The Rams and Bengals Battle for the Lombardi Sunday in Los Angeles

The biggest game in professional sports is set to kick off at 3:30 p.m. local time at SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles, as the NFC champion Los Angeles Rams take on the AFC champion Cincinnati Bengals. It has been two very different paths for both teams to get to this point, and in the end, only one of them will be hoisting the Lombardi Trophy as World Champions.

It has been an “all in” mentality for the Rams since they traded two first round picks and Jared Goff to the Lions last offseason for Matthew Stafford, a good quarterback who was always held back by a poor supporting cast around him in Detroit. Rams general manager Les Snead has never been afraid to trade draft picks for proven players, and he proved that by going out and getting Stafford. The pairing of Stafford with head coach Sean McVay has been a great combo for Los Angeles and has helped this offense get to the next level. The Rams have not picked in the first round of the draft since 2016 and they do not have a first-round pick until 2024 but winning a title this year will make giving up all that draft capital, past and future, worth it. Los Angeles, the second biggest market in the United States, was without an NFL team for 20 years. The Rams returned to Los Angeles in 2015 after a 20-year stint in St. Louis and find themselves hosting the big game in their own $5 billion stadium.

While the Rams were expecting to be in this game, the only people expecting the Bengals were the players, coaches, and maybe some fans as their path to this year’s Super Bowl has been very different. Cincinnati came into this season with 150-to-1 odds at winning this year’s Super Bowl, but here they are just one win away from accomplishing that feat. Their success can be largely attributed to second year quarterback Joe Burrow, the first overall pick from the 2020 draft who has already become a superstar and will be a face of the league for years to come. Third year head coach Zac Taylor, a former Rams assistant under McVay, has gotten the most out of Burrow who has helped lead the Bengals offense to one of the best units in football despite a bad offensive line protecting him. The defense has made great strides as well to help make this improbable run a reality.

The Rams are coming off a double-digit come from behind victory against their archrivals, the San Francisco 49ers in the NFC Championship game. Matthew Stafford led a couple of key 4th quarter drives and did not make any big mistakes for which he has been known for all season, even though a ball he threw up for grabs should have been picked off late in the game.

Los Angeles had lost their six previous games to San Francisco upon entering the NFC championship game. Even in a stadium that felt more like a 49ers home game at SoFi Stadium than the Rams house, the Rams pulled out their most important game of the season and are now one win away from a championship. Matthew Stafford has been the guy Rams fans hoped Jared Goff would become, a gunslinger who can take over a game and come up clutch in crunch time. Even with the mistakes he has made this year, as he tied for the league lead in interceptions, he has performed exceptionally well when the pressure has been at peak levels.

A big reason behind Stafford’s success in Los Angeles has been thanks to the best wide receiver in the league, Cooper Kupp. Kupp has always been a very good receiver, but with Stafford throwing him the ball he has been the best in the league and won the receiving triple crown this year, leading the league in yards, receptions, and touchdowns. Kupp became the fourth player in the league’s history to win the receiving triple crown and the first to do so since Steve Smith in 2005.

In addition to Kupp, players such as Odell Beckham Jr. and Cam Akers have been huge additions to the Rams offense down the stretch and give Stafford a plethora of weapons to throw the ball to. Beckham was rotting away in Cleveland, as he and quarterback Baker Mayfield had no chemistry. The Browns released Beckham in the beginning of November and the Rams scooped him up off waivers. He was supposed to be in a trio of receivers that included Robert Woods, that was until Woods tore his ACL the same day the Rams signed Beckham. Beckham has stepped up for the Rams and has been a huge contributor as a number two target in this offense with six touchdowns since joining the team.

Cam Akers has been great for the Rams in the backfield aside from a fumble in Tampa Bay that did not wind up costing them. Akers injured his achilles in July and almost everyone thought he would not have a chance to play this season, including his quarterback.

“I remember him telling me, ‘You guys make it to the playoffs, and I’ll be back,’” Stafford told the Associated Press. “I just thought to myself, what a great mindset to have. There’s no chance in hell he’s going to be back helping us out.”

Akers was a second round pick out of Florida State in 2020 and after finishing off his rookie campaign with a bang many thought he would be one of the best backs in the league in 2021. While he did not have a chance to do that until January, he has helped the Rams running attack, and they will rely on him on Sunday to keep doing more of the same.

In a Rams offense loaded with star players their defense is no different, with big name players at every position. It starts with arguably the best player in the sport, Aaron Donald. Donald is so dominant and causes so much havoc, a big reason why this Rams defense can change a game on one play. Donald had 12.5 sacks this year, and even when he does not get to the quarterback, he affects the game on almost every play. The Rams are 12-1 when Donald recorded a sack this season, and no quarterback was sacked more in 2021 than Joe Burrow.

On the defensive line with Donald is former Super Bowl MVP Von Miller. Miller was part of the Rams all in approach, as they pushed their final remaining chips into the middle of the table when they traded for the all-pro on the first day of November. Miller has been a huge factor for this defense and has always played his best in the big games, he did that in Denver and McVay has seen that in Miller with the Rams as well.

