Sean McVay was finally asked why he had his Los Angeles Rams attempt a field goal at the end of Sunday’s loss to the San Francisco 49ers to cut the deficit from 10 to seven points.
Many people had assumed McVay was aware of the game’s 8.5-point betting spread and was trying to notch a cover. It maddened many bettors, but it was a tactic I was actually in defense of — if it was in fact the reason. The real reason, though, as McVay told reporters Monday, had nothing to do with betting at all and made much less sense.
To make a long explanation much shorter, his plan was to complete a pass on the previous third down and leave enough time to kick a field goal and attempt an onside kick after that. However, the completion took longer than he anticipated, leaving enough time for just one play.
But where McVay lost me is on his decision to use that one play to kick a field goal rather than just milk the clock.
Sean McVay explains his reason for the meaningless field goal that gave the Rams the cover against the 49ers.
“I clearly was not aware of that stuff.” pic.twitter.com/dCbZks6Grm
— Prince Grimes (@pgprincej) September 19, 2023
“Felt like it was an opportunity to not leave Matthew [Stafford] susceptible to an unnecessary heave to the end zone and get an opportunity for our field goal operation,” McVay said.
“Apparently, [Rams VP of communications] Artis [Twyman] told me there’s a lot of people in Vegas pissed off about that decision. I clearly was not aware of that stuff,” he added.
Even if I’m buying McVay not being aware of the point spread, I don’t understand why he would want to risk injury to anyone on his field goal unit in an attempt to protect his quarterback from injury. Wouldn’t it have made more sense to kneel the ball? I would have preferred he said he was chasing points in the event of an unlikely playoff tiebreaker — which was a popular fan theory.
Instead, McVay offered up one of the most unsatisfying reasons we could have imagined. But I’m going to take his word for it. We can’t ask for answers and then be mad with the answers we get.
