Kyle Shanahan Should Continue to Torment Sean McVay in NFC Championship for 49ers vs. Rams

Most of the time when we talk about rivalries in sports they are between teams or players. However, some of the most heated rivalries take place behind the clipboard and feature head coaches with histories.

Two such coaches are Sean McVay of the Los Angeles Rams and Kyle Shanahan of the San Francisco 49ers. These two have a long history together dating back to their days together as assistants in Washington. Matt LeFleur was also among that group. Cut to 2021, and the trio led their respective teams to the Divisional Round of the NFL playoffs. 

With the Packers falling, Shanahan and McVay are left to go head to head in the NFC Title Game this weekend. 

We already have a full game betting breakdown for the 49ers vs. Rams thanks to our Senior Editor Reed Wallach that can be found here. So, for this article, I wanted to focus specifically on these two coaches and their long-running rivalry. 

Shanahan and the 49ers enter Sunday’s NFC Championship Game on a six-game winning streak over their divisional rivals. Ever since McVay took the helm for Los Angeles before the 2017 season, he is just 3-7 against the Niners when Shanahan is coaching. The last time that the Rams beat the 49ers under McVay was in Week 17 of the 2018 season with Nick Mullins under center for SF. 

It is strange considering that the Rams, under McVay, are 18-4 against the rest of the NFC West in his years as coach. But, for some reason, the 49ers have their number. It would appear that Shanahan is in McVay’s head in more ways than one. 

After mounting a comeback win in Week 18, Shanahan and the 49ers are 7-3 against McVay both straight up and against the spread.

The 49ers were underdogs in eight of those games. SF once again is predicted to lose this game with a spread of 3.5 points at WynnBET Sportsbook. McVay has won just 30 percent of his career games against Shanahan and I think is in danger of failing once again.

One thing that I found interesting when researching this topic was that McVay actually worked under Shanahan. While they were colleagues, they were not peers. Shanahan, the offensive coordinator, was in charge of both McVay and LaFleur. It is possible that Shanahan was on the sage end of an “I taught him everything he knows” type of situation. It’s like Shanahan knows what McVay is going to do before he does it.

What McVay needs to do is to adjust and not rely on his old tricks to win this game.

Follow all of Matt De Saro’s betting picks HERE