Sean McVay and Bill Belichick say hello
We’ve reaching the point where Sean McVay and Bill Belichick have made it to C’mon Coach, and frankly, we’re both proud and disappointed.
The more time Los Angeles Rams head coach Sean McVay has to think about an opponent, the dumber he gets.
McVay had 10 days to prepare for the New York Jets, who were coming off a 40-3 surrender to the Seattle Seahawks and are coached by a rabid stoat. So how well-prepared was the NFL’s answer to Elon Musk for what should have been the easiest win on his team’s schedule?
Well, the Rams went three-and-out on their first two possessions, allowing a 74-yard touchdown drive to a pea-shooter offense in between. Then they surrendered a blocked punt. Then an interception.
It was 20-3 in the third quarter by the time their dignity kicked in. But by then it was too late: the Jets won their first game of the season by a 23-20 score, and the Rams jeopardized their playoff hopes on an afternoon when they should have clinched a berth by halftime.
“That was very humbling,” McVay said after the game,
per Adam Maya of NFL.com. Sure was.
Last season, the Rams came off their bye and lost 17-12 to the Mason Rudolph-led Pittsburgh Steelers. Given a 10-day layover after a Thursday night game last year, they lost 20-7 to the San Francisco 49ers.
The Rams beat the Seattle Seahawks off their bye this year, but they had nowhere to go but up after they were upset 28-17 in a four-turnover fiasco against the Miami Dolphins before the bye. And who can forget how the Rams looked in their 13-3 loss to the New England Patriots in Super Bowl LIII?
It was as if McVay spent the two preparation weeks before the big game coming to grips with the fact he’s no Bill Belichick, but merely the nutty neighbor who keeps dropping by for dinner in the 2010s sitcom
Jammin’ With the Shanahans.
McVay’s problem isn’t that he has too much time to think during bye weeks and mini-byes. It’s that he has never, ever come up with a Plan B in four seasons as a head coach.
If Jared Goff makes a few early mistakes, there’s a special teams snafu or defensive lapse, or if the patented McVay system just isn’t clicking, the Rams become a turtle on its back in a soup factory.
McVay doesn’t really do adjustments, and the Rams don’t do comebacks: Goff is credited with just
one fourth-quarter comeback in the last two seasons. For comparison’s sake, Sam Darnold
somehow has two.
The Rams had a chance to come back and win on Sunday. They trailed by three points with 4:05 to play when they reached the Jets 37-yard line.
On 3rd-and-4, McVay emptied the backfield and ordered a deep wheel route to rookie running back Cam Akers. Goff’s pass sailed over Akers’ head. On 4th-and-4, McVay emptied the backfield again and called a similar play concept up the opposite sideline to tight end Gerald Everett. That pass was broken up, essentially ending the game.
Two deep sideline shots? To a rookie running back and a tight end? On the fringe of game-tying field goal range? In four-down territory? When a shallow cross or even a swing pass could have netted a first down? Against the worst team in the Milky Way? With the playoffs on the line? Did McVay expect Gregg Williams to parachute onto the Jets sideline wearing a headset and call the ol’ Madden “
Engage Eight” blitz?
“I’ve got to do a better job getting us ready to go,” McVay said. “And really it was in all three phases, it wasn’t good enough.”
Congratulations, Aging Boy Wunderkind. You just got outcoached by Adam Gase. As punishment, you should slam a car door shut on your own forehead over and over again until you lose consciousness.
