Sean McVay has a suggestion for anyone still struggling to process what happened to the Rams in Australia.
Think “Men in Black.”
Specifically, the little device that wipes away memories with a flash of light.
“It’s almost like you try to do the ‘Men in Black’ thing where you say, ‘All right, hey, I don’t remember what happened. That was so long ago.’”
Understandable.
If ever a football trip deserved to disappear into some inaccessible corner of the brain, the Rams’ journey to Melbourne qualifies. They traveled halfway around the world, got pushed around by a division rival and returned home with questions that followed them through customs.
Then came the news about Myles Garrett’s knee surgery and impending stay on injured reserve.
Unfortunately, no flash of light can erase Garrett’s absence. And no fast-forward button can get Aaron Donald ready for Monday night, with the Rams still deciding whether his comeback will begin against the Giants.
And with the suddenly potent G-Men arriving at SoFi Stadium for “Monday Night Football,” the Rams have reached the point where putting Australia behind them requires something more substantial than saying they have.
They have to play their way out of it.
That is the challenge facing a team whose championship ambitions survived the flight home, even if some of the assumptions supporting them took a beating.
The Rams are talented. They are experienced. Their coach and quarterback have navigated enough difficult stretches to understand the danger of allowing one bad performance to contaminate the next week.
But experience also should tell them that moving on means taking the lessons with you.
The scoreboard can stay in Melbourne. The corrections need to make it onto the practice field.
“The bottom line is, I like the way that I feel of our preparation,” McVay said. “Eyes moving forward, chest out, chin up, eyes forward, and let’s go be about it, and let’s go prepare the right way. Let’s have great focus and concentration; let’s have great energy and an edge that we prepare and compete with.”
The edge part would be a welcome addition.
Too often against the 49ers, the Rams were reacting to a game their opponent was controlling. San Francisco dictated the terms, sustained possessions and made the Rams look like a team waiting for its considerable talent to take over.
It never did.
That should linger longer than the debate about travel itineraries.
Whatever anyone believes about the Rams’ decision to arrive later than the 49ers, there is no international flight to explain that performance. They will be home, with ample time between games and every reason to understand the urgency.
The Giants will arrive believing they can deepen the Rams’ problems.
The Rams need to give them a reason to reconsider.
That starts with Matthew Stafford and an offense too accomplished to spend another evening searching for its rhythm.
With Puka Nacua, Davante Adams and Kyren Williams available, the Rams have the personnel to control stretches of games and help a defense suddenly facing life without Garrett.
They also have a quarterback who understands that an honest review carries more value than either panic or denial.
“You kind of get trained, whether it’s a game or a play, good, bad or indifferent, to just move on to the next one,” Stafford said. “Don’t think too much about it, don’t harp on it too much about it. Just be honest with yourself; play in play and play out. Game in and game out. And ask yourself how can I be better? Where can I be better?”
Those last two questions matter most.
For Stafford. For McVay. For a defense whose assignments do not become optional because one of its most important players is unavailable.
Garrett’s absence changes the personnel. It also increases the responsibility of everyone still standing.
The Rams acquired him for the moments when a defense needs someone to wreck a possession, force a hurried decision or prevent an opposing quarterback from settling in.
Now they must find those plays elsewhere, while doing the ordinary things well enough to make them possible.
Win early downs. Tackle. Get off blocks. Give the pass rush a chance.
Waiting for Garrett to return cannot become the defensive plan.
Nor can the offense treat his absence as somebody else’s problem. Sustained drives, points and fewer wasted opportunities would go a long way toward easing the burden.
There remains considerable belief inside the locker room that the opener misrepresented this team.
“Everybody’s freaking out, which I understand, we didn’t put together the greatest showing out there,” Adams said. “But at the end of the day, you’re a fool if you think that that’s what it’s going to look like every single week.”
Adams has every right to believe that.
One game is insufficient evidence to dismiss this much talent, and September has buried plenty of teams prematurely.
But his confidence now needs something the opener never supplied: a performance that makes everyone else see what the Rams still see in themselves.
Monday does not have to resolve every concern. It does have to show that the problems identified in Melbourne received more than a passing acknowledgment.
Cleaner execution. Greater urgency. A response when the game turns difficult.
Those are reasonable expectations for a team built to contend, even one already adjusting to a significant injury.
McVay can joke about erasing the memory. His players can insist they have moved on.
The most convincing way to make Australia feel like a long time ago is to give everyone something better to remember.
