Head coach Sean McVay and the Rams somehow got Baker Mayfield ready to play for Thursday night — and the quarterback excelled.
Despite getting to Southern California on Tuesday night and going through just one brief practice on Wednesday, Mayfield was able to engineer a game-winning, 98-yard drive that ended with a 23-yard touchdown pass to Van Jefferson.
“You can’t say enough about Baker Mayfield and the leadership, the resilience, the competitiveness,” McVay said postgame. “And what a quick study — I mean, he just got here five minutes ago. He figured out a way to be able to do some special things tonight.”
McVay noted that there was some significant concept carryover from some of Mayfield’s previous offensive systems. The quarterback himself noted that the protections were similar to what he was doing in Cleveland for the last couple of years.
Mayfield didn’t start, but McVay said he intended to bring Mayfield in on the second drive to see if he could provide a spark. Mayfield did that and played for the rest of the game over John Wolford.
McVay noted he wasn’t necessarily surprised by anything Mayfield did. But he did come away really impressed, given the circumstances.
“I felt good about his ability to come in and do some of the things we were asking because I’ve seen him do it previously. But you never know,” McVay said. “I’ve always been a fan of the things he was capable of. But to say, that I expected this? I mean, certainly exceeded our expectations. But it was a lot of fun watching him go to work tonight.”
Mayfield will now have a little extra time to learn more of the Rams’ offense before the team takes on the Packers on Monday night in Week 15.
"[I]t’s just more time to be able to give him the totality of some of the different things that we can utilize with his skillset and the 10 players playing around him. So, it’ll be fun,” McVay said. “Hopefully, we’ll have a little bit more things that we can present to what we know is an excellent Green Bay team. I don’t care what their record is, know them too well — their personnel, their coaches. It’s going to be a great challenge going to Lambeau on Monday night.”