(Editor’s note: This is excerpted from Mike Sando’s Pick Six of Sept. 14, 2026.)The Rams’ 27-7 defeat to the 49ers in Australia felt like more than just one game.“This will define us only if we allow it to,” McVay said after the game.There was gravity to McVay’s words and delivery, followed a bit later in his postgame media session with some contextualizing: “This story is far from written.”Just one game, right? Maybe.This was the Rams’ ninth-worst defeat by point margin in McVay’s 166 total games as coach.“The dream teams, the amount of pressure those teams put on themselves, they have to be perfect in every facet,” a coach with no ties to McVay said. “It looks good on paper, but the human component makes it challenging.”The Myles Garrett situation bears watching after the Rams' blockbuster offseason acquisition missed time during camp to rest a sore knee, played far below his standards in the opener and then landed on injured reserve so he could have arthroscopic surgery. He will miss at least four weeks.
Delicate situations involving superstar players can test relationships between coaches, executives, doctors, trainers, the player and his representatives. In this case, those relationships are new.Some who played and worked with Garrett during his nine-year career in Cleveland described him as a supremely competitive game day force who does his own thing to get ready during the week. They saw the potential for tension in the way this game played out, and how Garrett spoke after the game."I didn't feel I was the player I've been before when I stepped on the field (in Australia)," Garrett said. "I gotta do what I can to get back to that."Garrett said he was not questioning the Rams' contrarian decision to arrive in Australia just 28 hours before kickoff, a week after the 49ers arrived. How could anyone not question it?Sports scientists I spoke with said the Rams were spot-on in their handling of the sleep component, but they risked players feeling heavy-legged because it takes time for fluid buildup in the legs to dissipate following such a long flight. The problem can be exacerbated for bigger players like Garrett, who for the first time in his career played at least 55 snaps without recording even one tackle."When Myles said he needed to change and do whatever he needed to get himself ready, I took that as either he did not buy into what the team was doing, or there was another ailment going on," a former Browns assistant said. "It was probably a little bit of both."It's all reading between the lines at this point.Sep 14, 2026Connections: Sports EditionSpot the pattern. Connect the termsFind the hidden link between sports terms
