Sean McVay faces most pressure in Rams needing to beat Cowboys

The Los Angeles Rams will be looking to avoid another playoff loss under Sean McVay when they host the Dallas Cowboys Saturday night during the Divisional Round.

Back in the 2017 offseason, the Los Angeles Rams took a huge risk by hiring Sean McVay to make him the youngest head coach in NFL history at the time, which obviously turned out to be the best decision the team ever made.

Originally, McVay seemed like he would need at least a year or two of rebuilding before the Rams could even become part of the playoff conversation, but seeing how this team is coming off back-to-back NFC West titles shows just how great of a job he’s done in such a short period of time.

However, despite all of the success by Los Angeles dating back to last season, one of the things McVay is still in search of is that first career playoff win as a head coach.

Last January, expectations were high for the Rams during the postseason as the No. 3 seed in the NFC, as there were plenty of fans who believed this team had the talent to make a run at the Super Bowl.

Unfortunately, those dreams were quickly crushed in the Wild Card Round when Los Angeles suffered a loss at home to the Atlanta Falcons, with the team’s playoff inexperience coming into play.

As frustrating as this was for McVay and the Rams, deep down they knew the team was only scratching the surface of their potential when seeing how strong they seemed to be built for years to come. And when seeing how Los Angeles was able to earn the No. 2 seed this time around, it’s become clear how the Rams are living up to the hype so far.

Of course, the last thing Los Angeles wants to see happen is suffer another playoff loss right away for the second year in a row to be labeled as the team that only succeeds during the regular season, which is why Saturday is so important for McVay.

While a loss to the Cowboys wouldn’t put McVay’s job in jeopardy since Dallas is in the Divisional Round for a reason, this would leave the Rams with a terrible feeling for the entire offseason over coming up short yet again when it mattered the most in the playoffs.

After last year’s surprise success, Los Angeles took expectations to a whole new level in the offseason by showing the rest in the league they were in a win-now mode when looking at all of the additions on both sides of the football.

From acquiring players like Marcus Peters and Brandin Cooks in trades to boosting the defensive line with the signing of Ndamukong Suh, the Rams weren’t messing around when it came to showing how confident they felt in being able to win the Super Bowl this year.

Anything short of the Super Bowl would be viewed as a major disappointment for Los Angeles when taking all things into consideration, so it’s important for the Rams to come through during their toughest task to date on Saturday against the Cowboys.

Otherwise, all McVay is going to hear about in the offseason is how he and the Rams are the team that can’t come through when it matters the most in the playoffs, which nobody wants to hear.