Rams shaking off SB defeat

IRVINE, CALIF. — Most of the Los Angeles Rams had never been to the Super Bowl before last February, so they relished every day of the experience in Atlanta.

And over the ensuing five months, the Rams have experienced another first: Being constantly asked how they managed to lose like that on football’s biggest stage.

“Yeah, there was a lot of talk this summer,” cornerback Nickell Robey-Coleman said. “It was the last game of the season, so it’s natural. It’s just more motivation. It just actually lets you know how big that game is, and how important it is for people to win.”

The Rams reported to training camp over the weekend with that 13-3 loss to New England still sharp in many minds. In particular, the high-powered Los Angeles offense’s largely inept performance still seems baffling in retrospect, both to the fans who watched it and to the players and coaches who lived through it.

When Sean McVay appeared on Jimmy Kimmel’s ABC talk show this month, the host asked how often the coach still thought about his offense’s three-point, 260yard effort in the lowest-scoring Super Bowl.

“Every minute,” McVay said with a rueful smile.

McVay had never coached in a Super Bowl, but he already knows how to use that experience to motivate a team returning with nearly all of the players who came up short in Atlanta. While he shares most coaches’ earnest focus on the future, McVay knows he can draw motivational fuel from the disappointment and embarrassment of the NFC champions’ thumping from the Patriots.

“It is certainly something we talk about,” McVay said Saturday. “(But) you wipe the slate clean every year.”

The Rams went back to work at UC Irvine this weekend intending to turn their experience into more success. They’ve won 26 total games and two NFC West titles in McVay’s two seasons, but that Super Bowl loss serves as a reminder not to lean on past achievements. “Yesterday’s home runs don’t count for today’s games,” punter Johnny Hekker said.

McVay didn’t tear up his inventive offensive schemes after Bill Belichick countered them so comprehensively in the Super Bowl, and Los Angeles didn’t shake up its roster. Instead, nine of the Rams’ 11 offensive starters are returning along with the potentially enormous addition of receiver Cooper Kupp, who missed the second half of last season and the playoffs with a torn knee ligament.

Kupp broke out with 62 catches for 869 yards as a rookie in 2017, and he was midway through another outstanding season when he went down.

The Rams’ two biggest offseason additions were Eric Weddle and Clay Matthews, two veteran defensive stars returning to their native Los Angeles area to chase a championship. They also added a crop of rookies — most notably Greg Gaines, the current replacement for nose tackle Ndamukong Suh — but otherwise will rely on the roster that was so close to a title.