National Football League

Will Kyle Shanahan continue to have Sean McVay's number?

Updated Jan. 27, 2022 6:16 p.m. ET

By Eric D. Williams
FOX Sports NFL Writer

You can’t blame Sean McVay for tiring of the topic.

The Rams' coach offered a familiar refrain when asked if his mentor, 49ers coach Kyle Shanahan, is in his head after his failure to defeat his NFC West rival the past three seasons.

"No," McVay said, with a pause. "What I do have is respect for these guys. They’ve done a great job. You’ve got to play well in that three-and-a-half-hour window. The last time that we played them, we didn’t finish the game."

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In the final week of the regular season, McVay was on his way to earning his first win against Shanahan since 2018, as the Rams jumped to a 17-0 lead at home. Then, of course, the Niners — led by quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo, just back from a torn ligament in the thumb of his throwing hand — roared back and won in overtime 27-24, punching their ticket to the playoffs.

McVay boasts a stellar 55-26 regular-season record in his five years with the Rams, including 19-11 against the NFC West, but he’s 3-7 against Shanahan. Since 2019, McVay has dropped six straight games to Shanahan, losing by an average of 8.5 points.

On Sunday at SoFi Stadium (6:30 p.m. ET, FOX and the FOX Sports app), the two good friends meet again, with a trip to the Super Bowl on the line. After beating the Cardinals in the wild-card round, the Rams now face their second divisional opponent in the playoffs, making this the first time in league history that a team will play two of its division rivals three times in a season.

Though longtime rivals, the Rams and Niners have met only once in the postseason, a 30-3 San Francisco victory over Los Angeles in the NFC title game on Jan. 14, 1990.

Just like these two franchises, McVay and Shanahan go way back. They worked on the same staff at Washington a decade ago. McVay served as an offensive quality control coach and tight ends coach from 2010 to 2013. Shanahan was the offensive coordinator.

They also share a similar coaching lineage. In 2008, McVay took over for Nathaniel Hackett (the new head coach of the Denver Broncos) as quality control coach in Tampa Bay for then-coach Jon Gruden. Hackett had taken over for Shanahan, so McVay and Shanahan shared common ground before the interview process in Washington.

Gruden recommended a young McVay to Washington front office executive Bruce Allen. McVay’s grandfather, longtime NFL coach and executive John McVay, also reached out to then-Washington coach Mike Shanahan. They had a relationship from their time in San Francisco.

"He came in and gave an interview as Boy Wonder," Kyle Shanahan joked during an appearance with McVay on the "Flying Coach" podcast on The Ringer last summer. "His hair looked exactly the same. He was probably a little more jacked, but not much. He's always been jacked. He was exactly Boy Wonder.

"My dad asked him a football question about a slot package, and he didn’t stop talking for about 45 minutes. He just went ham on it and killed it from every aspect. My dad was, like, jaw-dropped, like this is unbelievable. Right when he left, my dad was like, ‘We got to get this guy.’ And I was pumped to get him."

Added McVay about working with Kyle: "He was hard on me. But you know what? I got a lot better. I loved working with Kyle, and he has had a huge influence on the way I see the game."

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Asked about his team’s success against the Rams, Shanahan took the high road, saying he expects another tough game Sunday.

"When you’re going against a team like us going against the Rams — or them vs. us — there’s not much to soak in," Shanahan said. "We knew what the tape was going to look like before we turned it on. And they are the exact same way. So, when you have something like that, it makes for a little more fun of a football game."

The Niners have had success the past three seasons against the Rams because of their physicality. San Francisco has controlled the line of scrimmage by running the football on offense and by stopping the Rams from running and forcing turnovers on defense.

"We want to be physical every game. It doesn’t matter who we are playing," 49ers linebacker Fred Warner told reporters this week. "That’s what our team is built on. You see it on tape every week, and that’s just the type of guys we have on this team."

During San Francisco’s six-game winning streak against L.A., the 49ers have averaged 124 rushing yards and 35 rushes per game. The Rams have averaged just 89 rushing yards and 22 rushes.

Deebo Samuel has been the driving force behind San Francisco’s consistent ability to run the football and control the flow of the game. In six games against the Rams, the third-year pro out of South Carolina has averaged 91 scrimmage yards and scored five total touchdowns. The Rams have had trouble corralling the fast and physical Samuel once he reaches the second level of the defense.

However, there’s some concern about how healthy Samuel will be Sunday. He took a helmet to the knee in San Francisco’s final offensive play against the Green Bay Packers before Robbie Gould's game-winning field goal.

Samuel walked off the field on his own and was a full participant at practice this week. He's not listed on the team’s injury report.

"The more you get hit, the more it’s a sacrifice," Shanahan said when asked about the physical toll Samuel has taken through being used as a wide receiver and running back this season. "The more passes he catches and the more handoffs we give him, he’s going to take some hits.

"But Deebo has handled it well. He’s one of the main reasons we’re here. I think it’s one of the things that has given him an opportunity to be one of the best players in the NFL."

The Niners also hold a plus-two turnover margin during their winning streak against L.A. San Francisco’s ability to effectively stop the run allows the team’s talented pass rush, led by Nick Bosa and Arik Armstead, to get after the quarterback.

Specifically, Matthew Stafford must do a better job of taking care of the football. Four of his league-high 17 interceptions in the regular season came against San Francisco. The Niners also sacked him seven times.

Stafford has thrown five interceptions in six games against San Francisco in his 13-year NFL career. His teams are 1-5 in those contests.

"We just have to execute better," Rams receiver Cooper Kupp said. "That’s really what it comes down to. It’s not like there’s some crazy formula that we’ve got to draw up or anything like that. We’ve just got to execute, do our jobs."

Old friends Sean McVay and Kyle Shanahan will be doing the same on opposite sidelines.

Eric D. Williams has reported on the NFL for more than a decade, covering the Los Angeles Rams for Sports Illustrated, the Los Angeles Chargers for ESPN and the Seattle Seahawks for the Tacoma News Tribune. Follow him on Twitter @eric_d_williams.