McVay and Stafford: Everything on the line vs 49ers

The LA Rams will face their NFC West Division rival, the San Francisco 49ers in the NFC championship game. Both teams will compete for the right to advance and compete in Super Bowl LVI. The victor will compete in two weeks, on Super Bowl Sunday, on February 13, 2022. The loser will be added to the list of NFL teams plotting and planning for next year.

What makes this even more critical for the Rams is the fact that they can stay home with a win since the Super Bowl will be hosted at SoFi Stadium. It’s no secret that LA Rams head coach Sean McVay has struggled mightily against his former coaching mate, San Francisco 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan.  In fact, McVay has lost the last six matchups against him. But this is the playoffs, right?

For Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford?  He had entered this season with an 0-3 playoff record, but he has quickly gotten the monkey off his back with his first two career playoff wins.  Of course, the LA Rams advanced to the Divisional Round of the NFL playoffs without him.  So the likely goal for Stafford’s addition to the roster was probably to take them all the way to the promised land. Now the Rams are just two wins away from McVay and Stafford completing their mission of winning their first Super Bowl.

Same McVay. Goff out. Stafford in

McVay has made the big game once before, but of course, they lost in embarrassing fashion after putting up just three points against the New England Patriots in 2019. That was obviously a much different Rams team with Jared Goff as their quarterback.

New England Patriots coach Bill Belichick provided the blueprint on how to stop the Goff and the Rams. At that point, suspicions crept in as to whether or not Goff was really the right quarterback to get the job done.  After two more seasons, the Rams organization lost trust in Goff, believing that he might never be good enough to win the big stage. Unfortunately for the Rams, it was tough to give up on at that point.

After two years of failure, the Rams decided to mortgage more of the future and give up Goff along with two first-rounders for Stafford. It was ironic timing because McVay and Stafford happened to be on vacation in Los Cabos, Mexico together at the time of the trade. They were toasting with margaritas and now the question is will they have a bigger celebration soon?