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The numbers are stark. Since Sean McVay took over as Los Angeles Rams head coach in 2017, the team is 9-5 against the Seattle Seahawks and has outscored their NFC West rivals by a whopping 86 points. That includes a playoff win in 2020 and a 30-13 Week 1 upset in 2023.
Why does McVay seem to have Pete Carroll’s number?
Safety Quandre Diggs gave some insight into that ahead of the Seahawks’ Week 11 matchup with the Rams, listing three reasons the Los Angeles offense is so hard for the Seattle defense to stop.
1. Sean McVay Is a Top Play-Caller in the NFL
“He’s one of the best — if not the best — play-callers in the NFL,” Diggs explained at his Thursday press conference ahead of the Seahawks Week 11 tilt with the Rams.
Diggs talked about McVay’s penchant for using motion as one thing that makes him hard to stop. Interestingly, the Rams lineup in similar formations on almost every play. Los Angeles uses 11 personnel (one running back, one tight end, three wide receivers) on 92.3% of their offensive snaps, according to Fantasy Underdog’s Josh Norris. That’s the highest percentage in the NFL.
However, the Rams use pre-snap motion on 70.5% of their plays, which is the third-highest percentage in the league. Diggs mentions this and says the motion and “putting pieces in different spots” is one thing that makes McVay a great play-caller.
2. The Rams’ Supporting Cast Is Solid
“Having great personnel also,” Diggs continued while listing the reasons the Seahawks defense has struggled with the Rams. “You pick and choose who you kind of want to take away.”
The current Rams may not have the same depth at the skill positions they had in their Super Bowl season of 2020, but the cupboards aren’t bare in LA. Yes, solid players and proven veterans like Odell Beckham Jr., Robert Woods, Van Jefferson, Sony Michel, and Cam Akers may be gone but the team still features tight end Tyler Higbee, running back Darrell Henderson, and superstar Cooper Kupp from that team.
Plus, as he’s done everywhere he’s gone in his NFL career until now, McVay has turned relative unknowns into stars. No one saw fifth-round rookie Puka Nacua coming, yet the youngster set the NFL on fire this season. He’s fallen off a bit with QB Matthew Stafford going out and Kupp coming back, but he is still sixth in the league in receiving yards with 827 and 11th in receptions with 64.
Stafford will play in the Seahawks’ Week 11 matchup with the Rams, despite his injured thumb, so Diggs and company will once again have to pick their poison with Kupp and Nacua on the field.
Speaking of Stafford…
3. Matthew Stafford at Quarterback
“When you have a veteran quarterback that can really dissect defenses and see what guys [are] in, it makes them very dangerous,” Diggs said of Stafford.
Of the nine wins Sean McVay has over Pete Carroll, only three of them have come with Stafford at quarterback. However, the veteran signal-caller also has never lost to the Seahawks. Seattle’s two victories last season came against John Wolford and Baker Mayfield after Stafford went out for the season with a neck injury.
That means McVay went 7-3 against the Seahawks with Jared Goff, which is pretty impressive.
Stafford is not at full strength heading into the Seahawks-Rams Week 11 showdown after missing last week with a thumb injury. At his press conference on Wednesday, “Obviously, played the whole 2020 season with something similar, or not the whole, the second half of 2020 something similar. So, done it before, can do it again.”
This may make Diggs and the defense’s life on Sunday a little easier, but when you combine Stafford under center with McVay’s play-calling and the dangerous offensive weapons, the Rams should play the Seahawks tough as usual this week.
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