The preseason doesn’t matter, and neither the Broncos nor the Rams played their starters in Saturday night’s preseason finale, but no football team ever wants to lose any game by a score of 41-0. So after the Broncos beat the Rams by that score, Rams coach Sean McVay acknowledged he wasn’t happy about it.
“That was a humbling night,” McVay said. “That’s not a night you ever want to go through no matter what your approach is. . . . There are some guys that got that some opportunities that we might be counting on for our 53 and so I’ll have to be able to look at some film but tonight was a good humbling night that you sometimes have in football and you have to be able to learn from them and move on accordingly.”
The Broncos led 17-0 in the first quarter and 27-0 at halftime. Broncos quarterback Jarrett Stidham threw for 236 yards and Ben DiNucci passed for 117 yards. The Rams played three quarterbacks, who combined for just 88 passing yards.
“Obviously, there were a lot of things to be pleased about,” Broncos head coach Sean Payton said. “I feel better tonight about our depth than I did a week ago or two weeks ago.”
The Broncos have to feel good after that performance. And even though McVay sat his starters throughout the preseason, he can’t be pleased with how his backups performed: The Rams went 0-3 in the preseason and lost their three games by a combined score of 109-34.