Super Bowl: Jared Goff, Todd Gurley and Sean McVay face tough questions after LA Rams fail on the biggest stage

On a night when the New England Patriots’ game plan was utterly flawless, the execution just slipped a little for a moment.

The play came deep into the second half with the Los Angeles Rams still scoreless, trailing 3-0, and Jared Goff beginning to find rhythm as the Rams drove upfield and set up on the Patriots’ 29. It was first down.

Traumatised by a night of sacks he hadn’t seen coming and interceptions he never should have thrown, Goff finally saw Brandin Cooks late as the receiver streaked downfield and alone on a post route.

It was almost too perfect, a busted coverage affording the ex-Patriot a chance to ice his former employer in the biggest fixture in the sport. Then came Jason McCourty, a veteran showing rookie speed to recover and break up the pass as Cooks looked to haul it in for a touchdown at the back of the end zone. "I just gotta make those plays," said Cooks afterwards. The spotlight is unlikely to be on him, however.

Had Goff delivered the ball earlier it was six points and advantage Rams, but Goff didn’t deliver early all night.

It is easily forgotten that this quarterback, who has been the centrepiece of one of the league’s best and most exciting offenses in 2018, had one of the worst-ever rookie seasons by any signal-caller when he came into the league. It was suddenly easy to remember that watching him in Atlanta.

Goff has come on leaps and bounds under Sean McVay but those steps forward over the past two years will come under the microscope after this game, the sort of night Goff won’t be allowed to forget until he rights this most painful of wrongs by hoisting a Lombardi trophy above his head.

The biggest sporting events are often where reputations are forged, not during the regular season. That is why nobody will remember a boring Patriots team that looked unspectacular in October and lost to the Jacksonville Jaguars and the Miami Dolphins. Instead we will talk about a coaching display of the ages in a Super Bowl from 66-year-old Bill Belichick and a composed display from Tom Brady, 41, in winning another Super Bowl and hitting trusty targets Julian Edelman and Rob Gronkowski when it mattered.

It might have been an easier night for Goff had Todd Gurley been involved but the Rams’ biggest offensive weapon, the man they handed $60m in guaranteed money to earlier this year, was barely involved. C.J. Anderson had proven a capable deputy in the post-season until this point, but when they needed an X factor, or indeed anything to take the pressure off Goff, Gurley was nowhere to be seen. That won’t be a storyline that goes away quickly.

Likewise, Sean McVay watched his team be held scoreless for a half of football for the first time in his coaching career. He cooked up a game plan to get the Rams back into the Super Bowl but this young offensive guru was out of answers and his side would end up with their worst offensive performance of his brief career as a head coach. Out-schemed by a hall-of-famer, the judgement on McVay won’t be as damning as that which falls on Goff but the questions will be asked. The bubbles have been burst a little.

And yet the narrative could have been so different for McVay, for Gurley and for Goff had Cooks held on to that pass at the back of the end zone as the third quarter melted away. McCourty’s desperate swipes that prised the ball free and sent it crashing to the turf were the difference between the Rams getting going and the Rams going backwards. The next play saw a three-yard gain, the following play a nine-yard loss on a sack and then Greg Zuerlein trotted out to score a field goal for the Rams. Those three points were all they would end up having to show for their week in Super Bowl city.

At a time when the league is going all-in on the Rams’ model of creating a Super Bowl window by getting a young, offensive playcaller as head coach to turbocharge a QB on a rookie contract who has been surrounded by talented skill position players, the sample franchise was made an example of. McVay, the young pretender, was shown up by the old-timer in Belichick albeit in a way that bodes well for his future success in the league if he can adapt.

McVay could reach the next seven Super Bowls and still be younger than Tom Brady was when he picked up his sixth Super Bowl ring in Atlanta. For this promising coach, there will be brighter days emerging from the darkness.

It is for Gurley, and most of all Goff, who we now most fear.

Gurley has had problems with injuries but when he has been 100% healthy he has been one of the finest playmakers in the league with the ball in his hands. For Goff, who always had the feeling of a quarterback who was being made to look better than his talent, this Super Bowl was a traumatic experience akin to having your pants pulled down with the whole country watching.

It will, you’d imagine, be harder for Goff to come back from this defeat than almost anyone else around the Rams franchise. Even the older guys who might not get another chance - like Andrew Whitworth, whose response to losing was to say ‘well we’re all gonna die some day’ - seemed to take it quite well. Goff, on the other hand, will be asked about this rabbit-in-headlights performance forever until he can better it.

For the hurting Rams and recovering Goff, there is another task waiting when they tumble all the way back down to the bottom of the mountain. They will have to dust themselves off and get to the top again, only next time they will have to stand alone on the summit. The only way to vanquish Super Bowl ghosts is in Super Bowls.

Without winning a Lombardi, the doubts of a nation will always be cast over McVay, Goff and Gurley after they came up so strangely short in the big game. Ever the optimist, the Rams’ head coach will no doubt try and ensure this is a learning experience his young team can build on.

For Goff in particular, the lesson is that if you let the Patriots off on even one single play - as he did with Cooks in the back of the end zone - you might not get another chance. Now he’s just hoping for another chance at another chance - an opportunity to make amends.