The Rams are turning the page fast after a Week 1 loss to the 49ers, and Sean McVay wants the next stretch to look and feel different before Monday Night Football against the Giants. With an extended week in front of them, he said the team has to stay present, move forward and prepare the right way.
That timing is why Taylor Lewan is talking about this now: the Rams do not get much room to dwell before they have to answer it on Sept. 21. McVay said he wants the group to keep its chest out, chin up and eyes forward, then bring the kind of focus and concentration that matches a primetime road ahead of them. He even compared the mindset to the Men in Black line about forgetting what just happened and getting back to work.
The opponent also gives the week real weight. McVay said the Giants have a defensive front that mixes youth and experience, and he liked the way they played against the Cowboys, a game the Giants won 28-20 in Week 1. He said he saw a defense that played with their hair on fire, with great energy and great effort, which is the kind of thing that can expose a team still searching for rhythm.
Matthew Stafford said the Giants “jump off the screen,” especially on defense, and he is treating the matchup as a fresh problem rather than a replay of Week 1. The Rams quarterback said there were not enough plays in the opener to really get into that rhythm, a line that gets to the heart of what has to change. The offense is trying to make sure he and everyone else plays at a better level so the Rams can get the results they want.
Davante Adams sounded just as impatient with the wait. He said it is hard for a competitor to sit and wait without a chance to rectify what happened, and he pointed back to execution as the first fix. For Adams, the task is not simply to play harder, but to figure out how to click, avoid hurting themselves and put themselves in better situations.
He also made clear the Giants are not being reduced to one standout unit. Adams called them a solid defense all around and said pressure up front can matter more than having a great secondary. That is the matchup the Rams have to sort through in an extended week: not just cleaner execution, but cleaner answers against a front that can change how an offense operates.
McVay said the Rams need to be ready to go against a really good football team, and the next test will show whether the Week 1 loss was an early stumble or the start of a pattern. If Stafford gets the rhythm he missed and the offense clicks faster, the Rams can make their reset count. If not, the Monday night stage will expose the same problems in brighter light.
