ATLANTA _ The usual caution about making too much of one game is eclipsed by the reality of this being the biggest game. It's hard to think about Sean McVay's entire body of work when his offense was dead on arrival in Super Bowl 53 at Mercedes-Benz Stadium.
The Rams didn't lose the Super Bowl on Sunday night because Tom Brady out-dueled them or Bill Belichick out-smarted them. Everyone could understand if that happened. Instead, the Rams lost 13-3 to the Patriots because their famed offense flopped. No one could see that coming.
"We got completely outplayed," Rams quarterback Jared Goff said.
McVay, L.A's wunderkind head coach, will take the hit for that. His young quarterback didn't appear prepared for what was coming. The Pats wouldn't let the Rams run. McVay had counters when the Cowboys and Saints did the same in these playoffs, but his Rams looked lost in the Super Bowl.
The Rams had the NFC's best offense during the season. They had diminishing returns in the playoffs. They scored 30 points against Dallas, 26 points against New Orleans and then could hardly function in the Super Bowl.
New England's defense ground that purportedly great offense to dust. The Rams ended their first eight possessions with punts. They went three-and-out on five of them. The Rams finished with 260 yards, 4.3 per play.
The Patriots constantly sent extra pass rushers at Goff. He couldn't handle it. Moving Goff outside the pocket didn't work, either, because his throws were off or his targets covered. When there were openings, Goff was slow to see them.
Goff faced no pass-rush pressure when he made a fatal mistake in the fourth quarter. He tried to loft a pass to Brandin Cooks in the end zone, but Cooks stopped short. Pats cornerback Stephen Gilmore did not. His interception with 4:14 to go ended L.A.'s bid to tie the score before the Pats added a field goal that essentially finished the Rams.
Goff completed just half of his 38 pass attempts for 229 yards. His longest completion went for 24. Goff didn't look comfortable until the drive that ended with the interception.
The Rams couldn't run the ball, either (62 yards). Todd Gurley, once the NFL's offensive player of the year, was mostly a bystander again. Gurley missed two games in December because of a knee injury and hardly played in the NFC Championship Game.
Gurley had insisted the knee is healthy. He didn't appear on the injury report. McVay declared that Gurley was 100 percent.
If that really was the case, there's no excuse for Gurley getting just 10 carries and two pass targets among 60 Rams plays. If Gurley's knee is sound, there was no good reason not to ride him.
The Rams could have won with just an ordinary showing from their offense. Their defense did everything well except cover Pats wide receiver Julian Edelman, the Super Bowl MVP. Wade Phillips, L.A.'s 71-year-old defensive coordinator, had his guys playing fast and physical.
It didn't start that way. The Patriots got the ball first and immediately signaled their intentions to push the Rams around. They ran the ball four straight times at the middle of L.A's defense, paying no heed to twin tackle terrors Ndamukong Suh and Aaron Donald.
New England made it to the Rams' 34-yard line without a pass attempt by Brady. When Brady threw his first pass, Rams cornerback Nickell Robey-Coleman was waiting. He tipped the pass meant for Chris Hogan and teammate Cory Littleton intercepted it.
Now the Rams were pushing back. On New England's second possession, linebacker Dante Folwer Jr. smacked Pats running back Sony Michel. Robey-Coleman punished Rex Burkhead (he was called for a personal foul that wasn't).
New England got in field-goal range and ran what seemed like a give-up play on third-and-eight, a rush by James White, and Fowler rudely dragged him down after three yards. New England tried a field goal from there and Stephen Gotskowski missed from 41 yards. The Rams were so ferocious they had compelled the Patriots to play it safe.
New England's drive after the missed field goal ended with John Franklin-Myers jarring the ball loose from Brady on third down _ the first sack allowed by the Pats in the playoff. On fourth down Donald grabbed Brady to force a rushed, incomplete pass.
Three Pats possessions had gone interception, missed field goal and punt. They had to settle for a field goal on their fourth drive because Littleton and Mark Barron cut down big tight end Rob Gronkowski on third down.
The Pats punted to end their next drive. The Rams stopped the Pats on fourth down on the drive after that. The Pats punted on three consecutive possessions in the second half before finally piecing together a TD drive.
You kept waiting for L.A.'s offense to come alive. It never did. The Rams had to huff and puff for their one score, Greg Zuerlein's 53-yard field goal in the third quarter. Goff had taken a nine-yard sack on third down, when the Rams had the ball at New England's 26-yard line.
The Rams had made it to the Pats' 27-yard line when Goff threw the interception. That was the last gasp for McVay's offense. It was great for much of the season but so bad in the Super Bowl that McVay's anointment will have to wait.
