The players are exiting the locker room, leaving only Sean McVay behind. The Rams have lost every single game this season. McVay walks over to the mirror and stares at his reflection. "How is your plan going?" he asks and stares. Then after a while a smirk forms in the corner of his mouth. It turns into a giggle and finally into a maniacal laugh.
People hear coaches saying that they think from week to week and assume that that is how far they plan ahead. Sean McVay has formed a plan the moment he first set foot on Rams grounds and has not deviated from it ever since. All the scouting, team building, communications, and hard work – all comes down to this. And now look where we are. Everything is turning out ... perfectly.
The key to building a dynasty is the superstar quarterback. And McVay found his in 2018. Ever since the entire organization has been working towards drafting Caleb Williams. In the NFL, you cannot just lose on purpose. So, McVay planned everything to make it look natural: the SuperBowl hangover, the inevitable rebuild and most effectively the marketing campaign. "F em picks!" What better way to disperse the belief that it was about a draft selection all along.
And now it was all coming together. Williams already moved to L.A. in 2022. The Buccaneers and Cardinals, L.A.'s biggest competition, both already stumbled into wins, while the Rams are on their way to a perfect losing season. And today's opponent should not be a big obstacle either. The key to losing to the Ravens is not containing Lamar Jackson and keeping all running lanes wide open, McVay knows and has prepared his team accordingly.
The Rams start with a squib kick but get unlucky with some highly unlikely bounces. The Ravens start at their own 12-yard line. On the first snap, Ravens center Tyler Linderbaum ruptures a finger tendon. The ball flies past Lamar Jackson and out of the endzone. The Rams are up 2-0. A hiccup, nothing to worry about.
On the next drive McVay opens the gates. "Just run by, Lamar," he mumbles. Jackson takes him at his word, but right in that moment Ravens guard Kevin Zeitler missteps, fractures his ankle and falls into Jackson's way. Lamar's leg gets stuck underneath his lineman as his ACL tears.
McVay gets more and more nervous as the Ravens' injuries pile up. Can't these birds just stay healthy for five minutes? He turns to the Kellen-Moore-page of his playbook. The Rams win 8-3 due to a six-yard quarterback sneak from Matthew Stafford over a food poisoned Michael Pierce following an unorthodox block by center Cam Akers.
