LOS ANGELES – While the Rams' current three-game losing streak is new in the Sean McVay era, it isn't to some of the most experienced players in their locker room.
Safety Eric Weddle, a 13-year veteran, has seen the skid the Rams are currently on, and after Sunday's loss to the 49ers, he knows what it will take for them to snap out of it.
"I can only go back to what I've been through in my career, and rightfully so," Weddle said. "The outside is going to pummel us, and rightfully so, we haven't played good. But it takes just one game, getting back to the basics."
The Los Angeles Rams welcome the San Francisco 49ers to the Coliseum for their Week 6 matchup!
At this exact same point last year, Weddle was on a Ravens team that reached 4-2 by Week 6, only to suffer a three-game losing streak of their own. Two of those three defeats were decided by seven or fewer points.
It likely helped that Baltimore's bye week followed the that series of misfortune, giving it extra time to assess what was working and what wasn't over their previous three contests. It also likely helped that knowing exactly what they needed to do to reach their goal created a sense of urgency to get them there.
The Ravens proceeded to win six of their next seven games – the lone loss by three points to the Kansas City Chiefs in overtime – to win the division and qualify for the playoffs.
"We had to basically win 7 of 8, but it couldn't happen if we didn't win one," Weddle said. "You win one, get some confidence, things start bouncing your way, and boom, you win 6 out of 7, you win the division."
While the Rams' bye week won't arrive for another two weeks following a London matchup with the Bengals, having each of their next three games on the road could be exactly what they need to correct what hasn't been working.
"I think that might be better for the team," said WR Robert Woods, who accounted for the Rams' only touchdown on Sunday. "Isolation - stay connected, just worry about ourselves. Go into some hostile environments and all we have is ourselves, our brothers who we've been working with in the weight room all season. Just play together, stay connected, play connected. Really just no outside factors should be an impact. It's all Rams, all brothers and it'll all come together."
That introspection is what McVay pointed to as one of the first steps toward moving on from Sunday's loss.
"Was it a humbling day for us? Absolutely, but it's something that we're going to learn from," McVay said. "We're not going to let it demoralize us. That's a good football team, they did a nice job, we didn't do enough collectively. We'll all look inwardly and we'll figure out how to be better moving forward."
Weddle has been on teams that have won as many as 11 games in a row and lost as many six in a row. From his perspective, there's no specific type of game or play that causes a team to move past the latter or spark the former – it can come in several different ways.
There's plenty of season left to be played and plenty of opportunities to create those moments as a result. However, Weddle also recognizes it won't happen if the Rams don't fix what has ailed them so far.
"I've been on some long (winning) streaks, I've been on some losing streaks, but it just takes one play, one game, couple of events, right?" Weddle said. "Defense makes a stop, offense goes down and scores, special teams makes a turnover – just little things that aren't happening for us right now, they'll start happening. (We're) 3-3 right now, no one's crowned a Super Bowl champ after six games, but we're 3-3 for a reason and we just haven't been good enough, so we've got to get better."
