Rams: 3 reasons Sean McVay deserves to be on hot seat following Week 12 loss

Sean McVay and the Los Angeles Rams were absolutely embarrassed by the Baltimore Ravens in Week 12.

Entering Monday’s contest, Sean McVay and the Los Angeles Rams knew their Week 12 meeting with the Baltimore Ravens was going to be one of the most difficult battles of 2019, but no one expected things to be this bad.

To say the Ravens absolutely embarrassed the Rams in front of their home crowd would be a huge understatement since Baltimore wasted no time putting up points against Los Angeles before going on to secure the 45-6 victory.

With Lamar Jackson continuing to build a strong case to take home MVP honors when the time comes down the road, the Rams clearly knew the key factor to winning this game would be keeping the Louisville product in check.

But after watching Jackson finish with five touchdown passes in this one, this just adds to the list of frustrations that have been surrounding Los Angeles over the last two months, and as a result of the struggles in 2019, it has put McVay on the hot seat.

After looking at all of the success surrounding McVay from the previous two seasons, some football fans would make the case how ridiculous it is to even consider the Rams coach being on the hot seat.

One year of missing out on the playoffs, that is if the Rams do miss out, wouldn’t seem like the end of the world for most teams, but McVay was responsible for leading a Los Angeles team with Super Bowl expectations back at the beginning of September.

Since starting off the 2019 season on a hot note with a 3-0 record, the Rams have now lost five of their last eight games following the Week 12 loss to the Ravens, and since it only seems fair to discuss, here are three reasons it’s time to consider McVay on the hot seat.

3. Rams trail 49ers by four games

Between Jimmy Garoppolo finally being healthy after suffering a torn ACL last season to adding key new members on defense such as Nick Bosa, the Rams seemed confident the San Francisco 49ers would become a legitimate threat within the NFC West.

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However, no one expected the 49ers to be as good as this team has been with San Francisco having the best record in the NFC at the moment with only one loss to their name.

Back in October when these two teams met for the first time, the 49ers made it pretty clear to the Rams they were the new team to beat in the NFC West.

And even though the Seattle Seahawks are still a major threat as well, San Francisco deserves the recognition for still being the division leaders at the moment.

With the Rams watching their record drop to 6-5 on the year, the 49ers now hold a four-game lead over their division rivals, meaning if Los Angeles is going to have any shot at the playoffs, they’re going to have to settle for a Wild Card spot.

Of course, this will obviously be easier said than done as well for the Rams since they currently trail the Minnesota Vikings by two games for the final Wild Card spot, which adds even more pressure on McVay over the final five games.

2. Goff took a major step back in 2019

As a result of another career year in 2018 that consisted of 4,688 passing yards to go along with 32 touchdowns, the Rams decided to reward Jared Goff with a hefty extension before the start of the regular season.

When looking at all of the other quarterbacks across the league getting paid, Los Angeles knew it would only be a matter of time before they would need to open up their checkbook to make sure Goff was happy, and willing to stick around.

But as far as whether Goff was worth a four-year extension worth $134 million with $110 million guaranteed, well that’s a different story.

Even though the poor play of the offensive line on top of Todd Gurley‘s struggles deserve part of the blame behind Goff’s struggles, this still shouldn’t take away from just how much of a disappointment the former No. 1 pick has been this year.

The fact that Goff has more turnovers than actual touchdown passes this season shows how rough this season has been for the Rams quarterback.

And since part of the reason McVay was brought on board in the first place was to help Goff develop into a top quarterback in the league, it’s extremely disappointing to think how he’s not even deserving of being in the top 15 players at quarterback.

1. Rams have been in win-now mode since last season

One year after emerging as a surprise playoff contender in the NFC, the Rams decided to take the approach of being in win-now mode entering the 2018 season by bringing on any player that seemed capable of helping them reach the Super Bowl.

Coming up short the way they did last February to the New England Patriots was a crushing blow for Los Angeles since this approach nearly worked, but at least they appeared to be in great shape to make another run during the 2019 season.

Not only did the Rams add short-term solutions such as Ndamukong Suh in 2018, but they also decided to hand out extensions like crazy, whether it was Todd Gurley or Brandin Cooks to make sure some of their key players would be around for the long run.

Take this into consideration with the hefty contract signed by Aaron Donald prior to last season as well along with the decision to acquire Jalen Ramsey this year before the trade deadline, it was clear Los Angeles was taking the same approach again.

But unlike this time last year, the Rams and McVay could be on the verge of their win-now approach for 2019 going to complete waste since anything short of the playoffs will be viewed as a complete bust.