by Paul Teetor
Way back in late August, All Ball predicted that the Rams and the Chargers would meet in the Super Bowl, with the Chargers winning a 31-28 nail-biter on a last second field goal by Cameron “The Kicker” Dicker, who lives in Manhattan Beach.
That wildly optimistic forecast drew a lot of push-back, with many haters claiming the Chargers weren’t nearly good enough to get past the Chiefs or the Bills in the early playoff rounds. And they argued that there was a good chance the Chargers would not make the playoffs at all.
Other haters said the Rams would fold like a cheap suit late in the season once 37-year-old quarterback Matthew Stafford got hurt, as he inevitably would. And that the Rams were not good enough to make the playoffs either.
But now that both the Rams and Chargers have clinched a spot in the playoffs with identical 11-5 records – with their seeding still to be determined with one more regular season game to go – that so-called “crazy prediction” is looking a lot better. Some fans apparently have forgotten the Super Bowl is the only way the Chargers and Rams could play each other in the post-season since the Rams are in the National football Conference and the Chargers are in the American football Conference.
The Rams have gotten this far for several reasons. First and foremost, Stafford has been having a career year, throwing for 41 touchdowns with just eight interceptions. For a guy with a bad back that kept him out of the entire pre-season, he has been just mobile enough to avoid disastrous sacks.
His accuracy has been uncanny, with a 65-percent completion rate. He usually throws the football even before his intended target has made his final cut and gotten open.
Second, Coach Sean McVay remains the best coach in the business, a great teacher and innovator during the week and a great motivator on game days, still young enough at 39 to relate to his players. All you have to do is to watch his interaction with them to see the rapport.
Third, and this of course relates to the first two reasons for the Rams resurgence, has been the emergence of wide receiver Puka Nacua as the best receiver in the entire NFL. In just his third season, he has 114 receptions and 1,592 yards – leading the league in both categories — to go along with nine touchdowns. We won’t know for many seasons yet to come, but it says here that Nacua – a fifth-round draft pick by the Rams who set the rookie record for receptions two years ago with 110 – is going to surpass Jerry Rice as the greatest receiver in NFL history. He has the best suction-cup hands I’ve ever seen, he’s big and strong enough to shake off any physical punishment that comes his way, and he has that special “It” factor that only the greatest players have.
Throw in a dynamic duo of runners in slithery Kyren Williams and human bowling ball Blake Corum, a battle-tested tight end in Tyler Higbee, and you have an explosive offense second to none in the entire league.
On the other side of the ball, McVay and General Manager Les Snead have done a remarkable job of rebuilding the Rams defense after Hall of Famer Aaron Donald retired and running mates Jalen Ramsey and George Floyd moved on to other teams.
They have been replaced by young stars like defensive lineman Braden Fiske and Jared Verse – teammates in college at Florida State — and linebacker Byron Young.
Their only weakness has been special teams, and McVay fired the special teams coach last weekend, with only two games left in the regular season. It was a sure sign that he thinks he has a team capable of winning the Super Bowl as long as the special teams do their job.
The other team in town, the Chargers, have been just as impressive in running up an 11-5 record and clinching a playoff berth. There too the quarterback has been key to the team’s success. Justin Herbert finally has a decent team around him, and he has sparkled despite breaking a bone in his left (non-throwing) hand a month ago. He’s been playing with a plastic cast on it for the last five games.
And there too the coach has been key to their steady improvement. Jim Harbaugh took his Michigan team to the national championship just two years ago, who is also a Manhattan Beach resident, is on the verge of duplicating that magnificent achievement this year in the pros.
He took the Chargers to the playoffs in his first-year last season, but then bombed out in the first playoff game when Herbert threw four interceptions – two of which were dropped by his intended receiver when he hit them right in the hands.
It was a huge disappointment for the Chargers and their fans, but Harbaugh just went right back to work building a tough, physical team – the kind of team he liked to play for when he was a quarterback in college and the NFL.
But his most important achievement has been something intangible – installing in both Herbert and the rest of the team that belief that the owners and the management are committed to building a winning organization that does everything in a first-class manner. Before Harbaugh came to town, the Chargers were on the verge of wasting the best years of Herbert’s prime with bad draft choices and uninspiring and unqualified head coaches like Brandon Staley. It was obvious to any knowledgeable football fan that Staley was not the guy to lead the franchise – and Herbert — to greatness, yet it took the Chargers four years to come to that all-too-obvious conclusion.
Harbaugh has confirmed his reputation as a quarterback whisperer. Before every game, he punches Herbert repeatedly in the head and chest just to get him ready for the violence of the game, and he always praises Herbert after the game as one of the best quarterbacks to ever play the game.
Statistically, that has been the case in every season Herbert has played. The numbers say he has had the greatest five year start of any quarterback in league history.
Now the team’s results are starting to back that up.
Chargers over Rams 31-28 in Super Bowl 60.
You heard it here first.
Contact: teetor.paul@gmail.com ER
