked in and learning from the game. When you do get in there, you don't want to feel like you're now trying to figure out what's going on in the game. Trying to get a feel for what guys are doing and while you see from the sidelines try to communicate what you're seeing out there. How are you attacking? What kind of releases are working for you? So on the sideline you're just laser-focused trying to benefit as much as you can from the game."
On the difference between this team and the team that was rolling teams over frequently during the past few years:
"I think it's the little things. I think we are a very good offense. We need to get back to executing the little things, doing those things right. Little things repeated over and over again turn into really big things and we can't lose focus of those details. Like I said, a little execution here and there is huge for us."
QB JARED GOFF
On the positives his team can take away from this close loss:
"There's good and bad things in every game. In this game we just didn't do enough good things to win. Unfortunately we came up a point short and that's the way it goes sometimes."
On how to prevent losses from snowballing on the team:
"I think with the group of guys we have, it won't. We're still 3-2, we're in a good spot. We've been on the right side of these more times than not in the last couple of years and it's part of the game. We still obviously love Greg (Zuerlein) and there's not a kicker I'd rather have in the league. He's one of the top guys in the league and I have so much faith in him."
On how establishing the running game with Gurley helped:
"I thought it was great. I thought it affected us positively. He did a great job, ran the ball well, had two touchdowns."
On Gerald Everett and the ball off his hands late in the game:
"He's got some of the best natural hands I've ever been around, so that's a fluke for him what happened. He was hard on himself and he knew it might have put us in the wrong situation there. I told him, I said 'We're going to need you again. If we get a stop here we're going to get the ball right back and we're probably going to come right back to you, so be ready' and he was and he made a couple big catches on that drive."
On the second to last possession that ended in an interception and what was going through his mind about throwing the ball in that situation:
"There was about two minutes left, right? And we had to go like, 80 yards? I like our chances throwing it there, rather than running it. I think it's the way to go."
On what was going through his mind after they got the ball back at the end of the game:
"Ready to go. We're rolling on offense in most of the second half. Had some things that didn't go our way where we didn't finish drives, but we were moving the ball really well. Knew what they were doing defensively and had some plays for it. Ready to march straight down the field."
On what goes into getting the TE's implemented:
"Just by the way the game flow goes. I think there's no intent to it, it's just that those were the guys that were open on those plays."
On if losing two in a row early in the season puts them in a hole:
"No, I don't. We've been 3-2 before and we made the playoffs two years ago. If I remember correctly, the Patriots were 3-2 last year and won the Super Bowl, so there's a lot of game left. We've got a really good group in there and I think we're going to bounce back. Yeah, we're fine. Obviously you don't want to lose two in a row at any point, but we've got another big division one next week so we've got no time to waste."
On his two-point conversion attempt that came up just short:
"I thought I had it. I couldn't see the ball on the replay. Hard to overturn…"
On the roughing the passer call against Clay Matthews:
"I respect the hell out of Russell (Wilson), I think he's a great player. But, I've been in that situation before and you do a little bit extra to get something and I'm not saying he did or didn't, I think he's a great player but it was the call the ref made. I've gotten a couple of them, roughing the passers. It's part of the quarterback position. Again. I'm not saying he did or didn't because I didn't really see it. I didn't really end up mattering."
RB TODD GURLEY
On what made the difference between a win and a loss:
"A couple little things. Pay more attention to detail. Had some turnovers. That's about it. We played a great team. That's a tough game, coming up here. Thirty-three made a great play. We still had a chance to come back. We just didn't get it done, but it was a really good game, though, for sure. We're always going to stick together no matter the outcome of the game. That's why I like this team."
On if the team's overall good play is a silver lining to the defeat:
"We know what we're about. We know what we're capable of. We've been doing this week in and week out, so we've got to win the game. That's about it."
On why the Rams appear to be struggling in 2019 and putting teams away early in 2018:
"There's some great teams, 32 teams, everybody else got a job; they're getting paid just like we do. No one's getting blown out in this league. It doesn't matter. The worst team or the first team, it's always going to be a tight game, it's going to come down to getting done in those last couple of minutes."
On if the team felt confident it would drive down for a final score in the last minutes:
"It's what we do. The defense obviously is going to be a little bit more conservative in the two-minute situation. There's never like no pressure with us, man. We know what we're capable of. If we don't get it done, we don't get it done. If we do, we get the win and see another game."
