Sean McVay on blocked FGs: We were a little high with our pad level, gave up penetration

The Rams had two field goals blocked in Sunday’s loss to the Eagles, including one at the buzzer that Jordan Davis returned for a touchdown.

After reviewing the film, Los Angeles head coach Sean McVay told reporters on Monday where the breakdowns happened that helped cost the team a victory.

“If you’re looking at it from the kicking lens, over the left side next to the long snapper, we gave up just a little bit of penetration,” McVay said, via transcript from the team. “Two of their big guys that are excellent being able to get some momentum, get up underneath, get penetration and be able to get their hands up. On both of those kicks, we were just a little bit high with our pad level, didn’t necessarily execute with the techniques and the fundamentals that we’re capable of. They ended up making those plays and they do a great job.

“That’s a phase that they’ve always been strong with. They’ve always leaned into that. You go back to even when Fletcher Cox was there, he was a big-time problem. Jalen Carter and Jordan Davis have done an excellent job of making their presence felt and it was unfortunate that that ended up occurring on two consecutive kicks. That would’ve been the difference in the game for us.”

Those were the first two missed field goals of the season for Rams kicker Joshua Karty, who McVay is expecting to be just fine moving forward.

“He is a mentally resilient guy,” McVay said. “I think what you realize is the field goal operation is a collective unit. We have to do a better job of the snap, hold, timing. I’m not saying we have to do a better job of that, but it takes the snap, the hold, the kick, takes great protection across the board, the timing, the trajectory of the kick. We make kicks as a unit. We miss kicks as a unit, and he’ll do a good job of responding like what he’s shown since he got here last year.”

McVay, however, noted that he wasn’t displeased with the way the Rams handled the situation leading up to the final field goal attempt.

“When we get it to the 26-yard line, those are really favorable situations,” McVay said. “We had come into this game and made 23 straight field goals. It didn’t go down for us. I’ll never run away from the things that we need to be able to own and acknowledge, but I felt like where we got the football to and the way that we played that drive out and the way that the guys on offense executed was pretty clockwork.”