Over a half-century of Super Bowls provides plenty of fodder for mining fun facts and for recalling great moments of games past. And if this year’s game is anything like the playoff games that preceded it, we could have an instant classic on our hands.
WHAT: Super Bowl 56, for the 2021 championship of the National Football League
WHEN: 6:30 p.m. (ET), Sunday, February 13
WHERE: SoFi Stadium; Inglewood, California (100,240 expanded)
NFC champions: Los Angeles Rams, 15-5, NFC West Division champions, fourth playoff seed
AFC champions: Cincinnati Bengals, 13-7, AFC North Division champions, fourth playoff seed
NATIONAL TV: NBC with Al Michaels, Cris Collinsworth, booth; Michele Tafoya, Kathryn Tappen, sidelines
NATIONAL RADIO: Westwood One with Kevin Harlan, Kurt Warner, booth; Laura Okmin, Mike Golic, sidelines
REFEREE: Ron Torbert (first Super Bowl)
ABOUT THE SUPER BOWL
This year’s game will be the first at the newly constructed SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California, the third different Los Angeles-area stadium to host the game. On the former Hollywood Park racetrack grounds, the facility is the first in Southern California to host the game in Los Angeles since the Rose Bowl in Super Bowl 27 (Cowboys-Bills). It will be the eighth Super Bowl held in the Los Angeles area. Two different stadiums in the Miami metropolitan area (Orange Bowl, Hard Rock) have hosted 11 Super Bowls, one more than New Orleans’ ten, and over two different facilities (Tulane Stadium, Superdome).
SoFi will be the 26th different stadium to host a Super Bowl and the 19th one indoors. Among individual stadiums, the Caesars Superdome in New Orleans has hosted the most Super Bowls (seven), and it is already booked to host Super Bowl 59 in February of 2025. Two different stadiums have also hosted Super Bowls in Houston (Rice Stadium, NRG Stadium) and the Phoenix area (Sun Devil Stadium, State Farm Stadium).
There have also been six Super Bowls held at college-campus stadiums–three at Tulane (4, 6, 9) and one each at Arizona State (30), Rice (8), and Stanford (19). The warmest Super Bowl was 7 (Miami-Washington) at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum (84 degrees at kickoff), and the coldest was 6 (Dallas-Miami) in New Orleans, an outdoor game at Tulane University Stadium, played in 39-degree chill.
This year’s Super Bowl will be the 20th to be played in February and the 19th consecutive game to be pushed into the calendar year’s second month. The first February Super Bowl was 36 (Rams-Patriots), which was moved back by necessity, as that season’s Week Two slate of games was postponed due to the 9/11 terrorist attacks (and made up in early January).
Due to fewer playoff rounds and fewer teams in the league at the time, the earliest Super Bowl by date was 11 (Raiders-Vikings), which was played on January 9, 1977. The latest games took place on February 7, which has occurred twice (44, 50), but that record is being broken this year and in future years due to adding a 17th game to the NFL’s regular-season schedule.
The Super Bowl was dead even until last year when Tampa Bay won to give the NFC a 28-27 lifetime edge over their AFC counterparts; however, the AFC representatives have won 15 of the last 23 games. The NFC representatives include those that were, prior to 1970, the pre-merger NFL champions). The AFC representatives include those teams that were, prior to 1970, the pre-merger AFL title-holders. It has been relatively even lately, with the two conferences splitting the last 14 games.
Only five Super Bowls have featured comebacks of ten or more points by the winning team. They are Washington over Denver (22), New Orleans over Indianapolis (44), New England over Seattle (49), Kansas City over San Francisco (54), and the Patriots’ 25-point rally over Atlanta in Super Bowl 51.
New England leads all franchises, having participated in 11 Super Bowls (6-5). Two years ago, it broke its own record for the most by any franchise, further relegating Dallas (5-3), Pittsburgh (6-2), and Denver (3-5) to second place with eight each. San Francisco, the Super Bowl 54 runner-up, is close behind with seven (5-2), but it has lost in each of its last two appearances. However, the Patriots have five losses in the big game, tied for the most with Denver. Buffalo and Minnesota are tied for the second-most defeats (0-4 each).
Since the current postseason seeding format was instituted in 1990, only seven Super Bowls, including the recent Philadelphia-New England matchup (Super Bowl 52), have featured the No. 1 seeds from each conference. Atlanta was the No. 2 NFC seed five years ago, breaking a streak of three Super Bowls that saw the top seeds square off. This year’s game features two seeds that are fourth or lower for the first time; both Cincinnati and the Los Angeles Rams were the No. 4 seeds in their respective conferences.
Because this year’s game is an even-numbered Super Bowl (56), the AFC champion (Cincinnati) – yes, even in Los Angeles – is the designated home team and will have jersey choice. The teams with choice usually choose dark home tops with white pants, even though Cincinnati was 7-3 in white jerseys this year and 2-4 in black. The Rams will likely wear their standard white road jerseys with yellow pants, yet it is classified as a “throwback” look. Teams with jersey choice are 23-32 in Super Bowls, but teams wearing white jerseys – whether they had the choice or not – have won 14 of the last 17 Super Bowls.
