McVay criticizes himself for playcalling after Rams win again

THOUSAND OAKS, CALIF. (AP) >> Sean McVay didn’t hold back Monday, harshly criticizing the Rams’ offensive play-caller for a series of bad selections in the red zone during Los Angeles’ 27-9 win over New Orleans .

Since McVay calls all of the Rams’ plays himself, he feels pretty confident his target will take the criticism in the right way.

“We had some patches in there offensively where we didn’t finish in the red zone, and there were some really poor decisions on my part that really there’s no excuse (for),” McVay said. “There were just poor decisions, especially on the third down when we end up throwing the screen to (tight end) Gerald (Everett). That’s a bad design, bad idea. There’s really no way of running around that one.”

Once McVay finishes critiquing himself, he’ll get back to work unlocking the potential resting in a team that has scored 57 points and played strong defense during a 2-0 start to the season.

McVay is already imagining what the Rams can do once their high-powered offense gets back into top form. Although the Rams have plenty to work on, they still haven’t trailed this season.

Jared Goff’s passing game hasn’t blown up yet, failing to crack 270 yards in either game. While Goff has done enough to win both games, McVay expects more from an offense that racked up two of the most prolific seasons in NFL history to start his tenure.

In fact, the Rams got more than half of their 265 yards passing last Sunday on only two big plays: Brandin Cooks’ spectacular overthe-head catch and Cooper Kupp’s even-more-spectacular catch and run .

Cooks’ catch dazzled McVay, the former Miami of Ohio receiver.

“I’ve never caught something that long or that far down the field,” McVay said with a laugh. “For Brandin to be able to find that ball, accelerate — and then you can see he actually caught the back tip of that, and then brought it back in before he went to the ground. Because if he didn’t kind of regather it on his way down, it probably would have been one of those when it hits the ground it actually comes out. A lot of good things.” WHAT’S WORKING The Los Angeles defense is off to a superb start despite facing Cam Newton and the high-powered Saints in back-to-back weeks. The Rams are fifth in the NFL with just 293.5 yards per game allowed, and their pass defense is rated sixth in the league. Los Angeles and New England are the only teams that didn’t allow a touchdown pass in the first two weeks of the season, and the Rams have allowed just one pass play longer than 20 yards — fewest in the NFL.