Super Bowl 56 capped off an amazing playoffs where 8 of the games were decided in a one possession game and how fitting Super Bowl 56 came down to the final possession. For the second season in a row a team was playing in it’s own stadium in the Super Bowl, this season it was the La Rams at the beautiful Sofi Stadium. The Cincinnati Bengals who for the last 2 seasons had a combined 6 wins got hot at the right time. After winning it’s first playoff game in 31 years where they hung on against the Las Vegas Raiders at home in the wildcard round, the Bengals won on the road against the AFC’s top 2 seeds in Tennessee and Kansas City both on walk off field goals in the final 2 rounds of the AFC Playoffs. The Bengals were an amazing story coming out of nowhere led by their second year quarterback Joe Burrow who is so cool and calm in pressure situations despite playing behind the worst offensive line in all of the NFL. Burrow had some really young weapons like Ja’Marr Chase who had an amazing rookie season as a wide receiver along with second year stud Tee Higgins, running back Joe Mixon and others while the Bengals defense was very underrated led by pass rusher Trey Hendrickson. The Bengals were going for their first ever Super Bowl championship win.
Meanwhile I had a feeling the LA Rams would be in the Super Bowl making one bold move after another. In 2019 the LA Rams traded two first-round draft choices to the Jacksonville Jaguars for star cornerback Jalen Ramsey in October. In January of 2020 they traded franchise quarterback Jared Goff, two first-round picks and a third-round pick to the Detroit Lions for Matthew Stafford. Matthew Stafford finally goes to an organization where he has a chance to play for a Super Bowl after spending his entire career with the Detroit Lions where he never won a playoff game. On November 1st the Rams made another bold move trading a second and third round pick to the Denver Broncos for star pass rusher and future Hall of Famer in Von Miller. When the Rams got Von Miller I was like oh my gosh what a scary front 7 they have with Aaron Donald the game’s best defensive player in the middle on the defensive line, Von Miller and Leonard Floyd were a scary pass rushing duo as edge rushers and then Jalen Ramey anchoring the secondary. On November 11th the Rams singed Odell Beckham Jr. who was recently released from the Cleveland Browns.
The Rams were going all-in making these bold moves as they were trying win a Super Bowl for the first time as the Los Angeles Rams, the Rams did win Super Bowl 34 as the St. Louis Rams during the 1999-2000 season. The Rams routed their division rival Arizona Cardinals in the wildcard round at home, then after letting the defending Super Bowl Champion Tampa Bay Buccaneers tie the game at 27 after being up 27-3 at one point during the game, Stafford and Kupp showed why they were clutch driving the Rams for the game winning field goal to knock off Tom Brady and the Bucs. The Rams came back and won against their division and in state rival San Fransisco 49ers in the NFC Championship game to represent the the NFC in the Super Bowl.
The big match-up going into this Super Bowl was how the Bengals offensive line which gave up the most sacks in the NFL will hold up against the Rams scary pass rush led by Aaron Donald the games best player on denfense, along with Von Miller and Leonard Floyd. I was saying to myself whoever won this battle will very likely win the Super Bowl. Rams jumped out to a 13-3 on 2 Stafford touchdown passes, one to OBJ and the other to Cooper Kupp. Early in the second quarter the Bengals got back into the game as Joe Mixon became the 5th non quarterback to throw a touchdown pass in a Super Bowl. Mixon hooked up with Tee Higgins on a halfback pass as the Bengals were down only 13-10. On the Rams next drive on a crossing pattern wide receiver OBJ suffered a Torn ACL injury where it was a non contact injury, the Rams offense struggled after he went down and didn’t return for the rest of the game. Rams led 13-10 going into the half.
On the first play of the second play from scrimmage Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow threw a bomb to Tee Higgins who scored on a 75 yard catch and run to give the Bengals a 17-13 lead, but it shouldn’t have been a touchdown. On the replay Higgins was grabbing Ramsey’s facemask before the catch which made Ramsey fall down and sadly the refs missed it. On the Rams next possession Stafford threw his second interception as it bounced off Rams WR Ben Skowronek and gave the Bengals great field position which led to a Bengals field goal extending their lead to 7 at 20-13. Rams trimmed the led to 4 on a Matt Gay Field goal on their next possession. The Rams defense kept them in the game as they sacked Joe Burrow 5 times in the third quarter alone which is a Super Bowl record for amount of sacks in a quarter during a Super Bowl. Joe Burrow was sacked 7 times which tied Hall of Famer Roger Staubach who was sacked 7 times in Super Bowl 10 against the Pittsburgh Steelers Steel Curtain Defense during the 75-76 season.
