For someone who's moved on from Super Bowl LIII, Sean McVay has spent a lot of time talking about Super Bowl LIII.
The Los Angeles Rams head coach has rehashed that 13-3 loss to the New England Patriots on multiple occasions, praising Bill Belichick's ingenious game plan, sharing the lessons he learned from the defeat and admitting he may have overprepared by watching too much film.
That's enough discussion about a game that happened in February, right? Apparently not. In his latest "Football Morning in America" column, NBC Sports' Peter King published an interview with McVay from earlier this summer in which the Rams coach dove into detail about the one play he regrets most from Super Bowl LIII.
According to McVay, that play came with 4:25 remaining in the first quarter of a then-scoreless game, when Rams wide receiver Brandin Cooks got behind the Patriots' secondary on a post route. Quarterback Jared Goff missed Cooks, though, and threw the ball away to avoid a sack.
(Check out the play at the 42:47 mark of this video.)
If Goff had connected with Cooks for a touchdown on that play, McVay told King, it may have altered the outcome of the game.
“I think it [could have] changed New England’s approach,” McVay said. "One of the things that I thought both Bill and [defensive coordinator Brian] Flores did an outstanding job of is, they’re gonna continue to play these coverages or these certain defensive structures until we made ‘em pay. We were never really able to do that. If you end up making a play like that early on in the game, then maybe it changes the narrative."
New England Patriots
The Rams never found the end zone in Super Bowl LIII, as the Patriots' suffocating defense allowed just two Rams plays over 20 yards. McVay took accountability for that lack of offensive firepower, insisting he could have told Goff to look for Cooks on the deep post based on what he saw from New England's defense.
"Capability, guys can follow directions if you give specific orders," McVay told King. "But capacity is the ability to give them contingency plans and the tools to be able to solve the problems even if it’s maybe something that you haven’t gone in and really practiced throughout the course of the week.
"That’s where I feel like I fell short for my team."
As for the Patriots? They've long since moved on, taking their usual "tunnel vision" approach to their 20th season with Belichick and Tom Brady leading the way.
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