Yo bad guy, really enjoyed and appreciated the thoughtful analysis in your last two posts, man. Your'e a pretty good dude for a bad guy.
Getting to one of your points: I don't necessarily think my concerns about Goff's poor performance last year has spilled over into this year. HOWEVER-- regarding your point about having some leftover "negative mojo" from last year-- I agree insofar as I (personally) was affected by last year regarding that third down call yesterday.
I appreciate your point about McVay saying to his "much maligned" defense: "I trust you to close it out." I also agree that McVay may have been thinking ahead and planting the seeds of confidence for future games. However-- I gotta say, that I personally am so sick of a CERTAIN Rams coach (not saying his name, but his last name begins with 'F') sending the message to his team: "our lead is big enough, it's time to rely on the D to close it out."
So, yeah-- I guess I'm saying I agree with you on this particular point. In this particular instance, on this particular way-- perhaps McVay's message to the D was the right thing to do, even though we as Rams fans have been burned over the last five years by a coach who was routinely conservative to a fault, and started "relying on the D to protect a lead" far too early and often.
The area where we might "disagree" is my continued assumption that a PART of McVay's thinking on that particular play ALSO involved "protecting" his quarterback. Just like you, I think McVay ALSO thinks games ahead, and YEARS ahead. IMHO, McVay is at least in part been acting like a "guardian angel" and trying to protect Goff from putting him in situations where a huge blunder would get blown up in the press and potentially affect his confidence.
To put it another way: I don't think McVay has the same confidence RIGHT NOW as he will have in Goff TWO YEARS FROM NOW. I think McVay has "a lot" of confidence in Goff and it continues to grow every day. IMHO, a few years from now, when the Rams are ahead by two with about 2:21 on the clock, facing 3rd and 4 on the opponent's 14 yard line, he will be MORE LIKELY to put the ball in Goff's hands and say "I trust you."
On that 3rd and 11 call, I think McVay thought, "I trust Goff enough to take a risk here-- and Goff's done well on this play in practice and we should go for it. Playing the percentages,asking our D to protect a 2 point lead with tons of time left would be a mistake. We need to take a risk of extending the drive here."
On the 3rd and 4 call, with 2:21 or so left, I agree with your hypothesis that McVay was saying to his D, "I trust you to protect a five point lead with 2:21 left." Where we disagree is I ALSO think a part of McVay was thinking, "There's a very SMALL chance here that my young 2nd year QB could make a mistake which would potentially cost us the game and damage his confidence. The downside risk of that happening is so bad that I'm going to play the percentages and take the FG."
Cripes, who knows, we're not mind -readers. Maybe we genuinely disagree about "what we think McVay was thinking."
One other caveat, just to mess things up: I personally do not think Goff has earned my trust to not blow it at the end of a game. Not YET. And I say that as someone who has been a HUGE Goff supporter since well before he was drafted. (I got the posts to prove it).
Goff blunders from THIS year: the Cowboy strip-sack fumble (that we recovered). The strip sack fumble in the Redskin game (that we recovered). The strip-sack Bosa fumble in the Charger preseason (for a TD). The out-of-nowhere blunder pass to Watkins in the Charger game. And of course the looking-all-the-way INT to close out the Redskin game.
My point is: Goff has been fantastic this year, but he has ALSO shown that he is STILL a young developing QB who is capable of making game-changing mistakes that a vet might know how to avoid. Again-- don't get me wrong, Goff has been playing LIGHTS OUT. But I for one recognize that he is still capable of mistakes borne of inexperience.
So IMHO, it's conceivable that McVay might alter his play-calling IN PART to protect his young, inexperienced QB.
Don't know why I cant leave this subject alone-- I keep responding to this thread even though I "should" just be basking in the threads that say, "woohoo, this team is awesome!"
Anyway, bad guy, cheers to yoru thoughtful posts (even if we perhaps disagree in our attempts to read McVay's mind), and go Rams. If we beat Seattle I might pass out.
--XXXIVwin
