The Los Angeles Rams and the Los Angeles Chargers held joint practices this week in training camp. To the dismay of Sean McVay, the Rams offense struggled when the two teams faced off against one another.

“We were sluggish,” Rams coach Sean McVay told reporters. “I thought it seemed like the defense had good energy, offensively not even close to good enough. I thought they finished the day strong which is what’s important and our guys kept it together. I think you’ve got to give credit to the Chargers, they came out, they had some good juice, specifically their defense. It’s always a good learning opportunity for us. That’s really what this is.

The Rams come into 2019 after suffering an embarrassing loss in Super Bowl 53 against the New England Patriots. After putting up 32.9 points per game in the regular season, the Rams offense sputtered, scoring just three points in the biggest game of the year.

The blame was being thrown in the direction of McVay and Jared Goff following the heartbreaking loss. McVay and the Rams are hoping to use that loss as a learning experience moving forward.

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They also want to use their joint practices against the Chargers to better themselves. After all, the Chargers boast a loaded defense with Derwin James and Casey Hayward in the secondary while Melvin Ingram and Joey Bosa are coming off of the edge.

Since McVay arrived in Los Angeles in 2017, he has been wary of playing starters in the preseason. Instead, he tends to hold joint practices to give his team chances to get acclimated to the speed of the game again.

Every season since 2017, McVay has helped the Rams offense improve every year.

The offensive centric coach would rather his offense struggle now rather than in the regular season.