LOS ANGELES (AP) — Rams coach Sean McVay said the NFL told him officials erred in calling a late pass-interference penalty that swung Los Angeles' loss at Denver on Sunday.
Cornerback Josh Wallace was flagged for interfering with Broncos wide receiver Pat Bryant, negating his interception and extending the drive, allowing Denver to score a touchdown with 47 seconds remaining to deal the Rams a 30-26 defeat. Replays showed Bryant had grabbed Wallace, not the other way around.
McVay had requested more information on the sequence from the league, a common practice from coaches and teams each week to better teach specific techniques and points of officiating emphasis.
“Like I’ve told you, the only thing that matters to me is how to educate our players,” McVay said Wednesday. “And it’s like I said to you guys afterwards, I wouldn’t change the way that I’m coaching Josh Wallace on how to play the cycle of that snap. Whether it was or wasn’t right, that wasn’t the point. The call was made, and that was what the call was. What I am interested in is if there’s any sort of feedback that says this is in alignment with what would correctly be officially as a DPI.”
The finding did not provide McVay any solace.
“That game’s over with,” McVay said. “We’re a 1-2 football team, and got to be able to move forward, and that’s where we’re at.”
Wide receiver Davante Adams agreed with his coach, with the 13-year veteran declining to discuss the merits of the penalty.
“Me talking about it, saying my feelings on it is not going to change it,” Adams said. “If it would, I’ll definitely tell you right now. It’s not. My words are not going to influence anything, so we’re just going to leave that one in the past.”
Wide receiver Puka Nacua practiced on a limited basis Wednesday, and McVay believes he is on track to play against the Eagles on Sunday after missing the past two games because of a hip and groin injury.
Nacua’s likely return is all the more important because tight ends Terrance Ferguson (ankle) and Colby Parkinson (shoulder) each has his availability in question.
The Rams leaned heavily into three-tight end packages in a win against the Giants on Sept. 21 and at the start of the game against the Broncos before Ferguson and Parkinson were hurt, leading to expanded usage of reserve wide receivers Konata Mumpfield, Xavier Smith and Jordan Whittington.
Nacua has posted at least 1,400 yards receiving in two of his first three NFL seasons and led the Rams with five receptions for 74 yards in their Week 1 loss to the 49ers.
“He’s a great player, both with the football and also without it,” quarterback Matthew Stafford said. “He brings great play energy to our team. You know he loves the game of football. His passion rubs off on everybody in the huddle, so obviously if we get the chance to get him back, we’re excited to have him back in our huddle.”
Defensive lineman Aaron Donald did not practice because of a sore back, McVay said. It is unclear if the ailment could keep him from facing Philadelphia.
See AP’s full NFL coverage here
Los Angeles Rams head coach Sean McVay leaves the field following an NFL football game against the Denver Broncos, Sunday, Sept. 27, 2026, in Denver. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)
Los Angeles Rams cornerback Josh Wallace intercepts a pass by Denver Broncos quarterback Bo Nix during the second half of an NFL football game Sunday, Sept. 27, 2026, in Denver. (AP Photo/Jack Dempsey)
Denver Broncos wide receiver Jaylen Waddle, left, catches a touchdown pass against Los Angeles Rams cornerback Josh Wallace during the second half of an NFL football game Sunday, Sept. 27, 2026, in Denver. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — The U.S. Supreme Court is allowing the execution of Christa Gail Pike to go forward, overturning a last-minute stay on Wednesday that was issued by an appeals court hours earlier.
Pike was scheduled to die by lethal injection in the morning, and witnesses had already gathered at the Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville when the 6th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals voted 2-1 to issue a stay. That court said a delay was needed to consider whether Pike’s allegations of childhood sexual abuse were fully considered at her sentencing.
Pike, now 50, and her boyfriend were convicted of the 1995 stabbing and beating of 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer, their classmate at a job training facility in Knoxville.
The case garnered widespread attention at the time in part because a pentagram that was carved on Slemmer’s body and other elements of the crime stoked fears of Satan worship during the “satanic panic” of the 1980s and 1990s.
Tennessee has not executed a woman in at least 200 years.
Tennessee’s attorney general immediately appealed the stay to the U.S. Supreme Court. Witnesses and media remained at the prison while the high court considered whether to allow the execution to proceed.
The state's execution order expires at midnight, said Kelley Henry, a Nashville-based attorney experienced with Tennessee death penalty law. If time runs out and the stay is lifted, the Tennessee Supreme Court would need to set a new execution date.
In its appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court, the attorney general's office wrote that halting the execution at the last moment traumatized Slemmer’s family and rewarded “abusive delay tactics” by Pike’s attorneys.