When Bengals WR Tyler Boyd dropped a crucial pass midway through the 4th quarter it was time for the Rams to go on a drive to try to win the Super Bowl. Rams weren’t able to run the ball and their offense couldn’t do much after the OBJ injury. Facing a 4th and 1 from their own 30 yard line with over 5 mins to go Rams HC Sean McVay had a decision to make, he went for it and Cooper Kupp got the ball on an end-around gaining 7 huge yards to get the Rams moving. Then Stafford started heating up with key completion after key completion which included 2 to Kupp who was starting to heat up. Facing a 3rd and goal from the Bengals 8 yard line Stafford threw an incomplete pass towards his go-to guy Kupp but the refs called a defensive holding on Bengals linebacker Logan Wilson where he did hold Kupp for a brief second but I personally didn’t agree with the call but on that same play some of the Rams offensive lineman jumped before the ball was snapped. On the Rams next play Stafford found Kupp for the game winning drive but no flag on the Rams for offensive holding and a helmet to helmet hit on the Bengals defense so the play was wiped away. Next play Stafford was targeting Cooper Kupp incomplete but another flag this time another Bengals penalty as it was pass interference on the defense getting the Rams closer and closer. After Stafford tried a QB sneak where came up just short, Bengals called a timeout with 1:29 left. What will happen next? Stafford of course found his guy Cooper Kupp on a quick pass from a yard out to give the Rams a 23-20 lead with 1:25 left in the 4th. What a play call by Rams HC Sean McVay to give his team the lead but their was still time left for Joe Burrow and the Bengals to either tie to take the lead. The Rams went on a 15 play 79 yard drive which was one of the best game winning drives I can recall during a Super Bowl where Sean McVay showed some guts.
Burrow hit Chase for 17 yards and Tyler Boyd for 9 yards to set the Bengals up with a second and one from the Rams 49 yard line. On the next play Burrow completely miss fired on a deep pass which setup a 3rd and one from the Rams 49 yard line. Samaje Perine not Joe Mixon got the carry but was stuffed short of the first down by non other than Aaron Donald who really wants a Super Bowl ring to cement his legacy. 4th and one Donald got just enough pressure on Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow to force the incomplete pass where he was targeting Perine and the Rams were able to burn the clock down to celebrate as Super Bowl Champions. If Burrow didn’t have the pressure on that final pass play he had a wide open Ja’Marr Chase who likely would of scored for the Bengals. I didn’t like for the Bengals some of that play-calling on that final drive like where was Joe Mixon who had a pretty good game against a very good Rams front 7 and I didn’t like that second and one play call where they were throwing deep.
As the clock struck zero the Rams in their own stadium celebrated winning the Super Bowl as the LA Rams for the first time. Cooper Kupp capped off the greatest season in WR history with the Super Bowl MVP catching 8 passes for 92 yards with the 2 touchdowns including the game winner. Kupp had a season for the ages winning the triple crown for a wide receiver catching 145 passes for 1,947 yards and 16 touchdowns which of course lead all wide receivers throughout the NFL . Kupp becomes the 4th wide receiver to win the triple crown during the Super Bowl era joining Hall of Famer the GOAT Jerry Rice 1990, Sterling Sharpe 1992 and Steve Smith 2005. Kupp joins Hall of Fame Quarterback Joe Montana to win offensive player of the year and Super Bowl MVP in the same season, Montana did that with the SF 49ers during the 89-90 season.
Sean McVay becomes the youngest HC to win a Super Bowl at the age of 36 years old at 20 days. Sean McVay didn’t call his best game despite the OBJ injury but he saved his best for last when the Rams needed a game winning drive. Aaron Donald who is not only games best player can finally add Super Bowl Champion to his Hall of Fame resume along with 3 Defensive Player of the Year Awards. Donald is the best defensive tackle I have ever seen. Matthew Stafford was so clutch for the Rams during these last 3 games of the Playoffs including the Super Bowl, this is why the Rams made the big trade for him and he showed why he was a fit in the Sean McVay offense he was the missing piece they needed. I am so happy for Stafford after he had no chance of winning and playing in big time games like these with the Detroit Lions. What a job Rams GM Les Snead making all these big times trades to make them Super Bowl Champions. I do feel bad for the Cincinnati Bengals who came out of nowhere to play in this big game but their future is very bright as we know fix your offensive line to protect your franchise quarterback Joe Burrow. These NFL Playoffs were amazing and Super Bowl 56 was the perfect grand finale to it.