Matthew Stafford admits obvious about Rams' 'MNF' loss to Falcons

Los Angeles Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford shockingly threw three interceptions, one of which was returned for a touchdown, as the Rams suffered an upset 27-24 loss to the Atlanta Falcons (7-9) on Monday night that dropped Los Angeles to 11-5. 

Following the defeat, Stafford spoke honestly about his prime-time performance. 

Matthew Stafford accepts blame for upset loss to Falcons

"I obviously didn't play well enough," Stafford said, per Wyatt Miller of the Rams' website. "Nothing they did, to be honest. (It was) the same kind of stuff they've been doing all year, just we didn't execute well enough. ...Either you do execute and make the throws, or you don't. And I didn't do that tonight, so it hurt us, and we weren't able to overcome it." 

Stafford entered the evening as the betting favorite to claim the Most Valuable Player Award for the regular season. As of Tuesday morning, DraftKings Sportsbook had New England Patriots quarterback Drake Maye as the new betting favorite at -400 odds to win the award. Stafford was second on the list at +300 odds. 

"Just because you play good one week doesn't mean you're going to play good the next and vice versa," Stafford added. "So, I'm just going to go out there and continue to trust what we've done all year. And then we got to just show up and make the plays on game day. I mean, I thought we had a great week of practice, to be honest with you. And sometimes you go out there, and it doesn't happen."

How Rams will handle Week 18 after back-to-back losses

As ESPN's Sarah Barshop mentioned, the best the Rams can finish the regular season is as the NFC's No. 5 seed for the playoffs. Nevertheless, Rams head coach Sean McVay confirmed following Monday's defeat that his starters will play in this coming Sunday's home game versus the Arizona Cardinals (3-13).

McVay insisted that his decision had nothing to do with the fact that his side is coming off two straight losses. 

"We need to play," McVay explained. "We need to play better football. So I don't know what the consequences are in those different types of things, but we got to play better."

Rams running back Kyren Williams echoed McVay's words. 

"We have to come out and be who we are," Williams said after the loss, per Nate Atkins of The Athletic. "We’re not trying to live up to the moment or try to be anybody who is not ourselves. We have to keep working, man. We’re on the road, and it’s only us. And we have to have that mentality that we have each other’s backs."