Super Bowl LIII: Which team has the edge?
Jarrett Bell: Coaching matchup pits old-school vs. new-school savant
ATLANTA – Let Todd Gurley, the multidimensional dynamo who so often sparks the Rams’ offense, tell you how it feels to come to work and process a Sean McVay game plan.
“It’s crazy,” Gurley told USA TODAY on Thursday, three days before Super Bowl LIII. “It’s like the dude don’t sleep. Like you come in the next morning, the next morning and the next morning, and it’s always something new. He’s always coming up with new ideas. He’s a genius.”
In guiding the Rams to a Super Bowl in just his second season at the helm, McVay, 33, has quickly established himself as one of the NFL’s most creative thinkers. No offense in the league uses jet sweeps and fake “ghost” reverses like McVay’s scheme. He typically aligns his receivers tight, which bolsters run blocking and sets up breakout routes for explosive plays. His attack does a masterful job in using misdirection, and there are wrinkles galore.
Yet McVay might have met his match in Bill Belichick.
If there’s anyone who can craft a plan to handle McVay’s creative bursts on the big stage, it’s Beli
chick, 66, a genius from way back, gearing up for his ninth Super Bowl as the Patriots’ coach.
It sets up as an intriguing chess match: old school savant vs. new school savant.
Sure, it will likely take a full 60 minutes to settle the matter on Sunday. Maybe the biggest swing factor will hinge on the pass rush that the Rams’ star interior linemen, Aaron Donald and Ndamukong Suh, are able to generate on Tom Brady.
But you don’t beat the Rams, who ranked second in the NFL during the regular season in scoring at 32.9 points per game, without putting McVay’s offense in check.
“I don’t know what he’ll do, but I know he’ll come up with something,” former Super Bowl quarterback Ron Jaworski told USA TODAY, pondering Belichick. “Bill’s been through it so many times, with the tweaks, the in-game adjustments.
“Every game, he likes to take away what you do best. He makes you go to your second or third options.”
A classic example came with the Patriots’ first championship, incidentally against the Rams, when Belichick devised what Jaworski remembers as the “bulls-eye defense” to stifle the Greatest Show on Turf in Super Bowl XXXVI. Like the current Rams’ offense, that Mike Martz-led unit put pressure on defenses with its ability to produce big plays with a wide array of cast members.
Yet Belichick, whose team entered as a 14-point underdog, devised a game plan that began with disrupting star running back Marshall Faulk, who was bullied on every snap, particularly in the passing game, where he had a significant role as the league’s best receiver out of the backfield. Faulk caught four passes for 54 yards that night and rushed for 76 yards on 15 carries. But the net effect was that the Rams’ best player was neutralized and the offense's timing and rhythm were disrupted.
This time, the threats include a 1-2 backfield combo with Gurley and C.J. Anderson, while quarterback Jared Goff added a notch to his experience belt with a composed, gritty performance in the NFC title game.
Patriots linebacker Dont’a Hightower is most impressed with the manner in which the Rams, who typically align three receivers and a single tight end, artfully disguise intentions.
“They kind of make every down look the same,” Hightower told USA TODAY. “From the stretch running game to a lot of the play-action passes, a lot of that stuff looks the same.”
In other words, don’t get suckered. Hightower is bracing for the misdirection plays and other tricks that some of the Cowboys’ players saw as a key factor in the Rams’ divisional playoff win against Dallas. Both Gurley and Anderson exceeded 100 yards on the ground that night as Cowboys’ defenders too often hesitated on plays that involved the jet-action. This helped a powerful offensive line that was already winning in the trenches create huge rushing lanes.
Patriots linebackers coach Brian Flores, who calls the defensive plays as Belichick’s de facto defensive coordinator, contends that there’s no need to be tempted to counter with their own exotic tweaks.
“Follow your rules,” Flores said. “Play with good fundamentals and techniques. Play physical. And see where things shake out. Normally, if there’s a bad play there was a breakdown somewhere.”
As Hightower put it, “All it takes is for one guy to read the wrong thing or go the wrong way, and if you give Gurley or C.J. or any of their skill guys a link or a step, a lot of times it turns into a big play.”
According to one NFL coach, the Patriots’ defense “didn’t flinch” in the AFC title game while contending with Kansas City’s use of the jet sweeps. He maintained that the Patriots are suited to defend that particular wrinkle well because their typical outside linebacker alignment sets a wide net for containment.
“They will come up with something new,” the coach, who spoke on the condition of anonymity due to competitive issues, told USA TODAY. “How fast will the Rams adjust?”
As Jaworski alluded to, Belichick’s brilliance includes arguably having the best ability for incorporating in-game adjustments.
McVay’s mark includes the element of surprise.
Remember, the Patriots were fooled by the Eagles in Super Bowl LII by the “Philly Special” when quarterback Nick Foles caught a touchdown pass from tight end Trey Burton off a reverse.
Could McVay have something similar up his sleeve? Gurley laughed at the idea.
He concluded, “Goff can’t catch.” Of course, that response, too, could have been another form of misdirection. With a Super Bowl crown at stake, anything goes.
Let the chess match commence.