On the effect of back-to-back losses:
"We had two losses at the end of the season last year, and we still made it. It doesn't matter how you start. No one remembers who was 4-0 or 8-0. It's about making it to January."
S ERIC WEDDLE
On what level of concern should people have after seeing the defense give up 55 and 30 points in its last two games:
"It really doesn't matter what the outside thinks. I'm not really concerned with that. We fought our tails off. I mean, Seattle's a good team, and Russell Wilson's playing out of his mind right now and what he can do to extend plays. Outside of the one where I blew the one on MP (Marcus Peters), that's me. Outside of that, we're covering them up. He improvises and makes plays. It's just a tough challenge on any defense, let alone ours. But we had chances. We got a stop late and, you know, we didn't get it done. But our confidence isn't shaken at all after these last two weeks."
On the mood of the team after two straight losses:
"It's good. We're 3-2. You're coming at us like we're 0-5 right now, so that's definitely not the case. We could have got that win. We didn't, but to fight back, to get the ball back to our offense and then to drive it down—they were unstoppable in the second half. So I think this is just building towards what we want to become by the end of the season. Teams don't want to be playing their best ball in September and October. You want to be playing great in December and building that momentum to the playoffs. So this is just another notch to make us better in the long run. We're not fading or clinging in any direction other than just trying to get better."
On if this Rams team is different that the one that reached the Super Bowl:
"I think other teams have gotten better. I think it's better for a team to grind out and figure out who you are along the way. When it's too easy, then you get hit in the mouth, you really don't know who you are at that point. The confidence is here. We're a steady group. We're not going to waver. We're not going to point fingers. Everyone could have done better tonight, obviously, and we didn't get it done. But you come in here, a hostile environment, on the road against a divisional opponent and have a chance to win. You've got to take positives out of that."
On Lockett's touchdown catch:
"Man, that was a crazy play. You can play the coverage perfect, took him, covered him up, and he throws it up and makes a play. Those things happen. You just chalk it up as a great play by Russ and a great play by Tyler. I'm not going to lose sleep over a play like that. It's an amazing play."
DT AARON DONALD
On Russell Wilson's play:
"That's what he do. I have to watch the film and see what happened, but that's what he do. At times he got out on us, and we have to be better than that."
On if there are many thinks to fix defensively:
"We fine. It's still early in the season. That's nothing to panic about. There's a lot more football left. All you can do is watch the film, learn, try to fix the things you did wrong and build up the things you did good and keep playing ball."
TE GERALD EVERETT
On factors that contributed to the loss:
"It's just us coming out and executing. We've got to compete harder. We prepared well during the week and we were really confident coming into this game, and it just came down to the wire."
On the impact of the delay of game penalty:
"We can't say it all comes down to one game. We're not going to use that as our scapegoat. It's just we've got to come out and be a better team, be a better offense. In all phases of the game, we have to be better."
On what's responsible for a late-game gaffe such as that penalty:
"It's hard to say. It's always something different. In this case, it's a team effort. You can't single out anybody because everybody could have played better tonight."
On if he senses a difference between this year's team and last year's team that opened big leads against opponents:
"It doesn't really feel much different. We think we're the same team. We've got the same confidence and the same chemistry as last year. Nothing's really changed. It's just teams that know they have to come and play us harder than last year."
On if the team is now in a hole after two straight losses:
"No, I wouldn't say it's a hole. We know what kind of team we are, and everybody else in the league knows as well. We're going to have the same confidence as usual."
RG AUSTIN BLYTHE
On if he detected any positives from this game:
"I think so. You can take some good things from this little short week that we've improved upon, especially from last week on a short week of preparation. Getting the running game going and being more physical. I think it's a good step in the right direction. By no means does this last week define us as a team."
On if he senses the team will regroup and move forward the right way:
"Absolutely. If I know the guys on our team and the coaches that we have in our meeting rooms, there's no way to respond except to get better from it, learn from it and improve."
On what needs to improve:
"It started after that loss on Sunday, coming into the meeting rooms and talking about things we can improve on as a team, as an offense, as an offensive line. I think we took a step in the right direction, and I know a lot of us are going to look forward to these 10 days off and regroup."
