Rams' Sean McVay Talks End of Game Strategy

On that play, he put his trust in his players. He made it clear that the ball was going to two players and that was either Davante Adams or Puka Nacua. In a two-tight-end set, he set Adams and Nacua next to each other on Stafford's left flank.

He then motioned Nacua into a position where he lined up in between the left tackle and left guard, used Adams to clear out the outside cornerback, which was All-Pro Derek Stingley Jr, and by motioning Nacua, McVay isolated Texans' defensive back Jalen Pitre and using play action to freeze the secondary, with Adams clearing out the zone, McVay gave Nacua the space needed to separate and win the ball game.

Stafford and Nacua, along with the rest of the offense, executed the play flawlessly, and that was that. However, in order to convert, they needed to overcome a holding call early in the drive. I wanted to know what was going through Sean McVay's mind on that final drive so I asked and he provided an inside look into his thought process.

Attacking High Pressure Situations

“The answer is, you ideally want to be able to do that, but you can't do that unless you earn the right to be in a third down-and-eight situation after you're in first and 20," stated McVay.

"To be able to go four yards on the first-and-20 run, then to be able to go when it's second-and-16 to get it to third down-and-eight where you can legitimize and try to present the same sort of illusion where they're probably thinking, ‘Alright, maybe they'll just play it safe, force us to use their last time out and trust the defense.’ I thought it was just excellent execution by our guys."

"The eight-yard run on second down was key and critical to allow us to be able to legitimize running something similar, even though third-and-eight is a little bit longer. At the end of the game, the goal was to finish the game, finish the mission and not put our defense back out on the grass after [Inside Linebacker] [Nate] Landman makes an unbelievable punch out and [Defensive End] [Braden] Fiske, what a freaking recovery. Then to be able to start with a penalty, then you go first-and-20, the clock stops. "

"That’s not an ideal way to do it. For our group to just stay together and then have those next three plays reflected as such to end up in a victory formation was cool. There was a lot of hard stuff that we had to work through. A lot of it was created on our own. There are so many things that we can improve upon, but I thought we learned a lot about our group. We confirmed the mental toughness, the resilience, the ability to stick together and it's a really tough football team that I have a ton of respect for. I was proud of our guys being able to find a way.”

McVay's Mindset

During his presser, McVay would continue to add insight into his decisions.

“I mean part of the job is to be able to see," stated McVay. "Ultimately, it's always about the player's ability to execute. When you can create that sameness and likeness, you have a chance to be able to have plays compliment plays. I think you can put some different players in some binds. They activated a five-man rush right there. When you're thinking that you're a stud like [Safety] [Jalen] Pitre is, it has to be able to fit up on the run."

"You had seen that same sort of presentation the previous two snaps, you're going to step up. Puka [Nacua] was able to get an edge. Like I mentioned, [Offensive Lineman] Alaric [Jackson] did a great job against a great player in [Defensive End] [Danielle] Hunter to be able to allow [Quarterback] Matthew [Stafford] to pull up and be able to make a throw where he just out flanked. You have a chance to be able to sequence things if you're able to kind of get some plays off."

"That’s going to be a big focal point for us offensively to be able to have some drive continuity. It was the players bringing it to life. I think the thing that was big was getting the eight-yard run on second-and-16. If you're not able to create a run like that, it's probably too long.

"Third-and-eight is even stretching it for that type of play. Sometimes you have to trust your players to be able to end the game. We talked about playing to win the game, not trying to be able to play it to not lose. That was what was reflected and they ended up coming through in a big way. I thought that was cool for the guys to close it out.”

The mind of McVay. Stuff like this is the difference between winning and losing with Sunday once again proving how all the pieces matter.