With Super Bowl on the line, Sean McVay's Rams players brought his philosophy to life

One quote stood out last week while kicking tires to see what kind of new-school traits soon-to-be-named Vikings coach Kevin O'Connell will be bringing East from his perch as Rams offensive coordinator and latest limb to sprout from the vaunted Sean McVay coaching tree.

It came from McVay himself. Just days before the 36-year-old offensive wunderkind became the youngest coach to win a Super Bowl, he was talking about his philosophy when it comes to "a shared ownership" with his players on game-planning, execution and adjustments.

"I've always seen where sometimes coaches and players are considered separate entities," said McVay, whose Rams beat his protégé Zac Taylor and the Bengals 23-20 in Super Bowl LVI at SoFi Stadium on Sunday. "We try to be as connected with our guys as anything. And we've got the right kind of guys who see the game through the right kind of lens and deserve that respect and ownership when they want to speak up."

He then finished his thought with the money quote that today's players want their coach to say and really mean it.

"Ultimately," McVay added, "it's the players who make it all come to life."

In other words, as Taylor — McVay's quarterbacks coach in Super Bowl LIII three years ago — put it, "I don't want to be the one dictating how we do everything.

"I want to lay it out for [the players]. 'Hey, here's our thought. This is why we think it's going to work. You guys can feel free to make it better.'"

That might be a very unfamiliar vibe inside the walls of TCO Performance Center when the 36-year-old O'Connell arrives and officially takes over for Mike Zimmer.

It's a good vibe and can be a successful philosophy if O'Connell and General Manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah prove they can assemble the right players, starting at quarterback. Rams General Manager Les Snead and his owner, Stan Kroenke, did just that with stunning efficiency in their grand plan to gamble the franchise's future on winning this particular Super Bowl at Kroenke's new $5 billion stadium.

McVay's choice of Matthew Stafford — and ownership's OK with trading away two first-round picks, a third-round pick and starting quarterback Jared Goff to get him — ended up saving the coach's blossoming legacy.

With six minutes left in Sunday's game, McVay had coached 114 minutes of Super Bowl football in his career. His Rams had scored 19 points, losing to the Patriots 13-3 three years ago and trailing the Bengals 20-16 on Sunday.

At that point, McVay was anything but a genius. His running game had produced only 29 yards on 18 stubborn-as-Zimmer play calls. His No. 2 receiver, Odell Beckham Jr., was injured after a start that had him in the early lead for MVP honors.

And yet McVay's offense prevailed with one of the best game-winning drives in Super Bowl history. Not because of any great calls by McVay.

No, the reason the Rams pulled off that drive is because Stafford and receiver Cooper Kupp had been given McVay's system, worked tirelessly to get comfortable with each other in that system and then ultimately, as McVay put it, made "it all come to life."

Kupp, the game's MVP, caught four passes on that drive for 39 yards, one first down and the game-winning 1-yard touchdown catch with 1:25 left. He also had a 7-yard run on an end around on fourth-and-1 that would have gotten McVay torched if not for the player making that play come to life.

O'Connell's contribution on game day is uncertain since it's McVay who calls the plays. But one thing sounds certain that Vikings fans ready for change might like: O'Connell said he's spent the past two years trying to absorb every aspect of how McVay interacts with players.

"It allows the best of each and every person in the building to come out," O'Connell said before the game. "My hope in building a culture elsewhere is really centered on so many of the things I've learned in these two years with Sean."