McVay’s spotty playoff record against defensive coaches

The Seattle Seahawks wanted these kinds of matchups when they hired defensive coordinator Mike Macdonald to replace Pete Carroll as the head coach two years ago, to go up against the league’s top offensive gurus like Sean McVay and Kyle Shanahan in the NFC West and the playoffs. Now a week after the Seahawks defeated the 49ers by 35 points, it’s up to McVay’s Rams to prove that sometimes you gotta be careful what you wish for when L.A. travels to Seattle for the NFC Championship game.

But although these two teams couldn’t have been closer in the regular season (separated by 1 point and 1 yard combined), there is also a demon that McVay must exorcise as a coach in the playoffs:

Of McVay’s 5 career postseason losses:

• Once to Defensive head coach Dan Quinn’s Falcons (2017)
• Once to Defensive head coach Bill Belichick’s Patriots (2018)
• Once to former Rams OC Matt LaFleur’s Packers (2020)
• Once to Dan Campbell’s Lions, a coach who really belongs lumped with a defensive mentality (2023)
• Once to an Eagles defense helmed by Vic Fangio (2024)

You could definitely argue that the Eagles were better defined by Fangio last year than by Nick Sirianni, who isn’t even really an offensive head coach because he usually does not call plays. Neither did Campbell until he was forced to take over the duties midway through 2025.

But even if you argue that only 2 of these teams are TRUE defensive head coaches, it would still make Sean McVay 1-2 all-time in the playoffs against defensive head coaches; the Rams beat Pete Carroll’s Seahawks in 2020. However, that Seahawks team had a bad defense and Carroll had not called plays since the 90s.

Quinn’s Falcons won 26-13 and Belichick’s Patriots won 13-3.

McVay has 10 career playoffs wins and aside from Carroll’s Seahawks, the other 9 came against offensive head coaches:

• 2018 Cowboys, Jason Garrett
• 2018 Saints, Sean Payton
• 2021 Cardinals, Kliff Kingsbury
• 2021 Bucs, Bruce Arians
• 2021 49ers, Kyle Shanahan
• 2021 Bengals, Zac Taylor
• 2024 Vikings, Kevin O’Connell
• 2025 Panthers, Dave Canales
• 2025 Bears, Ben Johnson

Now, the Rams have beaten good defenses in the playoffs under McVay, including the 2021 49ers, the 2024 Vikings, and the 2018 Cowboys.

Nobody’s saying that McVay is incapable of beating a top-ranked defense and certainly not that he can’t beat the Seahawks because L.A. scored 37 points against Seattle in overtime last month. And beat the Seahawks the month before that.

This is a good matchup for fans because it’s a top-ranked offense against a top-ranked defense and just under those terms this game compares favorably to Super Bowl LIII (except that Sam Darnold isn’t Tom Brady and Matthew Stafford isn’t Jared Goff).

But the one time that Sean McVay had a playoff game against a head coach who many considered the best defensive guy in the league at the time, the Rams scored 3...