As every team does this time of year, the Los Angeles Rams have their work cut out for them in the first round of the playoffs. They’re welcoming the 14-3 Minnesota Vikings to SoFi Stadium, facing the first 14-win wild-card team in NFL history.
Although the Rams have already beaten Minnesota once, Sean McVay knows it’s not going to be easy to pull off the upset again on Monday night. McVay made it clear after Sunday’s game that he and the Rams aren’t afraid of anyone in the playoffs, no matter how impressive their record might be, but he has a ton of respect for Minnesota entering this marquee matchup.
On Monday, McVay spoke about the challenges that the Vikings present, while complimenting the familiar coaches they have on Kevin O’Connell’s staff.
“Excellent team. You look at it, 14-3. Obviously, we’re very familiar with their coaching staff,” McVay said. “The respect, the admiration, and what a great job Kevin [O’Connell], Wes [Phillips], Chris O’Hara, and Thad Bogardus did when they were here. Defensively, they’ve been excellent. They pose a lot of different problems. Offensively, Kevin does an excellent job of accentuating guy’s skill sets. Obviously, Sam [Darnold] has had a great year. It’s cool to see Cam Akers do his thing and make some plays for them over the last few weeks. Aaron Jones is dangerous. Their receivers are obviously well-documented. 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 Jordan Addison is an excellent football player that…you see, he’s a number one receiver on other teams. You’ve seen [Jalen] Nailor make a bunch of plays and getting [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, Matt Daniels is their coordinator who was 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.”
There are a lot of familiar foes on the other side, as McVay mentioned – whether it’s with O’Connell, Phillips and the coaches, or on the field with Akers, Johnny Mundt and Brandon Powell.
While that could help with some of the preparation for this game, McVay says the connections and familiarity is “a little bit overemphasized.”
That being said, he does see some similarities between what the Rams have done and what the Vikings are currently doing under O’Connell – which is only natural, given the fact that O’Connell was McVay’s offensive coordinator in L.A.
“What I see is he’s done an excellent job of morphing it to his players. I think that sometimes can get a little bit overemphasized,” he said. “There’s a foundational philosophy that I think people carry offensively, but he’s put his own spin on it that works for his team and there’s been a great evolution. You really look at it, I’ve been really impressed with what they’ve done and I enjoy watching their tape. There are some similarities of things that we’ve done together and then there have been some things that they have kind of added and that fits their group. Very impressed nonetheless.”
The Rams will need to be at their best in order to win this game, just as they were in Week 8 when they beat the Vikings, 30-20. McVay knows that, and so do his players and coaches.