McVay looks to future after Rams’ ride derails

ATLANTA — Sean McVay has had very few bad days during his two seasons in charge of the Los Angeles Rams. His coaching tenure had been a rocket ride all the way to the Super Bowl.

Until Bill Belichick sent this bright football mind and his exciting team plummeting back to Earth.

What McVay does about it will determine whether the Rams are still an ascending powerhouse or another NFL contender broken by the New England Patriots.

After Belichick’s defence turned McVay’s offence into the worst version anyone had ever seen, the Rams’ 33-year-old offensive guru was visibly frustrated and embarrassed. His clenched jaw in postgame interviews also signified a determination to never let it happen again.

“The thing that is so tough about all of this is the finality to it,” McVay said Sunday night after his Rams failed to score a touchdown for only the second time in his 36 games in charge. “Usually, if you go through some adversity, you get a chance to bounce back right away. This one is going to stick with you. It just stings in your gut. I’m still kind of numb right now, but I have so much love for these players and these coaches. That’s where it really eats at you, because you feel like you didn’t do your part to help them achieve success.

“This is going to be a very humbling, tough one that you learn from.”

McVay could have been speaking partly to convince himself after he coached only the second team in 53 Super Bowls to fail to score a touchdown. The wunderkind’s confidence appeared to be shaken to its core by a New England defence that held the 11th highest-scoring team in NFL history to 260 total yards, six first downs in the first three quarters and their fewest points in McVay’s era.

“It’s embarrassing,” left tackle Andrew Whitworth said. “You’d almost rather score a ton and lose that way, but that would take away from what the defence did. They gave us every opportunity to win.”