“We talk about competitive greatness all the time, being your best when your best is required,” McVay said. “I think he’s illustrated that through the playoffs here.”

This Rams defense with Donald and Miller should be able to put pressure on Joe Burrow and cause some turnovers which will be key to the outcome of this game.

The Bengals had not won a playoff game since the 1990 season when they beat the Houston Oilers. That changed in 2021 as Cincinnati has won three playoff games, including their first ever road playoff games at Tennessee and Kansas City. The change in culture has been thanks to their franchise quarterback Joe Burrow.

Burrow was selected with the first overall pick in the 2020 NFL draft, coming off a 15-0 National Championship winning season at LSU where he also won the Heisman Trophy. Burrow is the perfect example of what a true superstar quarterback can do to a franchise, as the Bengals have gone from a laughingstock to an elite Super Bowl team.

Burrow came to a Bengals team that had gone a league worst 2-14 in 2019. A team that looked completely hopeless, a team that even with a franchise quarterback would take years to build the pieces around that quarterback to be a legitimate contender. Two years later, that 2-14 team is playing for all the marbles.

Quarterback is not the only position that is needed for a team to contend, a well-rounded team with a good defense and good weapons at the quarterback’s disposal is crucial to winning football games on a consistent basis. The Bengals have done a great job of building that foundation around Burrow in a very short amount of time, and that starts with his weapons outside.

Ja’Marr Chase, Tee Higgins, and Tyler Boyd are one of the best receiving corps in the NFL and it all starts with Chase. The rookie who played with Burrow in college has had an unbelievable season breaking all kinds of records, including the most yards in a season by a rookie receiver with 1,455 and the most yards in a single game with 266 in week 17 against Kansas City. Chase, the likely offensive rookie of the year, was taken fifth overall in this past draft and has been everything the Bengals were hoping he would be and more.

Tee Higgins and Tyler Boyd have been great secondary receivers on this team, and Higgins could be a number one option on any number of other teams. These guys get open quickly and allow Burrow to get rid of the ball quickly, something he must do because of the amount of pressure he faces from his below average offensive line.

The running game has helped balance this offense while also setting up play action and Joe Mixon has been the bell cow for this team. He ran for 1,205 yards and 16 total touchdowns, both career highs. Mixon has had trouble staying healthy in the past, but he was able to avoid that this year and had one of the best seasons of his career, averaging 4.1 yards per carry. The Bengals will lean on him on Sunday.

One of the surprises of this Bengals team has been the play of their defense. They ranked 23rd and gave up 25.8 points per game in 2020. They made huge improvements in 2021 and ranked 12th in points per game giving up 20.7 on average. Cincinnati has been able to produce big turnover after big turnover in all three playoff games this season, including two interceptions of Patrick Mahomes in the second half and overtime in the AFC Championship game. Linebacker Germaine Pratt, who intercepted Dereck Carr to seal the win in the Wild Card game talked about how this defense has made the plays to get them to this point.

“Each game came down to the defense making a huge play,” Pratt said. “Defense wins championships… All the guys in the locker room are prepared for the moment. As a defensive player, you want to be on the field to make that play to change the game or win us the game. I think we showed the last three games that the defense is ready to keep making plays and win the game.”

The defense has been able to make the big play in every playoff game to this point, and they along with Burrow were able to bail out the offensive line a few weeks ago when they gave up nine sacks against Tennessee, as the defense had a late interception to set up Evan McPherson for a game winning field goal. It has been talked about and repeated over and over, but this offensive line is far and away the worst unit on either team and they will be dealing with one of the NFL’s best defensive lines on Sunday. If the Bengals offensive line can hold up like they did against Kansas City and allow just two sacks they will be in a good position, but they cannot allow what happened when they played Tennessee to repeat itself.

Los Angeles enters the game on Sunday as the favorites at -4, a line that has moved between 3.5 and 4.5 over the last week and a half. The key to this game for the Rams will be Matthew Stafford and whether he makes the big mistake. He has had three games in a row without making that big mistake, so if he is able to make it four in a row the Rams should be in a good position to win this game.

Joe Burrow is about as cool and calm in the big moments as it gets and that should be no different on Sunday. The key for the Bengals will be whether they can hold off Aaron Donald, Von Miller and company and allow Burrow to get the ball to any one of his three great wide receivers. If the Bengals offensive line can bend but not break, Burrow can bring the franchise their first Super Bowl title as well as become the first ever player to win a Heisman, a National Championship, and a Super Bowl.

This will be only the second ever matchup in Super Bowl history between first overall quarterbacks, the first being Super Bowl 50 when Peyton Manning’s Broncos defeated Cam Newton’s Panthers. Both Matthew Stafford and Joe Burrow will look to deliver in the big moment and bring their team and their city a World Championship in what should be a game that comes down to the final couple of minutes on Sunday night.

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