The Big Lead

Sean McVay Appears to Have Lost His Magic and His Mind

By Stephen Douglas

Los Angeles Rams v Atlanta Falcons
Los Angeles Rams v Atlanta Falcons / Todd Kirkland/Getty Images
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Sean McVay and the Los Angeles Rams are in trouble. Back in September things looked promising. Coming off a Super Bowl loss, the Rams started the season 3-0 before dropping four of six games. On Sunday their once-vaunted offense scored zero points as they lost to the Steelers, 17-12.

So, who to blame? Their overpaid, under-performing quarterback? Or their kid genius offensive guru who now looks about as good as The Love Guru? Both deserve some blame, but it's McVay who will have to reckon with the consequences first.

Jared Goff isn't the one calling the plays. Goff isn't the one asking Goff to throw the football 41 times in a game his team was never down by more than seven points. Goff isn't the one not handing the ball to Todd Gurley. OK, maybe he is the one not doing that, but so is McVay.

Gurley, who by all accounts is healthy, hasn't had a 20-carry game yet this season. Gurley had 12 carries on Sunday, rushing for 73 yards. He didn't touch the ball once in the fourth quarter. McVay's explanation for Gurley sitting the first two drives of the quarter? Odd. Via NFL.com:

""That was just kind of the rotation," McVay said, when asked why Gurley wasn't on the field to begin the fourth quarter, via The Athletic. "Sometimes I'm on both sides of the headsets. There's just a lot of trust for our coaches that have some of the (confidence) to be really able to say, 'Alright, who's in?' Then I will be able to click back on, and then we know what we are going with.""

Another person who had a carry total worthy of a second look is Blake Bortles. Bortles came in after Goff appeared to get shaken up on Rams' second drive of the second half. Bortles was stopped short of the line on what looked like a broken play.

After the game, McVay had a weird answer for that too.

What? McVay has stopped winning and stopped making sense. Less than a season removed from a Super Bowl appearance, is McVay really headed towards the hot seat? The ink has barely dried on the contract extension he signed over the summer that reportedly made him one of the highest paid coaches in the league. His new contract runs through 2023. That's a year before Goff's contract ends. The future of the Rams now seems as dim as once seemed bright.