Rams Coach McVay said plenty about QB Stetson Bennett, and you may not like it

Rams stick with QB Stetson Bennett the entire game

Based on the stories and social media comments after the game, it's clear that many would have yanked Bennett from the game after two interceptions. But the onus of preseason for the guy was clearly stated by his head coach:

"Command, control, being able to get in and out of the huddle."

A simple set of instructions. But so very profound in their application to a live-game performance. It was as those Coach McVay was telling his quarterback to not worry about the outcome of individual plays. Just go out there, play your hardest, and have fun as you do it. It doesn't take a PhD in Psychatry to understand that Bennett needed to get back on the horse. His last experience was a nightmare, a three interception performance against the Denver Broncos in which he was yanked early.

He would get no such mercy in this one.

And so, the post game press conference featured both HC Sean McVay and QB Stetson Bennett. It was an honor for Bennett to face the media after struggling but overcoming his hesitancy.

McVay was loose and laughing at the podium. He was relaxed. That is telling because his quarterback had followed his directions to the letter. And at the 0:50 mark in the above video, McVay is asked to share what he saw from his quarterback:

"The first two were tough, you know, because those are kind of occupational hazards. He (Stetson Bennett) will be able to learn from them. The second two, we have to be able to make better decisions. On his third one, our X(-receiver) fell so that safety didn’t have any work. He ended up coming off. We had a play that we really liked there.

And then the last one, he’s got a high cross. He has to change the way that he’s layering that ball, but he is a resilient guy. All of them are ones that he can learn from, and I thought he did a really good job of being able to keep us ahead of the sticks, really moving us down the field.

We obviously kind of petered out in the red zone, but I thought he did a great job getting us in and out of the huddle. Obviously, we want to be able to learn from those plays, but for him to be able to just stay together, make some of the plays. I thought the fourth down, where we ended up drawing the penalty to be able to advance the drive and then for him to create off-schedule on fourth-and-6 was big time."

- Rams HC Sean Mcvay

It was clear that McVay was not alarmed. This was a matter of fact discussion, a way of relaying what happened. But the key phrasing to this narrative was the repetitive nature of the 'learning from them' phrasing that indicates more investing into the quarterback, and not distancing himself from his player.