When the Los Angeles Rams decided to take their foot off the proverbial gas in Week 18 to rest their starters ahead of the playoffs, it left fans with one major takeaway: LA must have been okay with playing against the Minnesota Vikings or the Detroit Lions in the Wildcard Round.
On paper, the idea of taking on either team is far more challenging than the Washington Commanders, who finished out the regular season with 12 wins instead of 15, but apparently, LA felt differently, seemingly preferring the enemy they already knew and either almost beat or already defeated commandingly to an NFC East opponent they haven't played under this new regime.
Discussing the Vikings heading into Week 19 and what he thinks of the team heading into their forthcoming showdown at SoFi Stadium, McVay pointed out that Kevin O'Connell has put together a very good program in Minnesota and will certainly present an interesting challenge in a single-elimination format.
“Excellent team. You look at it, 14-3. Obviously, we’re very familiar with their coaching staff. The respect, the admiration, and what a great job [Vikings Head Coach] Kevin [O'Connell], [Offensive Coordinator] Wes [Phillips], [Senior Offensive Assistant] Chris O'Hara, and [Assistant Inside Linebackers Coach] Thad Bogardus did when they were here. Defensively, they've been excellent. They pose a lot of different problems,” McVay told Rams reporters.
“Offensively, Kevin does an excellent job of accentuating guy’s skill sets. Obviously, [Vikings Quarterback] Sam [Darnold] has had a great year. It's cool to see [Vikings Running Back] Cam Akers do his thing and make some plays for them over the last few weeks. [Vikings Running Back] Aaron Jones is dangerous. Their receivers are obviously well-documented. [Vikings Wide Receiver] Justin Jefferson is as unique as it gets. They move him around and do a great job of putting him in a variety of spots. I think [Vikings Wide Receiver] Jordan Addison is an excellent football player that…you see, he’s a number one receiver on other teams. You've seen [Vikings Wide Receiver Jalen] Nailor make a bunch of plays and getting [Vikings Tight End T.J.] Hockenson back has been big for them with the different things that he can provide, not exclusive to just the pass game. It’s a great challenge. They're really good on [special] teams. Obviously, [Vikings Special Teams Coordinator] Matt Daniels is their coordinator who is here with us. It's going to be a great challenge, but it's NFL playoff football, so we're excited about it, and we're diving into that preparation as we speak.”
With one game and multiple shared former coaches across their rosters, the Rams and Vikings really do know each other about as well as two teams that play in different divisions can at this point in the season. Considering McVay ripped off about a dozen players and coaches from the team from memory during an on-the-fly question and answering session, let's hope his team is similarly prepared once the game actually kicks off on Monday night.
