A head coach’s ability to adjust and adapt over the course of a game, season and career usually determines how much success he has. Some coaches are more rigid and stuck in their ways, even when the rest of the NFL catches up to them.
Sean McVay is not one of those coaches and we only have to go back to Sunday’s win over the San Francisco 49ers to see why. It’s fair to say that game was one of McVay’s best ever as an NFL head coach.
It’s not just that the Rams beat their biggest rivals as sizable underdogs. It’s not just that they overcame a 10-point deficit in the fourth quarter. And it’s not just that the win prevented the Rams from falling to 0-3.
It was how they got the job done, largely thanks to McVay’s willingness to make major changes in the face of adversity.
Let’s start with the most obvious change, which came on offense. After running 11 personnel (one RB, one TE, 3 WRs) on every offensive snap in their first two games, the Rams came out in 12 personnel (one RB, two TEs, two WRs) on the opening snap against San Francisco. Kyle Shanahan and the 49ers probably had a feeling the Rams might utilize their tight ends more with Puka Nacua and Cooper Kupp out, but perhaps not to the extent that LA did.
According to Next Gen Stats, the Rams used 12 personnel on 25 of their 56 snaps against the 49ers. So they went from using 11 personnel 100% of the time in the first two games to just 55% of the time against San Francisco. They ran the ball 56% of the time on those 25 snaps, gaining 60 yards on 14 carries for an average of 4.3 yards per attempt.
On their 12 carries from 11 personnel, they gained just 38 yards, an average of 3.2 yards per carry, so it’s clear they had more success when Colby Parkinson and Hunter Long were on the field as blockers in the run game.
McVay didn’t have to make this change to 12 personnel, but he recognized that it gave the Rams their best chance to win. The reason he can lean so heavily on 11 personnel is that Kupp and Nacua are terrific blockers, almost operating as tight ends in the run game. As good as Jordan Whittington is, the Rams can’t get the same blocking effectiveness out of their wide receivers in the run game that they can with Kupp and Nacua.
McVay recognized that and turned to Long in 12 personnel, turning Sunday’s game into a ground-and-pound attack on offense. Despite the Rams falling behind 14-0 and eventually 24-14, they never abandoned the run, handing the ball off 26 total times in the win – more than even the run-heavy 49ers, who attempted just 24 rushes with their running backs on 65 total plays.
Moving forward, the Rams are likely to keep using a healthy dose of 12 personnel while Kupp and Nacua are sidelined after finding success on Sunday.
“I think that’s going to have to be something that we’re going to continuously have to do because these circumstances are different than anything that we’ve gone through,” McVay said Sunday about the possibility of continuing to use 12 personnel. “I think it’s a real credit to the coaches. … All these guys that are doing a great job and it’s a tremendous tribute to those assistant coaches and then ultimately the players being able to step up and deliver in these moments out here. We’ll have to continuously do that.”
Aside from that huge shift in offensive mindset, McVay also did an excellent job situationally as a coach. Sometimes on the more conservative end when it comes to fourth-down decisions, McVay was actually aggressive in this game, knowing how important it was for the Rams to win.
On fourth-and-6 from their own 43-yard line while trailing 14-0 in the first half, McVay called a fake punt and it worked to perfection as Ronnie Rivers picked up 7 yards after taking the direct snap.
That was a turning point in the game, something 49ers coach Kyle Shanahan acknowledged afterwards.
“I thought also we had a number of times in the game, we had opportunities to run away with it especially early in the game, that 14-point lead,” he said. “Hadn’t really moved the ball on our ‘D’ and it started with that fake punt. I think after that, I feel like (Stafford) went like eight of his next 10 or something like that so that got them back in the game.”
Even faked out skycam and the camera man.
📺: @NFLonFOX | #RamsHouse pic.twitter.com/PX7bGWJg0l
— Los Angeles Rams (@RamsNFL) September 22, 2024
The second fourth-down picked up by the Rams was when they were trailing 24-14 with 7:58 left in the game and rather than settling for a short field goal, McVay put the ball in Kyren Williams’ hands and he picked up 3 yards to move the chains. They didn’t turn that into a touchdown and still took three points with a field goal, but it was a sign of McVay’s confidence in the offense, which was encouraging to see.
On special teams, McVay finally bailed on the experiment of having Williams return punts after two quiet weeks in that department. He elevated Xavier Smith from the practice squad and put the second-year receiver in the biggest spot of his career right away.
Smith took over as the team’s punt returner and with 55 seconds left, he got his first official NFL touch: a 38-yard punt return to set the Rams up from midfield, only needing a field goal to win.
That adjustment made by McVay might be the difference in being 0-3 or 1-2. No disrespect to Williams, but there’s a good chance he would’ve fair-caught that punt and given the Rams the ball at the 12 with no timeouts left and under a minute. And if he did try to return it, he probably doesn’t pick up as many yards as the speedy Smith.
Xavier Smith with a huge punt return for the Rams!
📺: #SFvsLAR on FOX
📱: https://t.co/waVpO8ZBqG pic.twitter.com/aVta5VToOa— NFL (@NFL) September 22, 2024
McVay’s willingness to recognize that something wasn’t working helped the Rams in a huge way. And now moving forward, he’s going to stick with Smith as the punt returner.
“He’ll continue to be the punt returner, if that’s what you’re asking. He did a good job,” McVay told reporters. “He had two ‘ops’ yesterday, one fair catch and then one big return that’s obviously well-documented. He’s really put a lot of work in. It’s a cool reflection of the work paying off, him continuing to just stay steady, and then being able to have the opportunity to deliver in an important moment for the team. He will be the punt returner moving forward. Happy for ‘X’.”
McVay has coached in a lot of big games and has a lot of impressive wins on his resume, including a Super Bowl victory, but this was one of his best-coached games ever.
