With a trip to Super Bowl LIII on the line, the Los Angeles Rams caught a lucky break in the NFC Championship Game in 2019 after officials missed an obvious pass interference call on Nickell Robey-Coleman.
The no-call allowed head coach Sean McVay & Co. to force the game into overtime where they eventually won 26-23. Although the Rams managed to punch their ticket to a Super Bowl in McVay’s second year, it is a game that lives in infamy for the Saints to this day.
Needless to say, the reaction in the Superdome at the time was more raucous than usual. The noise level in the stadium is something that players and coaches alike have not soon forgotten.
McVay even called it the loudest game he has ever been a part of and even likened it to a Metallica concert during an appearance on “Flying Coach” podcast, via Cameron DaSilva of USA Today:
“By far the loudest game I’ve ever coached in,” he said. “It’s funny because we had played at New Orleans earlier in the year and so we figured, it was an unbelievable atmosphere but we still had the ability to communicate and get some of our longer intricate play calls and didn’t ever really feel like it was too much of an issue. Still operating on your silent count, different things like that. Maybe you can use your verbal cadence under center. So we were going to test our headsets out during warmups and I’m talking to Goff as they’re introducing their guys and I’m thinking, ‘Holy (expletive), we’ve got no chance of communicating the way that we did before.’
“It was like a Metallica concert sitting front row that never slowed up.”
McVay added that all the noise made the sudden silence after the game-winning kick from Greg Zuerlein that much better:
“That was a magical day, one that I’ll truly never forget. The silence after that kick went through was pretty awesome,” he said.
Despite the noise, the Rams still managed to overcome their home-field advantage with one of the most memorable games in recent history. However, McVay’s comments indicate that another high-stakes trip to New Orleans may be something to avoid in the near future.
This goes to show just how much crowd noise and all the right elements can play a part in the outcome of a game. This edge was take away for most teams during the 2020 campaign due to the restrictions of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.
Fortunately, the Rams are expected to pack the house at SoFi Stadium starting in the 2021 NFL season. It will be interesting to see how fans in L.A. manage to turn the table moving forward.
