Rams star wide receiver Puka Nacua continues to give his head coach, Sean McVay, cause to be happy with him on the field and furious with him off the field.
After the Rams’ 38-37 defeat at the hands of the Seahawks Thursday night, a pivotal matchup with enormous postseason implications that was marred by highly questionable and outright wrong calls by officials that hurt both sides, Nacua took to social media to post, and then quickly delete, a criticism of the referees.
“Can you say i was wrong,” Nacua wrote. “Appreciate you stripes for your contribution. Lol.”
By asking whether anyone could say he was wrong, Nacua was referring to his earlier criticism of the officials, two days before the game against the Seahawks, in which he accused them of making bad calls to get on television.
“The refs are the worst,” Nacua said on a livestream with Adin Ross. “Some of the rules aren’t … These guys want to be … these guys are lawyers. They want to be on TV too. You don’t think he’s texting his friends in the group chat like, ‘Yo, you guys just saw me on “Sunday Night Football.” That wasn’t P.I., but I called it.”
McVay was confronted with questions about Nacua’s second volley of criticism of the refs before he even knew about it. But he did address Nacua’s on-field performance Thursday night, which was quite good (12 catches, 225 yards, 2 TDs), and the controversy surrounding his livestream with Ross, which included a rehearsal of an antisemitic touchdown celebration.
“No, it wasn’t a distraction at all,” said McVay. “Did you think his play showed that he was distracted? I didn’t think so either. He went off today. He didn’t… And I apologize for, you know what? I love this team. And man, when you put out as much as our group does and you care so much about something and you come up short it’s incredibly disappointing. But as it relates to just the things that you’re asking, we always want to make sure that we handle ourselves with class. Learn from it. I’ll put my arm around him and continue to educate our guys. I love this team. I love his heart. I think he’s going to continue to grow and mature. And I’m gonna be there right there with him to continue to help do that.”
Bad calls in the game victimized both teams. The Rams had an early touchdown called back by an illegal man-downfield penalty that Prime Video rules analyst Terry McAulay deemed fictitious.
“This really isn’t a foul,” McAulay said. “He blocks a defensive line-on-line, and he can drive him as far as he wants. He comes off contact, and the defender actually pushes him by and actually forces him beyond that yard. So, it really isn’t a foul for him being illegally downfield because of that action.”
The victory gives Seattle a one-game lead in the division with only two games remaining in the season.
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