JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — The last time the Rams opened a season 4-2 was 2006, when the club was in St. Louis and Scott Linehan began his first year as head coach. The Rams would then lose 23 of their next 30 games before Linehan was fired four games into the 2008 season.
I mention this as a cautionary tale for those who think Sean McVay already has proven himself as the long-sought answer for a franchise that hasn't reached the playoffs since the 32-year-old wunderkind was a freshman wide receiver at Miami University in 2004.
The body of work simply is not yet available to prove McVay is the second coming of Dick Vermeil and can avoid flaming out like Linehan after initial success. Plus, so many things go into the head coaching position beyond Xs and Os. The NFL's nature dictates there will be more challenges on and off the field, which McVay still must prove he can handle.
All that being said, count me in as a believer.
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It wasn't just the way Los Angeles bounced back from a Week 5 loss to Seattle with Sunday’s 27-17 road win over Jacksonville that continues to make McVay the early front-runner for NFL Coach of the Year honors. It's the immediate impact McVay has made in defusing the malaise that had settled over the Rams during Jeff Fisher’s four-plus seasons at the helm prior to his firing in December.
"The whole culture changed as soon as McVay got in here," Rams cornerback Trumaine Johnson told Sporting News from the visitor's locker room at EverBank Field. "Go back to OTAs, training camp … Everything is different."
Being atop the NFC West at this point of the season is something different for Johnson from his previous five seasons with the Rams. The same goes for linebacker Alec Ogletree, who has experienced the same playoff drought since he was drafted in 2013.
"We haven't had the best of seasons in the past few years," Ogletree told SN. "We definitely were coming in with an open attitude. We just wanted to get better in any way possible."
What Los Angeles displayed against Jacksonville feeds into Ogletree's conviction that "all three phases believe in one common goal." While that sounds like a vintage football cliché, it was rarely the case with Fisher's squads because the Rams were so poor offensively compared to their quality defensive and special teams units.
These Rams were superior across the board against a Jaguars team also trying to break its losing ways under a new coach in Doug Marrone. Special teams produced a Pharoh Cooper 103-yard touchdown return on the game’s opening kickoff, a blocked Jaguars punt for another touchdown and a two-for-two field goal performance by Greg Zuerlein, which stood out in comparison to erratic Jacksonville kicker Jason Myers missing two 54-yard attempts.
The defense rebounded after surrendering a 75-yard Leonard Fournette touchdown run on Jacksonville’s first offensive snap. Fournette was held to a 2.8-yard average on his other 20 carries, which placed more pressure on Jaguars quarterback Blake Bortles to carry the load.
That isn't his strength. Bortles completed 23 of 35 passes with one touchdown but was sacked five times and threw a fourth-quarter interception with the Jags in field-goal range.
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The Rams also rely heavily on their running game for offensive production, and Todd Gurley delivered with 116 yards on 23 carries. But they actually have a QB who is starting to live up to his high draft status.
Although he has made only 13 career NFL starts, Jared Goff already looks more advanced in his second season than Bortles does after 51 starts since 2014. Goff stayed composed in a modest 124-yard, one touchdown performance against a Jaguars defense that entered the game with a league-high 15 takeaways that led directly to 77 points.
Goff's improvement under a quarterbacking guru like McVay hasn't gone unnoticed by Rams defenders.
"We were the 32nd-ranked offense last year," Johnson said. "Now, we're in the top five. That's a complete change right there.
"(McVay) is calling the plays over there. It's real good for us."
Sean McVay and Jared Goff (Getty Images)
The improvement doesn't surprise Rams center John Sullivan. Neither does the team-building McVay has done since leaving his post as Washington’s offensive coordinator for the head coach role in Los Angeles.
"I expected what we are seeing now, which is a change in the culture, a change in the standard that was set and the expectations for this team," said Sullivan, who was lured away by McVay from Washington to LA in free agency. "Today, this wasn't our best offensive performance, but things have really turned around. We expect to be a winning organization on and off the field.
"He preaches about the character and culture of this team. It's a constant reminder in our team meetings what a Ram is supposed to be, what our core values are, and what dictates our actions on a daily basis as players and professionals."
Another Rams newcomer expressed similar insight to Sporting News.
"The essence of everything starts with my character and who I am on a daily basis," said left tackle Andrew Whitworth, who had played the previous 11 seasons in Cincinnati before he arrived in LA during the 2017 offseason. "Consistency is the most important thing that matters.
"You can be a guy who has a splash play one Sunday and you think you've arrived. But the greatest measure of individual success is if week-in and week-out that you’re there for your team. That's what builds a franchise — when your best player and worst player have that same mentality. Everybody is getting better, not just certain guys on the team."
McVay's team-first mantras were recently put to the test by wide receiver Sammy Watkins, who complained on social media about his lack of opportunities following the Seahawks game. McVay responded by personally watching video with Watkins to highlight areas in which both sides could do a better job in the passing game.
A source told Sporting News that McVay also reminded Watkins of why the team traded for him in August: They want him to become a long-term part of the roster. Watkins, a 2014 first-round pick by Buffalo, is set to become an unrestricted free agent in the offseason.
Although he only caught one pass on four targets against Jacksonville, Watkins didn't kvetch about it to the media afterward.
"The only thing I can do is keep working hard on my craft and put everything on film," Watkins said, per the Los Angeles Times. "I think I played hard, stayed in the game and managed it. We got the win, that's the biggest thing."
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McVay admitted after the Jags game that "coaches and players alike" are still “learning about each other.”
"They're working through the good and bad," McVay said. "These players are mentally tough. I think that's because they're becoming that identity that you hear us talking about all the time."
It's one that would make McVay and the Rams built to last for the long haul.
"We have the pieces here to win if everybody just keeps believing and doing their job the right way at a high level," Ogletree said.
The process has begun.
Alex Marvez can be heard from 8-11 a.m. ET Monday and 7-10 p.m. ET Tuesday on SiriusXM NFL Radio.
