WOODLAND HILLS, Calif. – In his weekly press conference for the Rams' Week 14 game against the Cardinals, offensive coordinator Mike LaFleur was asked if he wanted to be a play-calling offensive coordinator again.
He likely had no idea the closest experience to that would come just a day later.
After head coach Sean McVay became ill Friday and consequently missed the team's Saturday walkthrough and other key remaining game planning aspects, LaFleur and the offensive staff took over for final preparation for last Sunday's game for him. McVay traveled separately and arrived in Arizona Sunday morning to coach the team, but it was LaFleur communicating directly with quarterback Matthew Stafford instead of McVay.
"It was fun," LaFleur said Thursday. "It was ironic that I got asked this question last week, and I was trying to be as truthful as I could, because it is a fun three-and-a-half hour window, watching the guys go do their thing, and just having communication with quarterback, but like always, there's just total collaboration and communication throughout our staff, whether it's Sean and I, but everyone's always involved on every single series, particularly between the series. So it was cool, but what was more cool was watching the guys do their thing, and play at a really high clip."
McVay said Wednesday part of the reason the operation was structured that way was because "I wasn't sure if I was going to have to run out and use the bathroom in the middle of the game. You never know what's going to end up happening."
LaFleur relayed the play calls to Stafford, and even called some of the plays. That overall staff collaboration helped guide a 45-point, 530-yard performance against Arizona last Sunday.
"I think it was a great collaboration on the offensive side of the ball," Stafford said postgame. "He (McVay) wasn't feeling well the last couple days and just proud the way we all kind of came together and attacked this week. I thought Mike did a hell of a job. Really, everybody that was involved did a hell of a job. You score as many points and play like we did on offense today, that takes everybody and, it was cool with our head guy down just a little bit, watching everybody kind of rally and do their part and do it a little bit better."
"In a lot of instances, because of the approach that we're typically accustomed to taking on Saturday leading into Sunday, I missed a large portion of that whether it's dialogue in the walkthroughs or dialogue with Matthew in terms of how we categorize how we want to be able to call the game. We were able to do that collectively," McVay said. "Normally, I'm the one that has the direct communication. Mike ended up having that yesterday because of some of the things that I missed and he did a phenomenal job and made some great decisions."
McVay also made it clear Monday he was improving, and LaFleur indicated it would be back to normal operations for the offensive staff this Sunday against the Lions.
"No, no," LaFleur said. "That was... If you would've saw him Friday or Saturday morning, you'd have totally understood why. He's been pretty honest with you guys as well (about how ill he was)."
However, just as he did postgame in Arizona and earlier this week, McVay on Wednesday expressed appreciation for the job LaFleur did in contributing to that victory.
"It didn't surprise me," McVay said. "It just confirmed how fortunate and grateful I'm to have a leader like Mike and a great coaching staff on the offensive side and really the coaching staff in general. They do a great job within their roles and then if they're asked to step up, all they do is answer the bell and take it to another level."
