INGLEWOOD, Calif – When the Rams suffered their first loss of the season and had an uncharacteristic performance – a 37-20 loss to the Cardinals in Week 4 – they had no choice but to flush the result and quickly prepare for a Thursday night football matchup with the Seahawks.
This week, their opportunity to respond to Sunday's loss to the Titans will come a little bit later with a Monday Night Football matchup against the 49ers on the road. But the same sentiment remains: Responding the same way they did to the Cardinals loss.
"You go back, you look at yourself critically. We get these things corrected. That's all I know how to do. That's what we'll do," Rams head coach Sean McVay said. "I trust the character of this locker room to be able to respond the right way. Not nearly good enough and it starts with me."
Rams offensive lineman Andrew Whitworth said the Titans game was similar to the Cardinals game, in that they played pretty well up front and as an offense, but "made silly mistakes" that were self-inflicted – effectively handing the opponent opportunities because they were not executing things that they handle well both inside and outside of games.
With the Titans game, back-to-back turnovers spotted the Tennessee 14 points after Los Angeles took an early 3-0 lead. L.A., which entered Week 9 with the fewest sacks allowed in the NFL (8), also gave up a season-high five.
"I mean, it's just not winning football. It's not our identity. That's not who we've been, and we did it today," Whitworth said. "I think all of us will be better for it."
That turned out to be case after the Cardinals game.
Faced with that short week a little over a month ago, the Rams bounced back with a 26-17 win over the Seahawks in Seattle, the first of four-straight victories.
The Rams are just as eager to get back to work and correct what went wrong against the Titans.
"Just anxious to get back to work, get back on the field so we can get this taste out of our mouths," Rams defensive lineman Aaron Donald said.
When asked about what their response to the Cardinals game looked like in the following days preparing for the Seahawks game, Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford said it was "no different than most of the days" they're in the facility.
"We have a great team that is full of guys that care about putting the right stuff out there every single day," Stafford said. "I know we'll show up to work ready to go. Pissed off about losing the game, absolutely. Ready to go out there and make whatever mistakes we made in this game, make 'em right and make sure we do a good job next time we're out on the field."
