The Josh Innes Show - Sean McVay's Bad Decision

Episode Date: October 3, 2025

Sean McVay made the right call to go for it on 4th down in OT. Sean McVay made a terrible decision as it relates to the playcall... Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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It was exciting. It went to overtime. We had points. We had passing yards. We had all you could ever want. We had fourth down drama in overtime. Look at these numbers, though. Holy shit.

It just occurred to me. At one point in the game, there was a bet where you could take over 700 passing yards combined for Matt Stafford and Mac Jones, and it was like plus 1,500 or something, and as it turns out, they ended up, by going into overtime, they ended up getting over 700 yards, 389 for Stafford, and 342 for Mac Jones. Boy, how about that? Five touchdowns and no picks between them? Wow, that was a hell of an exhibition.

And by the way, you want to know a sickening statistic? First off, let me play a couple of commercials, and then I will share with you a sickening statistic. Check out the big stars, big series, and blockbuster movies. Streaming on Paramount Plus. Cue the music. Like NCIS, Tony and Ziva. We'd like to make up our own rules.

Tulsa King. We want to take out the competition. The substance. This balance is not working. And the naked gun. That was awesome. now that's a mountain of entertainment so um i always make a bet i say always if i find the right game for it i like to make the bet where you take each quarterback to throw for 15 yards in each quarter right

now you would look at two dudes one throwing for 342 and one throwing for 389 and you'd say well these two jimokes no doubt threw for 15 yards in each quarter well if you thought that you would have thought wrong because Matt Stafford threw for a whopping five yards in the first quarter, which means he threw for 384 yards over the next three quarters in like five minutes of overtime, but he didn't throw for 15 yards in the fucking first quarter. You son of a bitch. But that game ended in an interesting way. First of all, Pooka Nakua, this dude just has 10 catches every week.

it's stupid the number of catches this gentleman gets. And like, Devante Adams has to get pissed to a degree because he's like, you son of a bitch, you're open because I'm over here hanging out. And I'm going to draw maybe their number one guy. And then it's going to let you run around and do whatever the hell you want. Ten catches for Puka last night. Geez. He's a money player for you, though, and a lot of certain bets, though.

And that's all I care about. But let's look at something here. So last night, the game was in overtime. You had gotten a field goal from San Francisco. so the Rams are driving, they're trying to win the game, they're not playing for a field goal, although they could have played for a field goal, tied it, tried to play defense, and maybe they stop them, maybe they get the ball back and score, maybe the 49ers go down, kick a field goal and win, maybe it's tied, maybe they end up in a tie.

First off, I am not against the idea of going for it on fourth and one there because you've got a really good offense, you've got an elite level quarterback, like why not? You know, in that scenario, you're driving, how much time was left when that happened. There was three minutes and 41 seconds. You're at the 11-yard line. If you pick up that first down, you're staring at, let's just say you pick up the bare minimum for the first down, it gets you to an and-goal situation. So it's first and goal from the 10, maybe the 9, with three minutes to go, and you've got four cracks at it to punch it into the end zone. And if you end up with anything longer than maybe two or three yards, maybe you just say, screw it, you kick the field

goal after that. You tie the game, see where it goes from there. Right. Like, that's a scenario that could play out for you maybe so it never got to that because the rams didn't pick up the fucking yard and the rams didn't pick up the yard because they were extremely predictable in what they were doing and i don't care how much you think your guy can beat their guy and how tough you want to pretend to be in one-on-one and you got to be able to line up and pick up a yard and all that shit if you're doing something obvious the defense is going to be able to stop it more likely than not the defense is going to be able to stop it especially when you do something obscenely obvious like what they did.

First, they bring out staffer and try to get them to jump off sides. Good idea. It doesn't work. So they burn a timeout. Okay, cool. No big deal. So you have the option there to kick the field goal or go for it on fourth and very short. I am all in favor of going for it because I understand where if it doesn't work out, it's a loss.

This isn't like college football where you'll get credit for playing close. You won't. So in theory, like this is a big risk to do this because if you do not get this, you're not getting. style points. The AP voters aren't going to look at you and go, well, but still, did you see the guts it took to go for it and they should have won? No, it's just a fucking loss. And if you take that loss, that's a big one in the division. So there's an argument to be made to just sit on it, kick the field goal, whatever. The reason I wouldn't do that, like, let's put it this way. If there were 10 seconds to go in the game, I might have kicked the field goal and accepted the tie. Because like, it's a division game. So you're tied with a team that has a very good chance to be leading that division, a team that's going to get healthy, at some point. So taking a tie in that spot isn't necessarily the worst thing that ever happened to you. But there wasn't 10 seconds to go. There was almost four minutes to go. And if you kick that field goal there, you're basically giving San Francisco, basically you are giving San Francisco one possession to beat you, no matter what they have to do to beat you. You're banking on your defense

to get a stop, which your defense hasn't been all that great at throughout most of the day, considering that Mack Jones threw for 350 yards on you, okay? So do you really, do you really believe that your defense is going to hold there and I don't so I'm totally cool you would have left them with like let's say you kick the field goal you leave them with three minutes and i don't know 20 something seconds uh they start the drive 30 yard line wherever they start the drive from and they need one two three completions if that to get into field goal range and try to drill one to beat you so you control your own destiny you need one yard you're a professional football team go out and get one yard I am not against that and I'm totally

okay with it. What I hate is when you take a team that's really creative offensively, a team that's able to move the ball consistently, a team that since the start of the second quarter had thrown for 385 yards, a team that was almost impossible to stop moving the ball for stretches in the second half, for the most part. They weren't

punting a ton. They beat themselves a couple of times with an early fumble in the game down in the red zone. So they were going to have a hard time stopping these guys. And with all the creativity you have and the brilliant beautiful mind of Sean McVeigh, all you could think to do was stick a bunch of people in the box. Now, granted, at least with the play they actually ran, they moved a couple of guys out

wide left to kind of give the illusion that they could maybe pass. But San Francisco didn't give a shit in that point. They're like, listen, we're selling out to stop the run, and we're going to stop the fucking run. They didn't believe you were going to throw, and you didn't throw, and they shut you down with ease, and ballgame was over. It wasn't a bad decision. It was a dreadful call. And Sean McVeigh talked about that. Let's see what Sean McVey had to say in this one. Bad call by me, he said. Thought about maybe trying to draw them off sides.

