SANTA CLARA, Calif. -- Less than three weeks ago, the Los Angeles Rams were reeling after a blowout loss to the Philadelphia Eagles. And as coach Sean McVay gathered his team to regroup from the loss that put its playoff percentage at less than 15%, he had a message for how he wanted to attack the last six games of the regular season.
McVay told his players they had six games and 39 guaranteed days left this season, and he wanted "to see us do everything in our power to commit to doing the best of our ability in every single thing that we can do."
"Let's see where that leaves us," he said in his Nov. 26 press conference when asked about the landscape of the NFC West. "We can't sit there and watch other people. If we don't handle what we're supposed to handle, it all is irrelevant. I do feel confident that the approach will give us the best opportunity to play as well as we're capable of. I'm looking forward to learning about ourselves down this stretch.
"... Six games and 39 days total is guaranteed to us. We're going to see if we can maximize that. My full focus and concentration is going to be exclusively on that."
That message struck a chord with Rams players, who have won three straight games since McVay delivered that message: at New Orleans, at home to the Buffalo Bills and on the road against the San Francisco 49ers on Thursday night.
The past two games were played in a five-day span and the two wins played out in wildly different ways: a 44-42 offensive shootout against the Bills and a 12-6 tepid field goal victory in the rain at Levi's Stadium. According to ESPN Research, the Rams are the first team to win back-to-back games, first scoring 40 or more points and then not scoring a touchdown since the 1993 Bears.
That the Rams have been able to "find a bunch of ways to be able to win football games," McVay said, is "really cool."
"I think our team has shown we can win football games any way you want," quarterback Matthew Stafford said.
McVay's challenge to the team lit a fire under running back Kyren Williams, who was coming off a stretch in which he had four fumbles (two lost) in four games, including two (one lost) against the Eagles in Week 12.
"It really hit me when he said that," Williams said. "And for me, I'm a person who responds to those type of things. I liked those type of things. I like to realize what the reality of the situation is. And so once he said that, it clicked for me. It clicked that I needed to be able to lock in because obviously I was fumbling the ball, all that stuff during those times.
"And so for me to be who I wanted to say I am, I had to work and put my head down and just like I said, give all-in."
In the recent three-game stretch, Williams has had two games with at least 100 rushing yards. On Thursday night, Williams had his second consecutive game with 30 or more touches. According to ESPN Research, he's the first player with consecutive 30-touch games since Derrick Henry did it in three straight in 2022.
And despite playing in the pouring rain for part of the game -- weather that had him taking his gloves off before halftime to give him every chance to hold onto the ball -- Williams finished with 108 yards on 29 carries and "ran really tough," McVay said.
When Stafford heard McVay's speech, he thought back to all the work the team had put into this season. "All the OTAs, all the August training camp days, all the early-season injuries, struggles and things you have to overcome to try to give yourself a chance to have an opportunity to play meaningful football," Stafford said. The QB referenced the fact there were "quite a few Decembers" in his career when he wasn't part of a team playing meaningful games this late in the season.
"He broke it down for us and did a hell of a job going, 'Hey, there's this many days' left,'" Stafford said. "It's a great way to galvanize the group. I thought it was an awesome message. He does such a great job in front of our team at all times, but that was one that definitely resonated with the group.
"Guys are rallying behind it and continuing to do whatever we can to try and win games."
And with three games left -- on the road against the New York Jets and at home against the Arizona Cardinals and Seattle Seahawks -- the Rams control their playoff destiny, just half a game back of the Seahawks going into the weekend.
And although the playoffs are within reach, McVay's message to his team hasn't changed.
"It's the same," McVay said. "I don't know about all that. I just know that we've got the next game and we're going to go do our best to be able to prepare to get ready, put together the right plans, put our players in the right spots, and then ultimately let's try to see if we can have it culminate in a great opportunity in that three-hour window and see what it looks like.
"But I think our guys have been really steady and consistent and we can only be one day at a time, one game at a time. That's what we'll continue to do."