you cannot win against good teams by running if that opposing team decides they want to take that away from you. You can run it and punt it, but if they want to stop the run, they will do just that and you just get yourself in a big hole trying to force something that isn't there.
Now if you can be successful running it that is fine, but it looked to me that Tampa wasn't going to have any of that, so you have to do what McVay did. Pass and pass often and to get Kupp going early by getting the ball in your best offensive player's hands to get some stability in the game from the get go was perfect and turned out well.