I took one time out. They took the other, and it was a poor decision by me right there. I'm pretty sick right now. I'm sick of this spot. I put our group in at the end of the game. But, hey, those are the tough beat you have to learn from and move forward, and that's what we're going to do. Yes, it is a tough beat, and yes, you have to learn from it.

But if I've got Matt Stafford, who was almost impossible, to stop through most of the day after the first quarter and I've got Puka and I've got Devante Adams and I've got the squad that I have I'm not putting the ball. And for being fair to

Kyron Williams, Kyrin Williams had already fumbled one. By the way, it should have never gotten to this. We haven't even talked about that. It should have never gotten to that situation because the game should have never gone to overtime because Kiron Williams fumbled the ball at the goal line going in trying to win it. That's another

scenario. If he doesn't fumble that, they punch it in, win the game, it never goes to overtime, but he fumbled it. They're forced to call three timeouts after the fumble. They get the ball back, forced to kick a field goal, game goes to overtime. So like, do you trust that Kairn Williams holds onto the ball in that

situation? Who the fuck knows? So it never should have gotten to that point. But I'm 100% in favor of going for it there. Like, I got a buddy of mine who used to be a Nashville radio host. Now he's got a podcast. Jared Stillman is his name. He's a buddy of mine.

I started out just listening to him to make fun of him because I thought he was a dofus. And I still do, but I genuinely like the guy. So let me read you his tweets as it relates to how this game ended because he's on team. He's in favor of kicking the field goal there, which I cannot get down with. I'm totally against that. But let's see. This is a terrible decision by McVeigh, and I don't care if he gets it and wins. Three one and one in tied for the division lead.

Seattle is ahead at 3 and 1 is a lot better than 2 and 2 with a divisional loss. Disgraceful coaching from Sean McVeigh. I disagree. I think it's the right move there. If you kick the field goal. See, you're assuming 3-1-1 if they make the kick. There's three and a half minutes left to play and Mack Jones has been carving you up all day. You've been able to move the ball on them for most of the day. Maybe it's slowed down a little bit, but all you're doing is putting them in a position. Let's say you make a bad kickoff and they've got the ball, what, the 35-yard line

and there are one or two completions away from field goal range. People are drilling 60-yard field goals like it's nothing. Oh, and by the way, do you trust that the kicker's even going to make it? Yeah, I made the one to get you to overtime, but you have a history with the Rams of getting kicks blocked this year. Talk about two

shitty ways to lose games. The two losses the Rams have, blowing a big lead to the Eagles and having a kick blocked and then in this situation, you're getting stopped on fourth down and won. And the Mac Jones at that. But I guess we don't want to shit too much on Mac Jones because the guy's bald this year. Like it's not some sort of shameful thing.

That's like saying, boy, you got your ass kicked by Daniel Jones. Well, 2025 Daniel Jones is not 2024 Daniel Jones. Like, it's a different world, right? So like some of these guys you look at and you say, hey, like they're a different dude. It's kind of like last year saying, you got beaten by Sam Darnold. Well, Sam Darnel was pro bowl level last year. So, you know, there's no shame in losing the Mac Jones the way the guy slinging the ball around this year. There is shame in lining up the way you did and running an obvious play that

was clearly going to be stopped and never had a chance when you're the most creative, one of the most creative, innovative, offensive minds out there. It reminds me of what happened to the Saints prior to the Minnesota Miracle play with Stefan Diggs. The Saints should or coulda would have won that game. And they were setting themselves up where a field goal was going to put them on top. And I think they had like a third down in three or a third down and four, something like that with Alvin Camara. And instead of doing something creative to pick up a first down that would allow them to run the clock out and then kick the field goal, walk off winner, or at least eat up a lot more time, they ran an obvious dive right up the middle that picked up a yard. They ended up fourth and two or three, kicked the field goal for the lead with like 18 seconds or however many seconds were left.

And then the Minnesota miracle happened. It never, like you could have gotten more creative in the situation, but they were not that creative in the situation. They played it very conservatively, and their defense ended up losing them the game. In this scenario, that was a very conservative play call. Now, you could argue, if you can't get a yard, then fuck you. What are you doing? And that is a fair argument. If you're an NFL team, you should be able to line up and pick up a yard, beat their guy.

Fine. But you didn't. And you have a creative offense. Look, you could have spread them out five wide and handed the ball to Kyron Williams on a draw and giving him space. When you're putting yourself in a bunched up spot like that, there were a couple receivers off to the left. But when you got extra tight ends in there, in theory, that's great because there's more to block. It's also a shitty spot because there are more defenders in there.

This is just obvious. It is obvious. When you put more numbers defensively in front of you, it becomes harder to run the ball, especially in an obvious running situation. You could have spread that shit out 5-Y and said, let's see what we can do. Let's give the option here. I mean, there are plays you could have run there, but you didn't do it. It was a bad decision. I'm all for going for it.

I'm very much against the play call, and so is Sean McVeigh, so at least we're on the same page.