The Rams took the field needing arguably their most impactful win of the season.
The Rams took the field with scrubs.
Say what? A competitive fireball such as Sean McVay and a Super Bowl champion such as the Rams just laying down in a game that meant something?
It was weird. It was wild. It was the scene at SoFi Stadium early Sunday afternoon as the NFC West champions’ potential postseason opponents were being sorted out and the theme of their regular-season finale against the eliminated Seattle Seahawks was becoming clear.
If they beat the Seahawks, they would clinch the third seed and host the inexperienced Washington Commanders next week in the first round.
Read more: Loss to Seattle drops Rams to No. 4 seed, setting up a MNF playoff game vs. Minnesota
If they lost to the Seahawks, they would fall to the fourth seed and host the loser of Sunday night’s battle between the two best teams in the NFC, Detroit or Minnesota.
There was seemingly no comparison.
Would you rather play a Washington team with a rookie quarterback and a new head coach for an organization that hasn’t won a playoff game in 20 years?
Or would you rather host one of two teams with the two best records in the NFC? A Lions team that has beaten you twice in the last 13 months or a Vikings team that you had beaten earlier this season but had lost only one other game by two points?
The answer seemed obvious. The Rams seemingly should have played all of their starters to beat the Seahawks and pave the way for an easier Commanders-lined road to the Super Bowl.
That’s not the Rams. That’s not Sean McVay. That’s not the culture of an organization that, even in its darkest times, cowers to no one and challenges everyone.
By playing the benchwarmers Sunday in order to give the starters what is essentially a bye week, McVay was sending two separate messages, both of which powerfully illustrate what this organization has become in their nine years since returning to town.
To his team: I believe you can beat anybody.
To the rest of the NFC: Bring it on.
From me: Love it.
The Rams eventually lost to the Seahawks, 30-25, when a last-gasp drive led by backup quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo stopped short because Garoppolo is not Matthew Stafford.
They later learned they will play host to the Minnesota Vikings (14-3) next Monday night in a daunting but doable first-round matchup.
Still love it.
“We’re gonna go swing, we’re gonna shoot our shot, we’re not gonna be afraid to do anything other than go for it,” said McVay Sunday afternoon. “I believe in our team … we respect all, we fear none.”
Read more: Chargers open playoffs and Rams close wild-card weekend as NFL announces schedule
McVay is more than just swaggers and swashbuckling. McVay is also pretty smart.
McVay wasn’t going to risk injury to his stars — guys such as Stafford, Kyren Williams and Puka Nacua — just to ensure an easier future opponent, and good for him.
McVay wasn’t going to be seen as ducking someone, anyone, anytime, anywhere, and that’s the way it should be.
McVay believes this team can beat anybody, and he wasn’t going to worry about any other locker room besides his own, and that’s a philosophy upon which one builds championships.
”You can’t worry about ducking people if you want to try to be able to advance,” said McVay of his decision to bench his best. “You’re gonna have to play people eventually. I felt like it was the smart move for our football team.”
Perhaps painful proof of this wisdom, backup running back Blake Corum broke his forearm Sunday and will miss the postseason.
McVay, the first coach to regularly give his best players a summer vacation during preseason games, protects his team at all costs. And that’s all that concerns him. Not your team. Not the other team. His team.
I asked him, with a hint of astonishment, you really don’t care what team you play, do you?
“No, I don’t, I really don’t,” he said. “You know what’s at stake and you have tremendous respect [but] we’re gonna dive into it, we’re gonna go for it with no fear.”
This attitude rubs off on his players, who started the season 1-4 yet are finishing in typical McVay fashion with nine wins in their last 11 games. For all their struggles, they have both the physical and emotional makeup to steal their way back to the Super Bowl.
”Sucks for them who have to play us,” said Williams.
This is a team that pinned 44 on the Buffalo Bills, tacked 30 on Minnesota, and beat the defending NFC champion San Francisco 49ers twice.
This is a team with a blossoming defense that came of age in a late-season, three-game span during which they held opponents to a combined 24 points.
This is a team that believes in their boss, and acts like it.
“It starts with coach McVay,” said Garoppolo. “When you’ve got a guy like that that brings energy every day, it kind of trickles down to everyone else. Now it gets real fun.”
Fun, because they have the stuff to make playoff opponents miserable.
They have the field leader. Stafford is one of only five active quarterbacks to have guided a Super Bowl champion, and one of three who are in the playoffs.
They have the running attack that McVay’s teams have often lacked, Williams scoring the third-most rushing touchdowns (14) in the league.
They have a younger version of receiver Cooper Kupp in Nacua, and, even though he’s been aged by injury, they still have Kupp.
Their offensive line is as intact and strong as it has been all season. Their defense recovered quickly from the retirement of Aaron Donald with a youthful energy led by the two brilliant draft picks, Jared Verse and Braden Fiske.
And a team which has endured such kicking struggles in recent years now has a legitimate kicker, rookie Joshua Karty, who booted four field goals Sunday including consecutive successful blasts of 58 and 57 yards.
“Resilient Rams,” said Williams. “No matter what it is, we know we can overcome it because that’s who we truly are.”
It takes breaks to win a Super Bowl. The most dominating team doesn’t always survive. The Rams know this from experience. They know how to make those breaks.
Flash back to 2021, when they backed into the division title on the final day of the season despite an overtime loss to San Francisco.
After routing the Arizona Cardinals in the first round, they won their second-round game in Tampa on a last-second field goal by Matt Gay after two long Stafford completions to Kupp.
Then, in the NFC championship game at SoFi Stadium, the 49ers’ Jaquiski Tartt dropped an interception late in the fourth quarter, leading to the Rams’ 20-17 victory.
All of this led to a Super Bowl championship win over Cincinnati, and another one doesn’t seem completely far-fetched given the vulnerabilities of the various teams in the tournament.
“There’s a confidence that has been brewing for a long time,” said Williams. “There’s a belief that we’re gonna go out there and do what we do.”
What they did Sunday was bench the starters and lose the game and set themselves up for a difficult first-round playoff matchup.
What they did was peculiar, problematic, and perfect.
Get the best, most interesting and strangest stories of the day from the L.A. sports scene and beyond from our newsletter The Sports Report.
This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
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