For much of the their Monday night matchup against the Cincinnati Bengals, the Los Angeles Rams had no troubles getting into favorable positions on the field. Multiple times, the Rams reached the red zone, and it seemed like at any point, they were bound to blow the game wide open against the Bengals given how many scoring opportunities they had. However, the Rams were very wasteful; they went 1-11 on third downs and 1-4 in the red zone, causing head coach Sean McVay to decry his team's incredible inability to capitalize on golden scoring opportunities.

“There (were) just a lot of self-inflicted wounds,” McVay said, per Associated Press via Kevin Patra of NFL.com.

Over and over again, this inability to put at least six points on the board in one play bit the Rams on the backside. This, in turn, allowed the Bengals, a team with a sputtering offense, to remain close. But then Joe Burrow and Ja'Marr Chase, later on, found their groove, and by the time Sean McVay's team scored their first touchdown by virtue of a connection between Matthew Stafford and Tutu Atwell, it was already too little too late.

“It did feel like we were in striking distance. I thought the defense kept us in the game the whole night, and I thought it was really unfortunate, especially early on where we had to settle for field goals where we had some of the looks and some of the opportunities to be able to execute and we just weren't able to get it done,” McVay added.

Quarterback Matthew Stafford echoed his coach's statements; the 35-year old veteran said that had the Rams managed to score early, it would have been an entirely different contest, and, perhaps, they could have come out on top.

“I think the biggest thing for us tonight was missed opportunities early in the game in the red zone,” Stafford said. “If we can come away with some sevens there it's probably a little bit of a different game later on.”

The Rams will make note of how to capitalize much more effectively on scoring opportunities when they take on the Indianapolis Colts on Sunday night.