EAST RUTHERFORD NJ – The Rams’ pummeling of the Giants was nearly complete Sunday when Jared Goff started spreading a message to teammates.

On the verge of completing a 3-0 sweep of games in far-away Jacksonville, London and New Jersey, the Rams had done more than just set themselves up beautifully for a second-half playoff run.

Sitting at 6-2 – and as they would discover just a few hours later, alone atop the NFC West standings – the Rams had answered questions, quelled concerns, turned skepticism into belief and altered a long-standing national narrative.

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It’s a hell of a thing, turning around a franchise-wide mentality of losing and fear and a lack of confidence and composure. It can take years, if it ever happens at all.

But as Goff walked the sidelines at MetLife Stadium with the Rams on the brink of going 6-2 for the first time since 2001 and positioned to end a 13-year run of non-winning seasons, what he saw was a team, coaching staff and franchise for which something dramatic finally clicked.

One that’s well equipped to meet challenges, be it on the personnel or coaching level. And physically and mentally strong enough to keep forging ahead to a bright, exciting future,.

“We are a mature team. I think we have a lot of maturity,” Goff recalled talking to teammates about Sunday. “Although we are young, we do have some veterans that lead us really well. We are mature for being as young as we are. We are able to handle that stuff really well. It’s a testament to the coaches and the training staff. Everyone that puts that plan together, how we’re going to eat and all that stuff that goes into it. It’s been awesome.”

It would be easy to simply point to the additions of Andrew Whitworth, John Sullivan, Robert Woods and Connor Barwin – the four free agents the Rams sought out as much for their on-field impact as their off-field – as the catalyst for that infusion of maturity. And while each has been a home run import in all the ways the Rams hoped – greatly enhancing their skill level at key positions while also providing professionalism, wisdom and leadership – none of it would have mattered had they encountered a resistant or skeptical locker room or a coaching staff too insecure to provide them the necessary voice to spread their foresight and knowledge.

In fact, they encountered the exact opposite.

New head coach Sean Mcvay wasn’t just emphatic about seeking veteran savviness during free agency, he was ardent in giving those leaders the platform to advance their gospel. Not every coaching staff has the confidence or self-awareness to do that, worried it might usurp their authority or undermine their message. And you don’t have to trace back far in the Rams’ coaching lineage to find some that were resistant to giving too much of a voice to players.

McVay lacks nothing when it comes to confidence, even at the age of 32 and in the first year of his first head coaching gig. It also helps that he’s remarkably genuine and supremely talented in scripting and communicating a decisive, believable plan that compels those around him to not only buy in, but eagerly execute and embody it.

“The buy-in level was immediate,” Rodger Saffold told me Sunday.

Or, as Goff put it: “Coach McVay and his staff has done a great job implementing that high standard and expectation. Never settling. Just trusting what we do day in and day out. Trusting our process and never wavering from that.”

Just as importantly, what McVay and the newcomers like Whitworth and Woods found upon arriving in Los Angeles was a locker room thirsty for leadership and, in the cases of Alec Ogletree and Trumaine Johnson and Aaron Donald and others, players who were on the brink of ascending to positions of authority but, be it a previous coaching staff that subtly discouraged them or few credible veterans around them to serve as examples, hadn’t yet emerged as leaders.

They were all open to learning a new, better way. And eager to lead.

From the earliest stages of OTAs, Whitworth explained how he’d sometimes sit back and observe his new teammates to get a feel for their authenticity. He was impressed by what he saw. How serious guys were about earnestly and professionally going about their business day after day.

“We preach it every single day that we work,” Ogletree said. “It pays off in the long run, just being consistent.”

After the Rams lost a winnable game to the Washington Redskins in Week 2 at the Coliseum, some 30 minutes or so after the loss Whitworth observed to me about how well he felt the Rams had responded to the bitter defeat and how confident it made him about moving forward.

The Rams are 5-1 since that loss.

That maturity and professionalism is about to be tested in a major way.

As the Rams approach the second half of their season, three games beckon against teams currently in the NFC playoff picture – the Vikings (Nov. 19), Saints (Nov. 26) and Eagles on Dec. 10. In addition, they play in Seattle on Dec. 17 – the Seahawks are a game behind the Rams in the NFC West – and play the AFC South-leading Titans on Christmas Eve.

In case you’re wondering if the Rams are aware of what’s ahead, the answer is yes. Big time.

That awareness is also coupled with a level of confidence after going 6-2 over the first half and answering one pressing question after another.

“As long as we keep it up and keep doing what we are doing, we’ll be fine,” Donald said. “But that’s on us and that’s up to us, and the way we prepare and continue to stay hungry.”