Rams must follow Sean McVay's lead in turning the page to Week 2

The Los Angeles Rams have moved on from their Week 1 flopshow because it's the only thing to do. Head coach Sean McVay has his group fully focused, ready to turn over a new leaf and embrace the task at hand in Week 2 against the Giants. 

"I just want to see us be present right now and move forward," McVay said Thursday. "Chest out, chin up, eyes forward. Let's go be about it and let's go prepare the right way. Let's have great focus and concentration. Let's have a great energy and an edge in which we prepare and compete with. And then let's go be ready to go against a really good football team. What they looked like in Week 1, we've got a great challenge ahead."

After a week wallowing in stunned disappointment, Rams fans are ready to move on, too. And McVay is right. The Giants will be no easy foe after dispatching the Cowboys on Sunday Night Football where they established the upper hand early and never let go.

Week 1 was no doubt a rude awakening, but the team couldn't ask for a better leader than McVay to rechart the course to a successful season. He's had his share of experience doing it.  

Sean McVay's mindset will help Rams move on from embarrassing debut

McVay knows how to overcome setbacks and build momentum. The Rams began last season a respectable 3-2 but won nine of 12 to end the year. En route to 10 wins and the playoffs in 2023 and '24, they started in a 1-4 and 3-5 hole, respectively. 

After last season's agonizing end in the NFC Championship Game, a loss that came down to a failed fourth-down conversion, a muffed punt, one too many defensive breakdowns - take your pick - 2026 has been all about moving forward to concentrate on a new season.

The Rams would probably have another Lombardi Trophy sitting on the shelf had they beaten Seattle last January (or in December, for that matter), but that doesn't matter now. 

The only thing on McVay's mind is the current week and opponent. The Rams still have plenty of talent, even with Myles Garrett on injured reserve and injuries nagging at linebacker (Nate Landman, Omar Speights) and safety (Kam Curl, Kamren Kinchens). They can still hold their heads high. 

What they can't do is repeat last week's performance or underestimate their adversary, and that's the whole point of McVay's approach. Having overcome his own career crisis in 2022, a dismal season piggybacking off a Super Bowl run, McVay has said previously that he no longer views winning as the only thing that matters. 

Obviously that remains the ultimate goal, but for the Rams head coach, it's more about the journey, the process, and above all, staying present. You have to wonder whether Rams reporters tire of hearing about it. 

But staying anchored in the moment is one of McVay's fundamental principles as a head coach and a leader of men. It pervades the organizational culture from players and coaches to staff members who are anonymous outside the building. 

And it's the headspace the Rams will have to inhabit to move productively forward, one week, one practice, one play at a time. 

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