RENTON – Mike Macdonald doesn’t seem like the kind of person who can sit back and relax watching a game. Especially when it involves a future opponent.
Take for instance Sunday. With the day off after the Seattle Seahawks topped San Francisco in the NFC divisional playoff game for their first postseason win in six years and the chance to watch who their opponent would be for the NFC championship game while at home, Macdonald couldn’t flip off the part of brain that analyzes and breaks down the game in real time.
At this time of the football year, there’s no casual watching.
“Kind of, honestly, break down the game as it’s going. Kind of tell myself the formation, what they’re doing, what’s the situation. Kind of take an academic approach to it, I guess,” Macdonald said Monday.
In that case, Sunday was just another day of film study for Macdonald as he watched the Los Angeles Rams beat Chicago 20-17 in overtime to advance to the NFC title game and set up a third matchup against the Seahawks this season.
The first two helped decide the NFC West champ and home-field advantage in the NFC playoffs. This one will decide who represents the NFC in Super Bowl 60 on Feb. 8 in Santa Clara, California.
The best division in football this season producing the two combatants for the conference title felt like an unavoidable eventuality.
“I just think it’s cool how great our division is,” Macdonald said. “We really wouldn’t want it any other way, honestly.”
Rams coach Sean McVay seemed to agree with Macdonald after Los Angeles escaped the frigid confines of Soldier Field and some late magic from Chicago quarterback Caleb Williams. It’s the third NFC title game trip for the Rams under McVay’s watch and this one has come with its own challenges late in the season to reach this point.
Los Angeles looked like the Super Bowl favorite when it rolled into Lumen Field for that memorable Thursday night matchup on Dec. 18 where the Seahawks pulled out a 38-37 overtime win. The Rams lost the following week in Atlanta, meaning getting to this point of the postseason required a couple of road trips.
They survived against Carolina on wild-card weekend thanks to a late touchdown pass from Matthew Stafford to former Seahawk Colby Parkinson, before withstanding the cold blowing off Lake Michigan to get out of Chicago with the victory and earn another trip to the Pacific Northwest.
“It’s going to be a hell of an atmosphere, an environment,” McVay said Monday. “We’re excited about it. Those are the moments you feel the most alive as a competitor and we got to go handle it against a freaking damn good football team. But wouldn’t expect anything less in the NFC championship if you expect to advance to a Super Bowl.”
For Macdonald, this will be the second straight week as a head coach facing the same team for a third time in a season. Last week against San Francisco went pretty well after splitting the games in the regular season.
His first experience facing a team three times in a season came as the defensive coordinator in Baltimore during the 2022 season. The Ravens played Cincinnati twice in the regular season – and split those games – before facing them again in the wild-card round of the playoffs. That didn’t go in his favor as the Bengals won in Week 18 and again in the playoff opener.
McVay’s been in this situation before a few times. In the COVID-19 pandemic impacted season of 2020, the Rams played the Seahawks twice in the regular season before winning at an empty Lumen Field on the opening weekend of the playoffs. That season included a Week 16 game in Seattle where the Seahawks beat the Rams 20-6.
A year later, the Rams faced a team for a third time in two separate occasions to get to the Super Bowl. The Rams beat Arizona in the wild-card round after splitting with them in the regular season. In the NFC championship game, the Rams topped San Francisco after getting swept by the 49ers, including a loss in Week 18.
“It is an added layer, but it’s really just the familiarity,” McVay said. “Let’s put together the best plans that we can for our guys and let’s understand what type of execution and what type of competitive stamina it’s going to take for us to go get the job done against as complete a football team as there is in this league and as hot of a football team as there is in this league.”
How complete McVay views the Seahawks is one of the major impressions that was left after Saturday’s win over the 49ers. Whether it was the run game rolling up 175 yards rushing, the defense limiting the 49ers to just a pair of field goals or the special teams getting things all started with Rashid Shaheed’s kickoff return it was a complete thumping where every phase played its part.
“I don’t think I’d been standing here right now talking to you guys if our team hasn’t decided to play with that type of effort and that’s really all three phases,” Macdonald said looking back at the victory. “So that’s a decision that they’ve made that they want to play to, and I think our coaching staff has done a great job of showing them why and developing.”