32
thinking, here’s what we expect them to do.’ And he
balled. He was like, Let’s go. Put the game in my hands.”
McVay then smiled and said, “He didn’t say that, but
the look in his eye told me that.” And the trust McVay
showed in his quarterback did make a difference.
“Yep,” Stafford said when asked about it. “It’s great.That’s a lot of trust we have in each other. I know he’s
going to put us in position to succeed.”
McVay’s plan was to be aggressive on that second-
and-11, and if the Rams didn’t make any headway, he’d
probably have run the clock out on third down and let
the game go to OT. His play call attacked what McVay
had seen in a two-man contour look the Bucs had given
the Rams—he figured they’d get a matchup Cooper Kupp
could win. Kupp won that rep, with Tampa Bay corner
Sean Murphy-Bunting falling down in coverage. Kupp
caught the ball outside the left hash and quickly ran out
of bounds for a 20-yard gain with 28 seconds remaining.
McVay’s next call? A play that wasn’t really meant for
Kupp. In fact, the design had Kupp running a “love of the
game” route—a downfield sprint to clear out coverage
so other receivers would have more space underneath.
What the Rams didn’t expect was the Buccaneers’ send-
ing the house on a rush.Against the Buccaneers, the Rams’ offense had turned
the ball over four times on fumbles. L.A. had blown a
27–3 lead, allowing Tampa Bay to tie the game in the
final minute. Tom Brady, the greatest quarterback in
the history of the game, was on the other sideline, and
a Rams team that had spent the previous year stack-
ing bold roster decisions as if they were Jenga pieces
was facing the prospect of having it all crash down in
spectacular fashion.
The man tasked to right it all for the Rams was the
quarterback McVay pushed to acquire so his team could
compete with the Bradys of the world. The quarter-
back hadn’t won a single playoff game in his 12 years
in Detroit, but the coach believed he was the right trig-
german to raise the ceiling for everyone in Los Angeles.
It was almost a year to the day that McVay and Stafford
and their significant others, after the trade with the
Lions was made, toasted to that new start under the
moon in Los Cabos, Mexico.
On this night, playing in the champs’ house, Stafford
gave McVay something new to raise his glass to—and
showed the world just how bad he could be.
The degree of difficulty for the Rams’ final drive wasalready high enough after the Bucs scored on a nine-
yard run from Leonard Fournette with 42 seconds left
to tie the game at 27 and complete a comeback from
24 down. Then Stafford’s first play of the drive made
the situation even more difficult.
On first-and-10 from the 25-yard line, out of an
empty set, the Bucs’ rush drove upfield and Stafford
started moving up in the pocket. Tampa Bay end
Jason Pierre-Paul corralled him for a sack at the 24.
The Rams had to burn their final timeout.
Some teams in that spot might play for overtime.
Instead, McVay decided to push in his chips and bet
on Stafford again.
“We knew we were going to try to go for it because
really, they had no timeouts left. There was no down-
side,” McVay said. “So, it wasn’t like you were at risk
of them getting the ball back. It was like, ‘Hey, we’re
going to go win this. Here’s a couple things that we’re2022 SUPER BOWL CHAMPIONSLAST-MINUTE MEN
Kupp, who had nine catches for 183 yards,
helped set up Gay’s game-winning field goal
(opposite), which he nailed from 30 yards.NFC DIVISIONAL PLAYOFF“HE’S UNFLAPPABLE,” MCVAY SAID OF STAFFORD. “HE’S JUSTGOT A STILLNESS DURING THE GAMES....YOU COULD JUST FEEL IT,THE COMMAND HE HAS. HE NEVER WAVERS. I LOVE THE GUY.”