THOUSAND OAKS, Calif. -- It began on ESPN, with a talkback for SportsCenter and an in-studio appearance on the radio. Later Friday, it was off to The Rich Eisen Show, where Snoop Dogg suggested a play. Then, on Sunday, it was the NFL pregame show on Fox, where Michael Vick wore his high school jersey.

Sean McVay spent a substantial portion of his first bye week as an NFL head coach making the media rounds, which helped give him a sense for the buzz that surrounds his Los Angeles Rams.

"There's a lot of good stuff going on right now," McVay said. "We want to try to keep that momentum going, and how you do that is you take things one day at a time, one game at a time."

The Rams are 5-2, off to their best start in 14 years and coming off a 33-0 drubbing of the division-rival Arizona Cardinals. Their plus-74 point margin trails only that of the Philadelphia Eagles, thanks to an offense that has already scored 212 points -- 12 shy of last year's total with nine games left -- and a defense that has given up the sixth-fewest yards per game over the past four weeks.

Sean McVay has the Rams off to their best start in 14 years. AP Photo/Jae C. Hong

"The excitement is there," Rams sixth-year cornerback Trumaine Johnson said. "There's no way around it; it's everywhere. But at the same time, it's still on us to be even better. Each game is important for us. It's getting bigger and bigger. We just have to stay consistent."

The Rams practiced Monday, their first substantive session in a week and a half, and took their normal day off Tuesday. Wednesday marks the start of installations for their Sunday road game against the 1-6 New York Giants. Their challenge now is to block out the noise, maintain their edge and basically doubt their own hype.

The Rams entered this season as the NFL's second-youngest team, behind only the winless Cleveland Browns. But they also added four players who have been on playoff teams -- left tackle Andrew Whitworth, center John Sullivan, outside linebacker Connor Barwin and cornerback Kayvon Webster.

"It's important that myself and other guys that have ever been in that situation continue to encourage guys to realize the standard needs to keep rising," Whitworth said. "The season goes on, the expectation will grow, the pressure will grow, the games will get bigger, and your standard of what is good and what is expected out of you has to rise with it. That's really going to be the hard part going forward, and it's not easy to do. We have to continue to raise our level and raise what we expect of ourselves."

The Rams, coming off a 4-12 showing and 10 consecutive losing seasons, are eighth in ESPN's Power Rankings. ESPN's Football Power Index gives them a 55 percent chance to make the playoffs and a 16 percent chance to win the NFC West. Their Super Bowl odds are now 20-to-1, after opening at 100-to-1.

Their schedule will get tougher soon, with five of their final eight games coming against teams that currently have a winning record. But they're fully healthy, and their players should only continue to grow under new schemes.

"I think we've got a mature team, and I think we've got the right kind of guys in that locker room to be able to handle both the good and the bad," said McVay, who, at 31, already seems to have changed the Rams' culture. "The one thing that's been impressive about this team is that in seven weeks we've experienced a lot of different things -- some good, some bad -- and I've always really enjoyed and appreciated the way we have responded from some of the bad things."