Pike does not deny committing the killing, but her supporters argue the state should consider her age at the time, her mental illness and her allegations of severe sexual abuse that included being raped from the time she was a toddler.
“It is inconceivable that in the 21st century, the criminal justice system is poised to execute a survivor of rape and child sexual abuse whose jury never had the opportunity to consider those facts in weighing the defendant’s moral culpability,” her attorneys wrote in a filing.
As the execution date drew near, Pike's case renewed debate over the death penalty for young offenders.
Assistant Federal Defender Stephen Ferrell said Pike’s death sentence is an outlier because other 18-year-olds in Tennessee have had such sentences vacated.
After the killing, Pike was diagnosed with bipolar disorder and post-traumatic stress disorder. In her clemency petition, she said she only wanted to fight Slemmer but killed her in a frenzied attack when she couldn’t “put the brakes on.”
“I was a mentally ill 18-year-old kid. It took me numerous years to even realize the gravity of what I’d done. Even more to accept how many lives I affected. I took the life of someone’s child, sister, friend. It sickens me now to think I had the ability to commit such a crime,” Pike said in a statement.
Slemmer’s mother wants the lethal injection to go forward, saying she has waited decades to see Pike’s sentence carried out.
“Every time I think about it, I think about Colleen feeling that pain and trying to get up and run,” May Martinez told The Associated Press in a telephone interview on Saturday.
Martinez said a group helped raise money so she and her husband could travel from Florida to witness the execution. She didn't respond to a message Wednesday after the execution was halted.
Martinez said her daughter's age also should matter in deciding Pike's fate.
“Not a day goes by, or a minute goes by that I do not think about Colleen. Holidays are the worst,” she said, noting that her daughter would have turned 51 earlier in September.
The killing rocked the city of Knoxville. Prosecutors said Pike, fearing Slemmer was trying to steal her boyfriend, lured her to a wooded area on Jan. 12, 1995. Pike cut Slemmer with a box cutter and beat her with a large chunk of asphalt. Shipp, Pike’s boyfriend, has admitted that he was the one who carved a pentagram, a star-shaped symbol associated with Satan, into her body.
Shipp was 17 when the crime happened and received a sentence of life in prison with the possibility of parole. Pike was the only one sentenced to death.
Tennessee has not executed a woman for at least 200 years, according to Robin M. Maher, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center. Older records can be spotty, though, so it’s difficult to know precise details about the last woman who was put to death there.
Since the Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1976, 18 women have been put to death in the U.S., representing about 1% of all executions, according to the center.
Most recently, Missouri in 2023 executed Amber McLaughlin for a 2003 killing, in what is believed to be the first execution of a transgender woman in the U.S. In 2021, the federal government executed Lisa Montgomery, marking the first time in nearly seven decades that the U.S. government put a female inmate to death.
Pike would be the 30th person executed in the U.S. this year after Florida carried out an execution on Tuesday.
Associated Press journalists Jeffrey Collins in Columbia, South Carolina, and Ed White in Detroit contributed to this report.
May Martinez, left, mother of murder victim Colleen Slemmer, walks out of Riverbend Maximum Security Institution during a stay of the planned execution of Christa Pike, Wednesday, Sept. 30, 2026, in Nashville, Tenn. (AP Photo/George Walker IV)
Leslie Brown, right, stands with others in the area reserved for people in favor to the death penalty outside Riverbend Maximum Security Institution before the planned execution of Christa Pike, Wednesday, Sept. 30, 2026, in Nashville, Tenn. (AP Photo/George Walker IV)
Kathleen Walter prays in the area reserved for people opposed to the death penalty outside Riverbend Maximum Security Institution before the planned execution of Christa Pike, Wednesday, Sept. 30, 2026, in Nashville, Tenn. (AP Photo/George Walker IV)
Abraham Bonowitz speaks during a March 4 Mercy protest against the death penalty at the Tennessee State Capitol, Sunday, Sept. 27, 2026, in Nashville, Tenn. ahead of the Sept. 30th scheduled execution of Christa Pike. (AP Photo/George Walker IV)
Alonzo Hughes participates in a March 4 Mercy protest against the death penalty at the Tennessee State Capitol, Sunday, Sept. 27, 2026, in Nashville, Tenn. ahead of the Sept. 30th scheduled execution of Christa Pike. (AP Photo/George Walker IV)
In this image from video provided by WBIR-TV, Christa Pike cries after being sentenced to death on March 30, 1996 in Knoxville, Tenn. (WBIR-TV via AP)
This photo provided by the Tennessee Department of Correction shows Christa Pike on Jan. 12, 2023. (TDOC via AP)
