Sean McVay and Matthew Stafford brush off heated exchange while up big vs. Bucs

Sean McVay and Matthew Stafford are never satisfied. Not even when their team is up 31-7 in prime time and embarrassing one of the NFL’s division leaders on Sunday Night Football.

During the Los Angeles Rams’ 27-point win over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in Week 12, there was a brief moment on the field where McVay and Stafford appeared to get a little heated. It came after an incompletion by Stafford on third-and-8 with the Rams leading 31-7 late in the third quarter, resulting in a punt on the next play.

The game was firmly in hand by that point but McVay appeared upset with Stafford’s decision on the play as he threw way out of the reach of Puka Nacua, who was double-covered.

“Come on, man!” McVay could be seen yelling to Stafford as he came off the field.

Unsurprisingly, it’s much ado about nothing. McVay chalked it up to him “being a basket case” and said “it’s a lot of love” between himself and Stafford, which is why they’re so comfortable being completely honest with each other.

“We love each other enough and I can get a little bit upset but he knows the people you’re most comfortable with – but that was me being a basket case,” he said on the “Coach McVay Show” Monday.

Though McVay brushed off the exchange, which was only briefly captured by the TV cameras, he did admit reacting that way doesn’t help the Rams. And he’s always quick to apologize when he does overreact.

“There was a different approach, but there were still expectations of how I want to communicate,” he said. “That doesn’t do anything to move us forward when I get that way. I can do a better job of the clarity with communication, but I think we love each other enough to know that hey, I will always apologize. I'm not going to be perfect.”

That’s when he asked: “Did the TV catch that?”

J.B. Long: “They did.”

McVay: “Dang it.”

Stafford was also asked about that somewhat tense moment during his weekly appearance on SiriusXM’s “Let’s Go!” show and he said it was probably more his fault than McVay’s. But like his head coach, Stafford said they just have a very good relationship and it’s always water under the bridge.

He called the two of them “basket cases” when they get a big lead, echoing the thoughts of McVay exactly.

“A little miscommunication, really, probably on me more than anything, to be honest with you,” Stafford said. “But we always joke with each other. We were texting after the game, like, we’re basket cases when we’re up 30. It’s happened in our past. I remember playing in 2021, we’re playing a game at the Giants, and we got a big lead at halftime and the second half, I mean, we’re just at each other trying to keep scoring more points and why isn’t it every time we touch the ball we’re scoring a touchdown? And all those kind of things. There’s been tons of those fun instances. Now, in the moment we’re heated, and then afterwards we walk up to each other and be like, ‘All right, we good? I love you, man, let’s keep it moving.’ And I think that’s a positive thing to have. I don’t know that I’ve had that with any other head coach, but we are close in age. We’re great friends. I have a very, very healthy respect for him as our head coach, and I feel like he understands that I’m doing everything I can as the quarterback to try and score points and play at a high level. But it’s an emotional game and you wanna score and you want to really put the nail in the coffin every chance you get. And when that doesn’t happen, sometimes you can get a little fired up.”

Stafford has talked about McVay’s rambling nature on the headset during games, particularly during TV timeouts. The Rams coach likes to talk and make sure everyone’s on the same page, but he can get a little long-winded.

The problem for Stafford is he can’t talk back to McVay on the headset because it’s a one-way radio.

McVay told Long that Stafford gives it right back to him during those moments – just not on the headset.

“Oh, yeah. That’s exactly right,” he said. “That’s why the headset’s so funny because he can't talk back to me on that thing.”

You’d be hard-pressed to find a quarterback-coach tandem with a better relationship than that of Stafford and McVay.

This article originally appeared on Rams Wire: Rams' McVay, Stafford address heated sideline exchange in Week 12