Rams: Jared Goff, Sean McVay have little margin for error beginning Monday night

Los Angeles Rams quarterback Jared Goff won’t have a lot of room for error when the NFL regular season begins Monday night in Oakland.

It’s been a long time since Los Angeles Rams quarterback Jared Goff threw a pass in an NFL game. With head coach Sean McVay deciding to sit his offense for the balance of this past exhibition season, Goff and his potentially explosive offense haven’t done much but practice.

Therein lies the rub.

Does anyone truly know what to expect next Monday night against the Oakland Raiders?

Recently Aaron Donald, who signed a huge contract for a defensive player, admitted to feeling a bit of pressure as he puts the preseason drama from the past two seasons behind him.

“You could say that,” Donald said. “I feel like if I say it wouldn’t then I’d be lying.”

If Donald feels the pressure to perform, I’d argue both McVay and Goff should feel the same, maybe even more so.

The Rams offense will hit the field cold after only working together in practices, which may yield some rust to open the 2018 regular season. But if you ask Goff, you don’t get the sense he has that pressure like his defensive teammate, nor does the lack of preseason snaps seem to bother him much.

“Very excited to get some truly competitive action with our offense,” Goff said. “It’ll be really cool. The defense only played a little bit (in the preseason) too, and I know they’re excited as well.”

McVay, who has a well documented tendency to be cautious with his starters, will be tasked with flipping the “go button” on his would-be high scoring machine. Timing, which could be a rough go especially early, will fall to Goff to get right sooner rather than later.

Los Angeles opens in Oakland before having three straight games at the Coliseum. Two of those games will be against teams many experts see as playoff caliber like the Chargers and Minnesota, who made it to the NFC Championship Game before losing to Philadelphia.

For McVay and Goff, getting off to a good is critical for a Rams team and some big aspirations beyond repeating as NFC West champions.