After a heartbreaking 13-3 loss to the Patriots in Super Bowl LIII, the Rams were understandably hurting. But they did come away from the loss with optimism for the future intact.
What the Rams had to say after losing Super Bowl LIII to the Patriots
“We will be back for sure.”
Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports
Jeanna Kelley has been covering the Falcons for The Falcoholic since 2011 and the NFL for SB Nation since 2015.
“There is no moral victory or anything good out of this, but you do realize we have a good team,” quarterback Jared Goff said. “We have a lot of good players coming back, good coaches. I have so much faith in Sean (McVay) and everyone on the staff and in each other. It just sucks that we didn’t get it done tonight, and they were better than us.”
C.J. Anderson was honest about the reasons behind the loss.
“We knew we had to come in and play a complete game, play a mistake-free game, and we didn’t do that today,” he said.
Here’s what the team had to say about the loss, how it came to pass, and what they’ll take away from it.
The Patriots offense made just enough plays
The Patriots’ offense wasn’t great, but it did enough to get the job done. The key was the lone touchdown drive, which was set up by a 29-yard Tom Brady toss to Rob Gronkowski that gave the Patriots a fresh set of downs at the Rams’ 2-yard line. Sony Michel punched in the touchdown on the next play.
“It was a big play, but at the end of the day, we were still in the game,” linebacker Cory Littleton said. “It didn’t matter — we had to keep playing. On to the next play.”
On that particular play, Littleton said there was a miscommunication.
“Mistakes, we had adjustments, we were moving, and players were scattered all over the field and they capitalized on our mistakes,” he said.
Even though the Rams held the Patriots — a team that averaged 27.2 points per game over the regular season — to just 13 points, Ndamukong Suh said it’s just that the Rams didn’t do enough.
“We had opportunities to get off the field and we didn’t get off the field. Simple as that,” Suh said. “We had to hold them to field goals, that’s what we talked about. This time, this go around, we didn’t do that late, and it’s unfortunate.”
Todd Gurley’s vanishing act was a problem, and nobody could explain it
The Patriots limited Gurley to 10 carries for 35 yards, and it limited the offense. McVay insisted that Gurley is healthy, and that it was more of a result of the team not getting in a rhythm offensively.
“I actually think it is more of a result of the kind of opportunities he had,” McVay said of Gurley’s day. “I don’t want to be a broken record, but the reality is that we didn’t get a lot of plays off in general until you kind of get into some of those known passing situations toward the end and it seems like we did end up having success -- I thought the holding call was a really tough one for us. We had a good drive going, Todd makes a nice cutback run on a tight zone, and then it puts us at first-and-20. Those kinds of plays seem like they continuously presented themselves throughout the night and it never really enabled us to get in a rhythm. That was really tough.”
Goff said Gurley’s level of involvement is not his decision.
“I think Todd’s a great player,” Goff said. “I’d love to get him the ball, but for whatever reason, it’s not my decision.
C.J. Anderson said it was purely gap control defense from New England.
“They played New England football, that’s what they do, they’ve been doing that for years, so nothing changed,” Anderson said. “We just didn’t execute today, plain and simple.”
Tackle Andrew Whitworth also gave credit to the Patriots.
“They did a really good job of playing us with six on the line all day and limited the space to be able to get the runs through there,” Whitworth said. “Just missed opportunities for us.”
Gurley wasn’t upset by it.
“No, it’s cool, man,” he said. “Like I said, it’s a team sport. There’s 11 people on the field. Everyone can’t touch the ball. Still a great season by us. I’m blessed either way it goes. I’m just grateful for the opportunity to be able to play in the Super Bowl.”
[Go deeper: What the hell happened to Todd Gurley?]
The Rams’ offense just had a hard time getting in a rhythm
Gurley’s productivity wasn’t the only issue. The Patriots switched up defensive looks regularly and kept the Rams offense guessing. Goff’s interception was just one example.
“That’s my fault,” Goff said. I can’t put us in that situation. I knew they were bringing cover zero blitz there, and I tried to hit Brandin (Cooks) on a go-ball, and (Stephon) Gilmore was too far off for me to make that decision. It was a bad decision by me, and I have to do better.”
Gurley didn’t know why the team couldn’t find its rhythm.
“Definitely we’ve still got to watch the film and stuff like that, but honestly, we were playing against a great team, and you’ve got to give credit where credit is due,” Gurley said. “Their guys did the job, and we just didn’t.”
The Rams should be contenders again next year, and they’ll learn from this loss
This one definitely hurt.
“It is the toughest loss I have ever had. It kills. It is terrible,” Goff said. “There are some good things you can take from it, but right now, there is nothing. I wish I would have played better. I wish we would have better on offense and offensively as a whole. I wish I could have had a million plays back, but there is nothing you can do about it. You just have to learn and move forward.”
But he sees himself bouncing back and learning from it, and his teammates expressed similar optimism.
“You’re talking to a guy who had never won a playoff game, so it’s a good year when you made it to the championship and had the chance to hoist the trophy,” Whitworth said. We didn’t do enough, so you’re sick about that. You’re going to look at yourself harshly and see what it is that made us fall short. You know what, you’ve got to take a lot of pride in what we were able to do and the football games we were able to win, which were a lot of them. Obviously, a great year for our team, we just kind of wanted to finish it with a championship.”
Aaron Donald is convinced the team can get right back in the mix next season.
“Yes, for sure — we have the coaches, too,” he said. “All we can do is get better, that is all I can say. I know that I am going to get better. I am going to find ways to break down the film better and when teams slow me down, what I have to do to try and beat that. Just have to learn from it, keep working, and like I said, we will be back.
“We will be back for sure.”
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