WOODLAND HILLS, Calif. – On Tuesday, NFL Films published a postgame mic'd up clip showing Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford and head coach Sean McVay acknowledging their shortcomings on an uncharacteristic day for the Rams' offense against the Bears in Sunday's divisional round playoff game.
"Hey, way to hang in there with me," McVay told Stafford as the two hugged each other. "I was dog sh-- for awhile."
"Hey, we both. But hey, we won't be again," Stafford said, interjecting.
McVay has taken accountability for not having a great feel for the flow of last Sunday's game as a play-caller, and Stafford likewise said postgame he can play better.
With the Seahawks' league-best scoring defense awaiting at this Sunday's NFC Championship Game at Lumen Field in Seattle, that connection will be especially important this week.
"I think any great leader that I've ever been around, and Matthew is a perfect illustration of that, there's extreme ownership and there's accountability," McVay said Wednesday. "... I think you can always really be able to say, all right, first and foremost, let's look at what I can do try to do to help put ourselves in position to do my job to the best of my ability, and how that helps the collective, and that's where I feel like, I'm not playing, but some of the decisions and situations and circumstances you're putting guys in, you can absolutely be better. I expect to be better. But that's what guys love about Matthew. You'll never see a guy, when you look at the way Matthew handles himself, that is an excuse-maker. I've heard it said before, I think excuses are tools of the incompetent, and Matthew is the furthest thing from that. He's got great ownership, and I think that's why people want to follow him, is because of the way that he handles, stays humble in the great moments, which he sure has had a handful of those, and then in the moments we can be better, he owns it, and now we can move on. He's a freaking stud."
For all the acceptance of blame, both deserve credit for their collaboration during the Rams' first timeout taken in overtime that set up a key 16-yard completion from Stafford to wide receiver Puka Nacua on 3rd-and-6 from the Bears' 43 on the game-winning drive.
"We flipped (the play)," Stafford said postgame. "Had a different play in there, he asked me if I like the one that we ended up running. I said, 'Oh yeah, I love that one.' And it was a great call, great feel by him to kind of bang a timeout on the first one. Didn't have a great look to what we wanted to do, and just great feel by him on the sideline getting that done and giving me a good play."
At its best, that connection between McVay and Stafford can produce numbers like the previous meeting between the two teams back in Week 16, when Stafford threw for 457 yards and three touchdowns, and the Rams posted an NFL 2025 regular season single-game high of 581 total yards of offense, albeit in a 38-37 overtime loss.
The honesty between each of them is something Stafford has appreciated the most since they started working together in 2021. It will be important as they navigate the adjustments Seattle's defense will bring this weekend.
"The coolest thing is just the honesty that we have with each other, whether things go the way we want them to or not," Stafford said Wednesday. "How can we fix them? How can we be better? How (can) we communicate better as an offense and then ultimately play better? We've had that since I've been here. I appreciate the hell out of it. Not always the case in this league, and so I hope he feels that from me, that I'm accountable to the decisions I make, the throws I make, all those kind of things, and to our team. I know he is for us. So it's a fun thing, it's a fun partnership."
