Such were the struggles of Los Angeles to score against the Patriots that it was easy to forget their defense had played an excellent game

Different players, a different coaching staff, and even a different home city. But somehow, for the Rams, it was the same sad Super Bowl story. Seventeen years after the Patriots brought the curtain down on the Greatest Show on Turf, the same opponents returned to thwart a new generation.

Or did they? The question that will haunt Los Angeles after Sunday’s 13-3 defeat to New England is to what degree they beat themselves. At his post-game press conference, head coach Sean McVay refused to answer questions until he had first delivered a mea culpa. “Definitely I got outcoached,” he said. “I didn’t do a good enough job for our football team.”

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His Rams were scarcely recognisable from the offensive juggernaut that we watched for so much of this season: the one that finished second only to Kansas City in yardage and scoring, and outgunned even the Chiefs during a wild 105-point shootout in November. It was enough of a struggle on Sunday just to pick up a first down. Indeed, Los Angeles set a Super Bowl record by punting on all of their first eight possessions. All this, whilst abandoning principles and players that had carried them this far.

Todd Gurley, who piled up 1,831 combined offensive yards, and 21 touchdowns, in 14 regular season games, was afforded a total of three carries in the first two quarters. His lot improved slightly in the second-half, but still he finished with only two more touches than the team’s punter, Johnny Hekker.

Both Gurley and McVay insisted that injury had not been a factor. The running back missed the end of the regular season with a knee inflammation, and barely featured in the NFC Championship Game win over New Orleans – though he did rush for 115 yards against the Cowboys during the divisional playoff round in-between.

“Todd is healthy, really,” stressed McVay in response to one sceptical journalist. “That is going to be something I’m sure I’ll say, ‘I wish I could have got him more involved’ … The game film always gives you a good chance to go back and look at it, and I know there is a handful of decisions that I am going to want back for sure.”

Gurley was philosophical. Moments removed from the greatest disappointment of his professional career, he insisted that he had no complaints about the way he had been used. “It’s cool man,” he said. “It’s a team sport. It’s 11 people on the field, everyone can’t touch the ball. Still a great season by us, I’m blessed either way it goes. I’m just grateful for the opportunity to play in the Super Bowl.”

The selflessness contained in those words is admirable, yet the Rams’ approach felt all wrong. McVay has been rightly lauded this season for his innovative play-calling: the endless use of three wide receiver formations and pre-snap motion that keeps opponents off balance. But the key ingredient in the Rams’ success this season has been play-action. It was ineffective here because the Patriots were never made to respect the run.

It had been a similar story – to a lesser degree – against the Saints two weeks previously. Back then, Gurley suggested that he was benched for long stretches due to a “sorry” performance when he was on the field. He had let a pair of passes slip through his hands, with one becoming an interception, right at the start of the game.

There were no such obvious mistakes here, however, and indeed there were flashes of real threat from Gurley on the few occasions that the ball wound up in his hands. A 16-yard run at the start of the third quarter, was a reminder of his ability to make things happen.

Without the threat of the run to keep New England honest, Jared Goff also struggled. The quarterback only really seemed to find a rhythm after his team had fallen 10-3 behind in the fourth quarter: driving his team down to the New England 27, before launching a pass to Brandin Cooks that, despite tight coverage, the receiver was disappointed not to hold onto for the score.

But on the next play Goff was intercepted, underthrowing the same receiver on a further shot at the end zone. “That’s my fault,” said Goff. “It was a bad decision and I have to be better.”

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For all his struggles, it is worth reminding ourselves that this was still only a one-score game at the time. The Rams’ defense had been exceptional: co-ordinator Wade Phillips presenting Tom Brady with such a variety of looks that the quarterback burned two time-outs in a first quarter when the Patriots failed to put a point on the board.

As much as New England dominated the time of possession – holding the ball for almost 20 minutes in the first-half alone – the fact is that they did not make it into the end zone until late in the fourth quarter. The Rams were only ever one play away from stealing a lead: a truth brought home vividly when Cooks was left wide open by a blown coverage late in the third. Only Jason McCourty’s extraordinary closing speed rescued New England.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Sean McVay: ‘I think this game will serve as a great opportunity for us all to learn from’. Photograph: Robert Deutsch/USA Today Sports

Even on a day when so much went wrong, Los Angeles could still have beaten New England in much the same way that the Patriots defeated them in 2002: with a defense that bent but did not break and an offense that avoided mistakes. Brady threw for just 145 yards at Super Bowl XXXVI, but crucially avoided turnovers. Kurt Warner, for the Rams, was picked off twice.

But Goff is not Brady and McVay is not Belichick. This was a chastening occasion for both. “I think this game will serve as a great opportunity for us all to learn from,” said McVay. “I know I definitely have a lot to learn.”

One defeat does not cancel out all that went before it. The Rams had a great season, and have much to build on next campaign, when Goff’s most trusted receiver – Cooper Kupp – should also return. The team’s most important players on both sides of the ball are under contract through 2019, and it will not be until 2020 that the contract signed by Aaron Donald last offseason starts to create more delicate salary cap conundrums.

The last Super Bowl defeat to New England marked the end of an era for the Rams. If Goff and McVay are truly able to learn from their mistakes, then this could yet be a beginning.