Sean McVay has been talked about for two years as the Golden Child of NFL coaches. Many teams with head-coaching openings last month chased the “next McVay.”
But in Super Bowl LIII on Sunday, the 33-year-old McVay was less Golden Child and more like an overmatched child facing an adult in Patriots coach Bill Belichick. The Rams coach did not have a strong game plan on offense and failed to adjust to what the Patriots threw at him as Belichick coached circles around him.
“Coach Belichick did an outstanding job. There is really no other way to put it,” McVay said after the game. “I’m pretty numb right now, but definitely, I got out-coached. I didn’t do nearly good enough for our football team.”
Now, one bad day against the greatest coach to ever wear a headset should not be enough to dismiss McVay as overhyped, but it did raise some questions. Belichick has proven to be the master of making in-game adjustments. McVay saw how the Patriots attacked his offense in the first half, shutting out the 11th-highest-scoring team in NFL history. He had an entire halftime, which is about three times longer at the Super Bowl than in regular-season games, to come up with something different.
McVay failed. He could not incorporate running back Todd Gurley, whom McVay and Gurley both said was fully healthy, into the flow of the game. He could not solve the Patriots’ pressure to give quarterback Jared Goff more time. All of it led to the 13-3 defeat that will be a blemish on his résumé unless he returns to the Super Bowl and wins it.
“This one is going to stick with you and it just stings in your gut,” McVay said.
McVay’s first two seasons as a head coach have been remarkable. He is 24-8 in the regular season with two trips to the playoffs and an NFC Championship this year.
Sunday’s game was reminiscent of the Rams’ 15-6 loss to the Bears in Week 14. In that game, Chicago played mainly zone defense and confused Goff, who threw four interceptions. It was the Rams’ worst offensive performance this season — until Sunday.
The Patriots mixed coverages, showing more zone principles than usual and loading the line of scrimmage with pass rushers. It looked like the Patriots were almost in a goal-line defense at times because of how much they loaded the box to stop the run.
The Rams did not have an answer.
“They mixed it up,” McVay said. “They played almost exclusively some man coverage principles and decided to take away — really in the early downs, all they ended up was playing some single high buzz structures and some quarters principles. Third down, they had their designers and things like that. They did a great job. It was a great game plan. There is no other way to say it, but I got outcoached.”
Every team that loses the Super Bowl expects to return, and the Rams have a good young core, so they will be among the favorites to return to the game next year, but things don’t always go as planned. Getting to the Super Bowl requires a bit of luck as well as skill in terms of staying healthy and getting the ball to bounce your way.
The only teams to go to consecutive Super Bowls in the last 20 years are the Patriots twice (2016-18, 2003-04) and the Seahawks (2013-14). Teams like the 2015 Panthers, 2012 49ers and 2001 Rams looked like they would be perennial Super Bowl teams but did not make it back.
“I think the value of experience is something, this is a humbling game,” McVay said. “When you go look back and you look at every single game, you get a chance to learn from it. … Certainly, this is going to be a very humbling tough one that you learn from, but you have to demonstrate that mental toughness you talk about and that is all I know how to do.”
