The renewal of a gripping battle of wits will unfold Sunday when the Rams and Seahawks square off in the NFC Championship game.
It involves two of the brightest coaching minds in football in Rams offensive wizard Sean McVay and his Seahawks counterpart, Mike Macdonald, who was brought to Seattle last season for essentially one reason: Figure out a way to topple the point-scoring juggernaut McVay keeps building in Los Angeles.
The ever-changing McVay continually stays a step ahead of the posse by coming up with new ways to attack defenses via trend-setting personnel groupings. The coach that made “11” personnel — one running back, one tight end and three wide receivers — all the rage when he first got to Los Angeles in 2017 has done a complete reversal this year by unleashing a lethal run and pass-game out of “13” personnel with three tight ends and one wide receiver.
The Rams averaged a league-best 30.5 points per game this season. They do it with a run game that ranks seventh in the NFL and the second-best pass offense.
Macdonald, who has been referred to as the defensive version of McVay, is similar in his versatility and openness to change with the times. But no matter the formation or scheme, he always finds a way to get pressure on the opposing quarterback.
That has led to 47 Seahawks sacks this season and a 26.1 percent pass rush rate, both of which falls within the top seven in the NFL. The 17.2 points per game the Seahawks are surrendering this year is the fewest in the league, and the chief component in advancing to their first conference championship game since the 2014 season.
Macdonald has succeeded, albeit somewhat, in figuring out the McVay rubik’s cube. His Seahawks have taken two of their four games against McVay’s Rams the last two seasons, the most recent of which gave the Seahawks control of the NFC playoffs and meant the road to the Super Bowl had to go through Seattle rather than Los Angeles.
It’s precisely why the Seahawks hired him.
But it would be a mistake to say Macdonald’s wizardry has somehow figured out or even slowed down McVay.
In five matchups between their teams – including one in which Macdonald was the defensive coordinator of the Baltimore Ravens – McVay’s Rams are averaging 28 points per game.
It’s even more pronounced this year, when the Rams averaged 29 points and 415 yards per game against a defense that gave up 17.2 ppg on average.
Not that Macdonald and the Seahawks don’t have the Rams attention. So much so that McVay is guarding against reading too much into the previous matchups against the Seahawks, knowing full well Macdonald is liable to drop something entirely new on him on Sunday.
“You want to be careful not to chase ghosts,” McVay said. “It’s about good execution, good fundamentals. They’re a great team. They’re great in all three phases.
The Rams are counting on their successful offensive trend continuing on Sunday. If so, it is hard to imagine they will leave Seattle without holding a ticket to Super Bowl LX.
“We’d like to think that when we’re humming and we’re at our best. We’re pretty good too.” McVay said.
That it’s the third meeting between the two teams is a testament to the power of the NFC West, which produced three playoff teams. But aside from a deeper understanding of the opponent, McVay doesn’t think a third meeting gives he or Macdonald any sort of edge,
“It is an added layer, but it’s really just the familiarity,” McVay said. “Let’s put together the best plans that we can for our guys and let’s understand what type of execution and what type of competitive stamina it’s going to take for us to go get the job done against as complete a football team as there is in this league and as hot of a football team as there is in this league.”
Macdonald, understanding the Seahawks path to the Super Bowl is predicated on slowing the Rams down, immediately got busy on formulating a plan. While the entire Northwest celebrated the Seahawks divisional round win over the San Francisco 49ers last Sunday, the 38-year-old defensive mastermind plopped himself in front of a television to watch the Rams playoff game against the Chicago Bears, searching for clues.
“Honestly, break down the game as it’s going,” Macdonald said. “Kind of tell myself the formation, what they’re doing, what’s the situation. Kind of take an academic approach to it, I guess.”
As he sat there dissecting plays, formulating answers and even laying an early version of a game plan, Macdonald wistfully looked forward to his latest chess game with McVay.
This one with the conference championship hanging in the balance
“We really wouldn’t want it any other way, honestly.”
Neither would McVay, who is 2-0 in conference championship games.
“It’s going to be a hell of an atmosphere, an environment,” McVay said. “We’re excited about it. Those are the moments you feel the most alive as a competitor and we got to go handle it against a freaking damn good football team. But wouldn’t expect anything less in the NFC championship if you expect to advance to a Super Bowl.”
