Sean McVay didn’t mince words on Monday, asked how he felt watching the Eagles outscore the Commanders and Chiefs by a combined 95-45 after Philadelphia escaped the Rams in the NFC’s divisional playoffs.
“We all felt like we were winning that game, 29-28,” McVay told Pat McAfee on Monday’s edition of the Pat McAfee Show. “Ultimately, they got it done and they looked pretty damn good in the NFC Championship and the Super Bowl, and that really chapped my ***, too.”
Understandably so. The Rams weren’t embarrassed and dismantled like Washington and Kansas City. Before the Eagles beat those teams, Philadelphia had to endure a frantic Los Angeles comeback. Matthew Stafford led the Rams on a fourth-quarter touchdown drive to cut the Eagles’ lead to 28-22, then marched the Rams to the Eagles’ 13-yard line with 1:19 left, perched to steal a snowy come-from-behind win.
But a Jalen Carter sack on third down and ensuing Stafford incompletion allowed Philadelphia to escape. Nonetheless, McVay’s Rams sent the NFL a loud-and-clear message by putting the Eagles on the ropes: They’re ready to pick up where they left off.
They can pick up where they left off because the Rams and Stafford on Friday agreed to a new contract. The quarterback’s former Detroit Lions teammate Dan Orlovsky said there was never a question Stafford would return to the Rams.
“I don’t believe there was real doubt. I believe there was real frustration. I believe there was real, ‘What the heck are we doing?’ type of stuff,” Orlovsky said Monday on Get Up. “But this was, at the end of the day, a no-brainer for both parties.
“This is a quarterback that has the chance, and I think he’s going to be a Hall of Famer, a real chance to win another Super Bowl … Go back to the reason they acquired him, was to do that, and he’s done it once. I think this team can do it again. But going to the team, this is a real Super Bowl contender. I think the only team that has clearly a better roster in the NFC is the Philadelphia Eagles.”