The Los Angeles Rams managed to beat the Seattle Seahawks in spectacular fashion to move to 5-0 in the 2018 NFL season. Not surprisingly, head coach Sean McVay gave the credit to his players for the win.
The Rams made quite the gutsy call to go for it on fourth-and-inches from their own 42-yard line despite only being up by two points. According to Peter King of NBC Sports, McVay says the confidence in his players made the decision an easy one:
“I think the biggest thing was this: Our offensive linemen had the confidence to be able to get those six inches. I thought Jared [Goff] did an excellent job of mixing up his cadence a little bit, and I felt like he could catch them off guard,” McVay said. “We attack success. We don’t fear failure. We want to go for the win in that situation. Getting six inches to close it out was something that we felt the percentages were in our favor.”
Fortune favors the bold and that was certainly the case here. Los Angeles had initially planned on playing it safe by punting the ball. However, the timeout by Seattle gave McVay time to reconsider. While the decision to go for it may have been gutsy at the time, it was the right choice in hindsight.
The Seahawks had been dicing up the porous Rams defense all game long. Furthermore, Sebastian Janikowski would have given them plenty of range to attempt a kick. Janikowski had already gotten some practice by nailing a 52-yarder early on.
Regardless, none of these were the deciding factors for McVay. The reason he ultimately decided to go for it was because the offense felt confident that they could get those inches. Although such a close win against a struggling team like Seattle is never ideal, the Rams showed plenty of promise by flexing their clutch gene. Close games like these will undoubtedly pay huge dividends for them down the road.
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