Sean McVay was ‘outcoached’ in last Super Bowl trip, but lessons learned can help him win now

LOS ANGELES – As he and his team have approached Super Bowl 56, Sean McVay has worked to strike a challenging balance.

The 36-year-old coach will draw on lessons from his first Super Bowl appearance – a defeat at the hands of Bill Belichick and the New England Patriots three years ago – in which he said he was “outcoached.” But he also is trying to guard against letting those memories take him captive to the point where he overreacts and makes rash decisions as a play-caller and leader.

McVay puts it like this: “You’re always trying to evolve, and I think you want to be able to learn from previous experiences but not allow it to inhibit your ability to move forward. … You view it as a blessing to have been in that game, but I don’t think you press when you do get another opportunity to be on this stage again. You take some of those learning lessons and apply it and then, let’s go cut it loose and play to the best of our ability, and me, coach to the best of my abilities as well.”

Although he has moved on from the sting of that Super Bowl 53 defeat, the lessons gained that night have helped McVay guide his team back to this grand stage.

If able to display a mastery of those lessons, McVay and the Rams should prove successful in this Super Bowl quest.

That loss to the Patriots represented a humiliating and crushing blow for the Rams and their coach.

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