Rams, Sean McVay take a knee and everything else they want vs. Colts

LOS ANGELES >> His play-calling was measured, effective and, at times, even inspired.

At the end, it was something else completely, something shocking after witnessing the Rams mostly depress all of last season.

Sean McVay’s play-calling, to cap his head-coaching debut Sunday, was celebratory.

He ordered his team to assemble in victory formation and his backup quarterback to take a clock-emptying knee … still with two minutes remaining!

Mathematically, that’s as one-sided as an NFL game can be, those final three snaps completing the Rams’ stunning and stunningly easy 46-9 win over Indianapolis.

Still, before anything could be official, there was one last play to execute, linebacker Alec Ogletree expertly dumping a Gatorade bucket over the head of his rookie coach.

“I could have avoided it if I wanted to,” McVay explained later. “But I felt like I kind of had to take it a little bit.”

Of course, he did. For someone who preaches team — remember, the Rams’ slogan for this season is the corny but catchy “We Not Me” — McVay naturally took one for his players.

It was the ideal chilly punctuation on a sweltering yet refreshing afternoon, this group romping, rollicking and rolling to the sort of victory unseen by a Rams team around here since these games were being played in Anaheim.

“It was a blast,” said wide receiver Cooper Kupp, another rookie whose NFL debut ended in a lingering, satisfied smile. “We had so much fun.”

Blast? Smile? Fun? These were the Rams, right? A team that finished last season 4-12, a record that failed to adequately illustrate just how boring all the bad really was?

Yup, these were the Rams, and, for one day anyway, they were the ones having all the laughs, especially the last one.

“It feels good,” McVay said of career win No. 1. “It’s a little surreal. But it’s one game. I think the thing about the NFL is it’s an extremely humbling business. This was the goal and we came away with it.”

They seized it, the Rams did, early, their first possession producing a field goal before, moments later, cornerback Trumaine Johnson scored on an interception return.

Not even four minutes into the new season the Rams looked wildly improved. Or just wildly better than the Colts, an opponent that couldn’t have been any more perfectly served up for McVay’s first game.

Indianapolis arrived at the Coliseum minus Andrew Luck, a reality almost as stark as the fact the Colts were plus Scott Tolzien, a capable backup in this league … as long as he doesn’t have to start.

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On this 90-degree day, the only two words that would have delighted Rams fans more than “Scott Tolzien” were “free beer!”

Sure enough, Tolzien’s first pass floated like a ball of cotton candy into the flat, where Johnson devoured it and then returned it 39 yards, setting in motion an afternoon that never would stop tilting toward the Rams.

Frankly, McVay couldn’t have had more luck had the Colts had even less Luck, Indianapolis one of the few opponents in recent seasons to face the Rams as an underdog.

So, as well as everything went Sunday for the home team, it’s worth noting that the Colts also were missing three other key contributors and that, just recently, Bleacher Report forecast Indianapolis to be the league’s worst team.

Even when the Rams messed up, in fact, the Colts messed up worse. Tavon Austin’s failure to secure a punt gave Indianapolis the ball at the Rams’ 24-yard line early in the third quarter.

After the Colts failed to convert on third down, Adam Vinatieri missed a field goal from 38 yards, hitting the left goalpost square.

This was the same Adam Vinatieri who’s so good that he’s still in the NFL at age 44, who has been a Super Bowl star, whose legendary accuracy earned him the nickname “Automatic Adam.”

Vinatieri debuted in the league when Bill Clinton was president, kicking his first NFL field goal when McVay was 10.

Yeah, don’t forget that tidbit, the one about McVay, at 31, being the youngest head coach in the NFL’s modern era.

He is genuinely learning on the job here, one of McVay’s few stumbles Sunday coming when he opened his postgame news conference and forgot - as is NFL custom - to do so with an injury update.

“Oh, injuries,” McVay said, catching himself. “OK. Sorry about that. First time. Gettin’ used to this.”

This guy is, though, most definitely a football coach.

In praising quarterback Jared Goff, McVay somehow ended up lamenting the Rams’ seven penalties.

In discussing an offense that produced 30 points, he somehow found a way to assure that the Rams will need to run the ball better.

In explaining the thrill of winning his first game, he somehow got around to noting how well coached Washington is, that club being the Rams’ next opponent.

Odd? A little, perhaps. Obsessive? Certainly.

But that’s how it works in the NFL, where the next challenge always looms, even for head coaches who’ve never lost, even for play-callers who just sealed victory with the sweetest of surrender.