With the Eagles and Rams set to lock horns this weekend, Sean McVay and Nick Sirianni will do battle in a clash of young minds, but who has the upper hand?
Sean McVay’s resurgence
Remember when the Rams were left for dead? Deader than Pennywise in the standpipe. Deader than an arena deal in Center City … until they were alive. Sean McVay miraculously resurrected Los Angeles from a 1-4 start, with a next-man-up mentality that saw them overcome 12 key injuries including trips to IR for their two best receivers. It was a master class in resilience.
The national media has always fan-boyed over McVay, aka the Boy Wonder. Five of his assistants have gone on to land head-coaching jobs in the NFL, with four of them still in charge: Matt LaFleur (Packers), Zac Taylor (Bengals), Raheem Morris (Falcons), Kevin O’Connell (Vikings). And everyone around McVay gets yanked into his hypnotic orbit. There’s no denying his ability to impact the culture of a franchise as evidenced by this blurb from USA Today’s Mike Freeman describing the Rams’ turnaround in 2024:
Then Sean McVay did what he always does. What he is better at than almost any coach in the sport. If there is a crisis, he will manage it. If the team is in an impossible situation, he will pull the Rams out of it by his teeth. If the team is hurt, he will carry it on his back. If energy is needed, he will become the gravitational force of a sun. If innovation is needed, he will become a Starfleet engineer.
Innovation is one thing, which is a fair thing to cite when talking about McVay. No one was using motion the way he was during his first year with the Rams in 2017, specifically pre-snap motion.
The way Sean McVay weaponizes pre-snap movement, formations, and alignments is easily up there with the best I’ve seen of any system in the NFL. He may manufacture more separation for his route runners schematically than anyone, and it’s really all just based on understanding… pic.twitter.com/o5QDUUa00P — Honest NFL (@TheHonestNFL) November 20, 2024
It’s constant. It’s confusing. It’s basically an elaborate hoax, lulling the defense to sleep by moving receivers on and off the ball — on the edges and across the formation, sometimes transforming from 11 personnel to 12 personnel in the blink of an eye — like chess pieces in a warped version of Pong. Look no further than his experimentation with “side fast motion” as one unstoppable new wrinkle. The Rams used pre-snap motion on a league-high 76.7% of their snaps (via NFLverse and FTN data), a strategy that allows them to change formations on the fly and create instant matchup advantages. Offensive motion, not necessarily supreme talent, is the thing to watch.
Sean McVay vs. Nick Sirianni: Coaching Matchup
From a purely X’s and O’s standpoint, Sean McVay has a marked edge over Nick Sirianni. He’s the smarter offensive mind. Yet, the Eagles opened the week as six-point favorites on the strength of their roster. There is no team as talented as them on both sides of the ball. That, and the decibel levels at Lincoln Financial Field on Sunday are going to make it excruciatingly hard for Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford to get all his chess pieces moving on the board. Checkmate.
Philadelphia is ready. Further, the Eagles have sort of owned the Rams in recent matchups. Sirianni has gone 2-0 against McVay while the Eagles hold a 9-2 record against the Rams dating back to 2002, spanning the Andy Reid and Doug Pederson eras. The numbers don’t lie … In Sirianni’s two wins over McVay …
- Average margin of victory: 13 points
- Net passing yards for Rams: 196.5 yards per game
- Net rushing yards for Rams: 73 yards per game
- Time of possession: 35:48 (Eagles) to 24:12 (Rams) *Net yards takes into account any yards lost, like sacks.
Nick SirianniCareer record: 48-20 in the regular season (ranked No. 4 in Eagles’ franchise history) Postseason record: 3-3, with 1 Super Bowl appearance and 1 NFC Championship Game win And, check out these remarkable feats courtesy of NBC Sports Philly’s Reuben Frank …
- Sirianni’s 47 wins are tied for 2nd-most in NFL history by a head coach in his first four years
- Sirianni’s career winning percentage of .702 is 5th-highest in NFL history (plus, it’s the highest among active NFL coaches)
- Sirianni is only the sixth coach in NFL history to take his first four teams to the playoffs
Sean McVayCareer record: 80-52 in the regular season (Rams’ all-time leader in wins) Postseason record: 8-4, with 1 Super Bowl title and 2 NFC Championship Game wins
And, peep these eye-opening stats courtesy of SB Nation’s Turf Show Times …
- The Rams have won playoff games in three of their five trips under McVay
- The Rams have been to two Super Bowls in the previous six seasons
- The Rams consistently play better in December and January than they do in September and October
The Eagles’ edge
One more important note: Vic Fangio is 2-0 all-time against Sean McVay, winning 15-6 as defensive coordinator of the Bears in 2018 and winning 37-20 this year as defensive coordinator of the Eagles. “I think the biggest thing that I would say that makes Vic (Fangio) a great coach is he’s going to adjust and adapt and figure out what is going to be best given the circumstances,” McVay said of Fangio back on November 20 (via Rams.com). “There’s still foundational philosophy. There’s a way of making people play and understanding of how to try to limit what people are trying to get done.”
Mandatory Credit: Gary A. Vasquez-Imagn Images
