With Rams head coach Sean McVay absent from Saturday’s final preparations for the team’s Week 14 matchup with the Arizona Cardinals, offensive coordinator Mike LaFleur stepped up in his place.
McVay woke up sick in the middle of the night on Friday, leading to him traveling to Arizona on his own Sunday morning. He also stayed away from the Rams’ team facility on Saturday, to give himself time to recover and to limit his exposure to players and coaches.
Because of that missed time as the Rams finalized their game plan, LaFleur wound up taking on a bigger role on Sunday, including making play calls and relaying them to quarterback Matthew Stafford during the game, a 45-17 Rams victory.
“In a lot of instances, because of the approach that we’re typically accustomed to taking on Saturday leading into Sunday, I missed a large portion of that whether it’s dialogue in the walkthroughs or dialogue with Matthew in terms of how we categorize how we want to be able to call the game,” McVay said Monday. “Normally, I’m the one that has the direct communication. Mike ended up having that yesterday because of some of the things that I missed and he did a phenomenal job and made some great decisions.”
During the win, the Rams amassed 530 yards of total offense, their most in a game since Week 13 of the 2019 season (also against the Cardinals). They also ran for 249 yards, their most rushing yards in a game since the divisional round of the postseason following the 2018 campaign.
“He did a hell of a job getting it in a timely fashion. It was a really smooth operation,” McVay said. “It just confirmed how fortunate and grateful I am to have a leader like Mike and a great coaching staff on the offensive side and really the coaching staff in general. They do a great job within their roles and then if they’re asked to step up, all they do is answer the bell and take it to another level.”
RAMS STILL UNSURE OF PLAN WITH ATWELL
The Rams (10-3) still have not made a determination of whether or not to activate wide receiver Tutu Atwell from injured reserve for this week’s game against the Detroit Lions (8-5), McVay said Monday.
Atwell’s 21-day practice window was opened on Nov. 26, so the Rams have until Dec. 17 to activate him off the reserve list and onto the 53-man roster. If they do not, Atwell’s season will be done with just four catches on the year after signing a $10 million contract to return to the Rams this offseason.
“I have not gone down that road yet,” said McVay, who last week did not rule out the possibility of Atwell not returning to the active roster this season. “I think a lot of that could be contingent upon any sort of injury information that I get. Then a lot of it is predicated on once we get in and dive into the prep for the Lions and exactly how we want to approach things.”
