For those who thought the Los Angeles Rams' post-Week 1 hangover would linger over into Week 2 on Monday Night Football, their 28-6 drubbing of the visiting New York Giants pretty much put an end to that conversation.
It looks as if Los Angeles is fully recovered from the previous week's arduous trip to Melbourne, Australia, which resulted in a 27-7 beatdown at the hands of its NFC West rivals, the San Francisco 49ers, who wisely traveled down under a week in advance.
The Rams, meanwhile, left less than two days before kickoff and haven't stopped hearing about it since.
L.A.'s head coach, Sean McVay, took plenty of heat for his team's decision in Week 1, and it would've been fair to question how prepared Los Angeles would be for Monday night. But the win pretty much erased those questions, and McVay's subsequent postgame comments effectively put to bed all the talk about Australian travel plans.
And his comments certainly made the Niners' approach look that much better.
Sean McVay's self-depricating humor makes 49ers look better for Australia game
McVay and the Rams had to feel good about bouncing back in prime time, of course, which made his job of addressing the media afterward that much easier.
But it's how McVay concluded the press conference that should garner attention.
"Sometimes you win, sometimes you learn and sometimes you have a dumbass coach that makes travel plans that puts you in bad spot," the head coach told reporters with a sense of humor, subsequently smaking the podium and walking off as if he had done a proverbial mic drop.
"Sometimes you win, sometimes you learn and sometimes you have a dumbass coach that makes travel plans that puts you in bad spot."
— ESPN (@espn) September 22, 2026
Sean McVay on the difference with the Rams between Week 1 and Week 2. pic.twitter.com/RjfnnGLuJn
From McVay's perspective, he's stating the obvious: Los Angeles remains a top Super Bowl contender but merely had a whiff in Week 1.
From San Francisco's vantage point, though, it further legitimizes its unprecedented travel plans for the league's first-ever game in Australia, and there's no doubt teams playing subsequent games down under in future years will adopt the 49ers' approach over that of L.A.
Of course, the Australia game could ultimately come back to haunt McVay and the Rams. Considering how hotly contested the NFC West is, it wouldn't be a shocker if Los Angeles, the Niners and the Super Bowl-champion Seattle Seahawks are all neck-and-neck by the time Week 18 rolls around.
If that's the case, and one in-division game makes all the difference, McVay might smack himself again for the decision he and his franchise made way back earlier during summer.
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