Breaking down crucial fourth down in Rams-Seahawks
Mike Florio and Chris Simms unpack the Rams' decision to go for it on fourth down late against the Seahawks in the NFC Championship, breaking down the execution from both sides on the crucial passing play.
Video Transcript
Seattle goes to the fourth Super Bowl in franchise history.
It's been 20 years since the Super Bowl the Seahawks played against the Steelers.
And, you know, it's funny because I do KJR Radio in Seattle every Wednesday.
And when I was on there last week, they were saying that it was somewhat unbecoming Sean McDermott had complained so loudly about officiating in the aftermath of the loss by the Bills to the Broncos.
Yeah...
In the division round.
And I said, "Dude, Mike Holmgren is in, a packed stadium in a rally after the fricking Super Bowl, complaining about the officiating--and all the times they got..." I mean, have we forgotten 20 years ago?
Seriously... How pissed off he was?
Rightfully so.
Rightfully so.
There were some bad calls in that game, and Bill Leavy, the referee that day, has talked since then about how he's still bothered by the bad calls from that Super Bowl.
But that's the one they lost, then they won the next one, then they lost the next one to the Patriots.
They get their shot at the Patriots next Sunday, after taking down the Rams.
To their season series, the 31-27 victory.
And, you know, I wanna go, I wanna go out of order here.
Okay.
I wanna start with- Yeah...
The last, the last moment, because it has connective tissue to what we talked about earlier.
Yeah.
The decision to go for it on fourth down.
Right.
Fourth and four from the six, 31-27.
4:59 to play.
To me, 'cause, 'cause I, I got some texts from some folks echoing the same things that we discussed earlier with Sean Payton.
Right.
To me, in that moment, like, I, I mean, We gotta, we gotta game this out.
You kick the field goal there, You're still down 31-30.
Yeah.
And you're kicking off to Rashid Shaheed.
Right.
And they're not gonna be far from a field goal, and they're in a position where they can chew up a lot of the clock.
And you may need a, a, a touchdown to win the game, or you may be, you may be down eight when you get the ball back, if you get the ball back.
Like, it's not as clear to me.
No... To take the three there.
I think the decision itself was the right decision.
Right.
Because then you, you put them on the six, you play some defense.
And you're gonna get the ball back sooner than you did.
And- R- right... Seattle made some great plays on that drive after that, to extend the drive.
And, you know, there were some unfortunate moments for the Rams, and I was fine with going for it in that spot.
Even though it didn't work out.
I, I agreed there.
I, I, I am too.
That, that's a tough one.
And I'm, you know, I mean, I think we both are, and anybody that listens to us.
I'm usually Johnny Kick the Field Goal.
Kick the field goal.
Kick the field goal, keep playing, keep pressure on them.
Right?
And I was sitting there in the moment going, Man, they got three timeouts.
They could make it 31-30.
The Seahawks not driven the ball since late in the third quarter, right?
So, the defense had been playing pretty well.
The pressure was going to be on the Seahawks.
To in that one, one, you know, point type of football game at 31-30.
It crossed my mind, but at the same time, you sit there and go, Wait, it's a, it's a four-point game, and there's no guarantee they're gonna get down here again to, to have an opportunity right here to win the football game."
So I understood that.
For a guy that I'm usually like, "Kick the field goal.
I didn't find it egregious, or I certainly wasn't yelling at the TV went for it in that moment.
I mean, we talked earlier, there are certain moments where you have no choice.
They weren't quite in the "have no choice" point.
Yeah.
They, they had a choice, but it was a close one, and I'm fine with giving them the ball.
Now, yeah... On the play itself.
Right.
And I, what I wanna do is, I wanna play Sean McVay explaining about the failed fourth down.
Decision, 'cause there may be some stuff in there that's instructive when we look at the replay.
Yeah.
Here's McVay after the game, talking about the decision to go for it on fourth down in that spot.
I was, I mean, we had our chances, you know.
I, I, I thought about it, and, you know, did decide to do it.
You know, obviously it didn't work out for us.
You know, that was a situation where we just kinda came up short.
They kinda lucked into having two guys peel on Kyren right there.
I know that, that can't be part of their design, so it's a fortuitous bust by them.
Fortuitous bust.
Right up there with overofficious jerk.
Now we can show the play, and here's what happened.
If we can hold it right at the beginning.
Yeah.
If we can hold it right at the beginning.
They're showing the cover zero look, Right?
Right, right.
You got man coverage on the eligible receivers, and everybody else is, is going to.
Top line of scrimmage.
If, if we would dot it one at a time, Everybody has a man.
Even though there's a guy deep, You can see he's covering the guy in the slot.
I think that's Nakua there.
There's another guy in between the, on the inside and the outside.
Who's got the- Yeah, De-...
The guy who's in the middle.
