Opinion: In pressure-cooker situation vs. 49ers, Rams found a way to deliver by staying true to themselves
INGLEWOOD, Calif. – Of all the teams playing on “Championship Sunday” and vying for a spot in Super Bowl 56, none found themselves in a more intense pressure-cooker situation than did the Los Angeles Rams during the days leading up to their big showdown with the San Francisco 49ers.
Sure, every member of the final four – the Rams, 49ers, Cincinnati Bengals and Kansas City Chiefs – badly craved a spot in the Super Bowl, which takes place in two weeks at SoFi Stadium.
But the circumstances just stacked up differently for the Rams.
They didn’t just have to get to the Super Bowl. Punching that ticket involved the tall task of snapping a six-game losing streak to the divisional rival 49ers, the team that has given the Rams the most trouble since 2017, when Sean McVay took over as head coach.
Swept by the 49ers in two meetings during this regular season, including Week 18 when San Francisco punched its playoff ticket with that victory, L.A.’s players and coaches found themselves engulfed in all kinds of pressure, both collectively and individually.
But Sunday night, the Rams managed vanquished a slew of demons as they rebounded from a 10-point fourth-quarter deficit to defeat San Francisco 20-17. With the win, L.A. clinched the franchise’s first Super Bowl berth since that gutting loss to New England in 2019.
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In the words of the late, great Kobe Bryant, whose spirit still looms large over the city and served as a source of inspiration for the Rams on Sunday, “Job ain’t finished,” and the Rams are well aware of that fact.
But Sunday’s crucial step was made possible by McVay's staff and players’ ability to compartmentalize, blocking out potentially debilitating pressures stemming from their rivalry with San Francisco, the challenges of individual journeys and the lofty expectations of an ownership and management team that has made one mega investment after another to build the Rams into a champion-caliber organization.
Success at this level certainly requires great physical feats and discipline. But it’s equal parts mental.
Sometimes coaches and players will use past failures as motivational tools as they approach high-stakes contests. But to move forward on Sunday, the Rams vowed to look not to the past, instead focusing squarely on the present that was each day, practice and meeting leading up to Sunday’s rematch with San Francisco.
“You may think it’s just coach speak,” McVay said after the game, “but our guys genuinely knew, ‘Hey, we’re familiar with this opponent. But the previous six games where we didn’t find a way to finish have nothing to do with what’s going to occur at 3:40 when we kick this thing off.’ They were separate entities. Our guys did a great job of being able to compartmentalize.”
McVay understood the pressure and weight of expectations more than anyone.
Facing the 49ers meant another reunion with former coworker and mentor Kyle Shanahan under whom McVay worked while in Washington from 2010-13.
Shanahan accepted the 49ers head coaching job in 2017 as McVay signed on with the Rams, and since they became divisional rivals, Shanahan had posted a 7-3 record against McVay including winning the last six.
Throughout the week, McVay fielded frequent questions from reporters about his team’s inability to beat San Francisco even in years where the Rams boasted the better record and roster. One reporter went so far as to ask McVay if Shanahan was in his head.
McVay dismissed such a notion and continued to express his respect for Shanahan and his assistants (many of them also former coworkers), but stressed that for the Rams to win, they would have to maintain a disciplined approach, crisp execution and something close to mistake-free football.
On Sunday, the Rams did not achieve that goal of a flawless performance. They started slow and even saw quarterback Matthew Stafford throw a first-quarter interception in the end zone. The defensive backs gave up a second-quarter touchdown to Deebo Samuel because of confusion and poor communication.
But McVay’s in-game message centered on resilience and determination.
The coach looked to Stafford to serve as that poise and persistence, but to make that possible, Stafford had his own ghosts to battle.
Few players have had to live up to the kind of expectations heaped upon Stafford ever since the Detroit Lions traded the 13th-year veteran to the Rams in exchange for quarterback Jared Goff (who helped the Rams reach the Super Bowl in the 2018 season), two first-round picks and a third-round pick.
The Rams viewed Stafford as the difference-maker that Goff was not when he directed a sputtering offense in that 13-3 loss to the New England Patriots in Super Bowl 53. They expected the strong-armed Stafford to put the franchise over the top with those intangibles and you-just-can’t-coach-that type of plays – even though Stafford had managed to lead Detroit’s consistently poor rosters to the playoffs just three times in 12 years.
Stafford’s first season in L.A. had featured its fair share of ups and downs. He tied a personal best with 41 touchdown passes, but he also tallied a career-worst 17 interceptions.
However, once he reached the playoffs, Stafford morphed into the game-changer the Rams had expected, delivering jaw-dropping throws, directing game-winning drives and comebacks, even outdueling Tom Brady and bouncing the defending Super Bowl champs from the playoffs with a scoring drive that began with just 42 seconds left.
Sunday against San Francisco – against whom Stafford threw a combined four interceptions in the previous two meetings – the quarterback got off to a rocky start, but got better as the game progressed. And with his team down by 10 with 13 minutes left on the clock, Stafford displayed that knack for delivering fourth-quarter comebacks and made one defining pass as the Rams closed out the game on a 13-0 scoring run.
“We went out and got him because we thought it was a chance to get a great player of his magnitude and those don’t come around often,” McVay said. “What he’s done is he has elevated everyone around him. He’s made me a better coach, he’s made his teammates better. … You know he’s a great competitor. We’ve seen that throughout the whole season, but it’s really been on display these last few weeks.”
Said wide receiver Odell Beckham Jr., “He had that look in his eye. He motivated and pushed us all game, one play at a time, and drove us down. And he’s been doing that all season since I’ve been here. Just happy we could get him here to this point. I know it was tough in Detroit for a lot of those years and (we) have amazing opportunity. We’re just trying to take advantage of it.”
Beckham, who was signed midseason after being released by the Cleveland Browns, recorded nine catches for 113 yards. Meanwhile, Cooper Kupp racked up 11 catches for 142 yards and two touchdowns.
And then, after Stafford directed the final scoring drive that resulted in Matt Gay hitting a 44-yard field goal for the deciding score, the Rams' star-studded defense delivered the knockout punch as Von Miller, Aaron Donald and Co. harassed Jimmy Garoppolo, and linebacker Travin Howard intercepted a deflected pass to snuff out San Francisco’s hopes for a comeback.
With that, they had done it: rid themselves of the King Kong-sized monkey that was San Francisco’s recent dominance and put themselves in the Super Bowl, which they will host against Cincinnati in two weeks.
“I sure am happy for this opportunity, but not only for myself, but for so many guys in that locker room that deserve this too,” Stafford said. “And that’s what this is: another opportunity to win another one.”
The pressure of getting past San Francisco is no more, and the task of winning the Super Bowl will replace that. But for Sunday night (as they focused on remaining in the moment), the Rams took one more massive step, with one more left to go.
Follow Paste BN Sports' Mike Jones on Twitter @ByMikeJones.