Sean McVay vs. Kevin O'Connell: Familiar foes, unfamiliar territory
Sean McVay and Kevin O’Connell worked closely on the Rams staff for two seasons, molding an offensive scheme that helped the 2021 team make a playoff run that it capped with a victory in Super Bowl LVI at SoFi Stadium.
Now McVay and O’Connell, the third-year coach of the Minnesota Vikings, will face each other in the postseason for the first time when the Rams play host to an NFC wild-card game on Monday night at SoFi Stadium.
Does McVay see a lot of the Rams’ offense in O’Connell’s Vikings?
“What I see is he’s done an excellent job of morphing it to his players,” McVay said during a video conference with reporters. “I think that sometimes can get a little bit overemphasized.
“There’s a foundational philosophy that I think people carry offensively, but he’s put his own spin on it. ... There’s some similarities of things that we’ve done together and then there’s been some things that they’ve kind of added that fits their group.”
Later during the conference, McVay again attempted to downplay the similarities and the McVay-O’Connell story line.
Read more: Plaschke: Bring it on! Rams bench stars, lose game, but send a powerful playoff message
“There’s a familiarity with just kind of the rhythm and routines of how we all operate,” he said, “but there’s an evolution and adaptations that occur season to season and week to week.
“It’s a fun narrative, but I think it gets a little overemphasized.”
The Rams are coming off a 30-25 loss to the Seattle Seahawks, a game in which McVay rested quarterback Matthew Stafford and other starters. The Rams finished 10-7, with an Oct. 24 victory over the Vikings at SoFi Stadium among the key performances in their second-half turnaround.
The Vikings (14-3) ended the regular season with a 31-9 loss to the Detroit Lions. The defeat dropped the Vikings from a potential No. 1 seed with a bye to the No. 5 seed and a matchup against the Rams.
The Vikings feature quarterback Sam Darnold and receiver Justin Jefferson, both of whom made the Pro Bowl Games, receiver Jordan Addison, running backs Aaron Jones and Cam Akers and tight end T.J. Hockenson.
A defense coordinated by Brian Flores includes Pro Bowl linebackers Jonathan Greenard and Andrew Van Ginkel, Pro Bowl cornerback Byron Murphy, linebacker Blake Cashman and safety Harrison Smith.
In Week 8, Stafford passed for four touchdowns in a 30-20 Thursday night victory over the Vikings. The Rams were four days removed from defeating the Las Vegas Raiders, and the Vikings were four days removed from a 31-29 loss to the Lions, who have left opponents beat up throughout the season.
Both teams will have a full week of preparation for a Monday night matchup that has some longtime Rams fans agonizingly harking to the late 1960s and ‘70s, when the Vikings beat the Rams in the divisional round or NFC championship game four times before the Rams broke through in 1978.
After their loss to the Rams this season, the Vikings won nine games in a row, a streak that ended against the Lions on Sunday night at Ford Field in Detroit.
“Sometimes you get hit in the mouth a little bit and you’ve got to respond,” O’Connell told reporters afterward, “and I know we’ve built this thing in a way where we’re going to do that.”
Read more: Loss to Seattle drops Rams to No. 4 seed, setting up a MNF playoff game vs. Minnesota
O’Connell also referenced the Rams’ 2021 playoff run, which began after they lost to the San Francisco 49ers in overtime in the season finale.
“Was a part of a team in 2021 where we lost our last game and found a way to do what we needed to do to find a way to have a chance to play for a world championship,” he said.
On Monday, at the Vikings training headquarters, O’Connell looked ahead.
“Part of the type of building and the type of world we’ve created here is, I think, we’re all looking inward,” he told Minnesota reporters, “and let’s try to pull some things out of it to apply for what’s going to be clearly another home-field advantage for the Rams, an atmosphere, the moment, and let’s just focus on doing our jobs.”
Sounded an awful lot like McVay.
Etc.
Rams right tackle Rob Havenstein, who was sidelined the last two games because of a shoulder injury, is expected to play against the Vikings, McVay said. ... The Rams’ 2025 opponents are set. The Rams will play home games against the Arizona Cardinals, San Francisco 49ers, Seattle Seahawks, Detroit Lions, Tampa Bay Buccaneers, New Orleans Saints, Houston Texans and Indianapolis Colts. They will play road games against the Cardinals, 49ers, Seahawks, Carolina Panthers, Atlanta Falcons, Philadelphia Eagles, Jacksonville Jaguars, Tennessee Titans and Baltimore Ravens.
This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