Devin Witherspoon.
Yeah.
Right, right.
Okay, so, so it's man all the way across.
Yeah.
Right?
And you got nobody, you got nobody, in theory, on Kyren Williams.
Right.
He said, "Two guys peeled"--Right... 'Cause I think the play was, 'cause I said to my son, "Watch 23.
Look at the top."
on this play."
"Look at the top," right.
"Watch 23."
Yeah.
And there he goes, and look at this, there's two guys that peeled.
And McVay believes that was a mistake.
Right.
And it worked out to their benefit, 'cause it took away the primary.
Pause it here, guys.
They dropped the guys into- Right, Right.
Go ahead.
They, they, they drop extra guys into coverage, and nobody's open.
Yeah, exactly right.
And if we rewind this, guys.
Yeah, perfect, awesome.
You're 100% right.
I mean, Sean McVay's 100% right.
There's no way there was supposed to be two.
Guys going this way.
They're showing cover zero, but they're gonna have some guys drop out, so none of the quick throws to abuse them over the middle of the field.
So you're gonna see other guys drop out.
Now, in this right here, to the left side, Julian Love is the guy on the very outside.
And he's blitzing, right?
And in this blitz, I believe the next guy inside of Julian Love is, it is DeMarcus Lawrence, and he's there to kinda like, Hey, wait, the tackle should sit there and try to block me, and then Julian able to blitz and get there free, right?
I think Julian Love, being the smart player he is, and maybe not trusting his defense end in coverage.
Sees Kyren Williams go, and goes, "To hell with the blitz."
I know, maybe DeMarcus Lawrence is supposed to be back here covering.
But I trust myself covering Kyren Williams more than him," and it ends up two people.
So before you play this.
But here's my other thing I'm gonna add to it here.
I, even though two people go here, everybody watch this.
I still think Matthew Stafford should have thrown the ball to Kyren Williams.
He's open.
He let the two people and the body presence of them scare him.
To me, at this moment, the play is for that, just throw it in the back.
He's gonna outrun- Right... DeMarcus Lawrence to the back.
You know, he's, let's see if the defensive end Yep.
Can have ball skills, right?
Well, and, and Love got- Yeah... Love got beat.
Love grabbed him.
Exactly right.
Love- Love's like, "Oh, shit!"
Exactly right.
He saw it, and you know, I think he's as smart as he is.
He wasn't sure, "Wait, if anybody's gonna peel," so he does it.
And he grabs him.
But you're right, he's beat.
Too.
To where, again, and it happens as a quarterback, you see two guys go, and you just go, "Oh," Wait, that's out of there.
Let me go to the next thing, where you got you.
Know, you come back the next day and go, "Man, I know there was two guys there," He split them.
He was there.
I probably still could have thrown the football, but yeah.
I think it was a fortuitous bust, certainly there, by the Seattle Seahawks.
Or, or, or it was deliberate, because maybe Julian Love saw something that made him have the same thought.
Like, if some idiot like me watching on TV, saying, "Yeah, Hey, watch 23 on this.
Right.
I mean, something made me think that's where they're going here.
Um, yeah, he could've been thinking that, Mike.
If Julian Love, who's got access to all the film, and he's seen all the looks.
And he's been studying it, and he's like, "You know what?"
This guy's gonna run past me, and I'm not gonna get to Matthew Stafford in time.
And I don't trust Tank Lawrence to cover this guy.
'cause I'm not sure I can either, so I'm gonna grab him as he runs by me."
And you're right, Stafford still could have made that throw, and that would've been a better throw.
That he checked off too.
Definitely, right?
'Cause Devin Witherspoon was all over that route, over the middle to Ferguson.
I mean, he should have picked the ball off.
But I, I don't, I, you know, Mike, I, I, you're, I think you're probably right as far as that.
I'll ask tomorrow when I'm there, see if I can connect some dots.
But yeah, I wonder if Julian Love noticed the back maybe being a hair wider.
Knowing, "Ooh, he's just trying to give himself a little bit of a step to get little quicker."
Maybe he noticed all of that.
He's a really smart football player, of course, from Notre Dame.
Most of them are when they come out of that school, and he made that adjustment there.
But, you know, that, that was one, yeah.
Most of them are when they go into the school.
Too.
Yeah.
That's one of the reasons why they didn't recruit you.
Exactly right.
Exactly right.
They actually did recruit me.
I, my grades were okay.
I, I could have gone to Notre Dame.
Urban Meyer actually recruited me to go to Notre Dame back in the day, when he was a position coach.
But yeah, that was, that was one there where I bet you Stafford.
If he did watch the film back yesterday, he went, "Ah," I probably still could have thrown that football."
And who knows what happened after that?
Just another example of the margins that, that one play here, one play there, and the difference it can make.