The first 54 Super Bowls in league history did not feature a team playing in its home stadium, although a few teams played close by to their home base. But as was the case with Tampa last year and Los Angeles this year, there will not be a stadium full of their screaming season-ticket holders since the league controls Super Bowl ticket distribution, not the host team. Furthermore, the game in Tama only permitted about 30,000 fans to enter due to COVID. Due to Super Bowls mainly being played at neutral sites, the last NFL champion to win a title on its home field before last year’s Buccaneers was the 1965 Green Bay Packers, who beat Cleveland.
As the designated home team, the AFC champion will have its logo painted in the right-side end zone and occupy the near-side bench at SoFi Stadium (closest to the main television camera). The NFC champion, the designated visiting team, will have its logo painted in the left-side end zone and occupy the far-side bench (furthest away from the main television camera). The NFL shield logo will be painted at midfield, and the official Super Bowl 56 logo will appear on the 25-yard lines at both ends of the field.
Teams that win the coin toss are 23-32 in Super Bowls and have lost the last seven straight games. Ever since deferring the choice became an option, teams that have done so have lost the game nine of 12 times. In Super Bowl 44, New Orleans became the only team to elect to receive in the deferral era; it won the game over Indianapolis in Miami.
Teams that have led at halftime of the Super Bowl are 40-11. Four games have been tied at the half: Super Bowl 54 (San Francisco-Kansas City, 10-10), Super Bowl 49 (New England-Seattle, 14-14), Super Bowl 39 (New England-Philadelphia, 7-7), and Super Bowl 23 (Cincinnati-San Francisco, 3-3).
Teams that trail by double-digit margins at halftime of a Super Bowl are 1-25. Only New England’s rally over Atlanta at Super Bowl 51 is the exception. Teams that score first are 36-19 in Super Bowls. The eventual winner has scored first in eight of the last 11 Super Bowls, although Kansas City lost last year after doing so.
There have been ten kick-return scores in Super Bowl history. But only four by members of the eventual winning team, including two by the Ravens (Desmond Howard, Super Bowl 31; Jermaine Lewis, 35; Jacoby Jones, 47; Percy Harvin, 48). In Super Bowl 41 in Miami, Chicago’s Devin Hester became the only player to run back the Super Bowl’s opening kickoff for a touchdown. Two players have run back the second-half kickoff for a score, Baltimore’s Jones and Seattle’s Harvin; those took place in consecutive years.
Surprisingly, there has never been a punt-return touchdown in a Super Bowl. The longest such runback was 61 yards by Denver’s Jordan Norwood in Super Bowl 50 against Carolina. There has also never been a shutout in a Super Bowl, and there had never been an overtime Super Bowl until just five years ago when New England outlasted Atlanta.
There have been seven safeties in Super Bowl history, the most recent coming on the first scrimmage play of Super Bowl 48. That’s when a shotgun-formation snap sailed over Peyton Manning’s head and out through the back of the end zone only 12 seconds into the game. Teams that have scored safeties in Super Bowls are 5-2. There have been only five field goals of 51 or more yards in Super Bowl history, but each team kicked one in last year’s game (the first time that had ever happened), and the teams that have kicked them are 2-3 in the title game. The longest is a 54-yarder kicked by Buffalo’s Steve Christie against Dallas in Super Bowl 28 in Atlanta.
Only two of 54 Super Bowls have been entirely free of turnovers–Super Bowl 25 (Bills-Giants) and Super Bowl 34 (Titans-Rams). The fewest combined penalties in any Super Bowl were the two committed by Dallas and Pittsburgh in Super Bowl 10, and the most are the 20 that Dallas and Denver committed in Super Bowl 12. Four teams have played an entire Super Bowl without being flagged: Miami in Super Bowl 6, Pittsburgh in Super Bowl 10, Denver in Super Bowl 24, and Atlanta in Super Bowl 33. However, those teams are 1-3 in those games, with only Pittsburgh winning.
With five wins in eight Super Bowls, the Dallas Cowboys hold the Super Bowl record for best cumulative turnover ratio in Super Bowl games at plus-20. In all four appearances, the Buffalo Bills’ losers have the all-time worst mark at minus-13. Four franchises have never thrown an interception in a Super Bowl, but the Baltimore Ravens are the only ones who have never done so while appearing in more than one game. Six teams have never lost a fumble in a Super Bowl, but only Seattle and Kansas City have done so while appearing in multiple games.
There have been 13 missed extra points during Super Bowls and ten two-point conversions; two of each failed in Super Bowl 52 (Patriots-Eagles). There have been six fumble returns for Super Bowl touchdowns (including two by Dallas in Super Bowl 28 in Atlanta). Teams are 4-2 when accomplishing that feat, including wins by the last four straight teams that have done so. There have been 15 interception returns for scores in Super Bowls (including two by Tampa Bay’s Dwight Smith in Super Bowl 37), but only one by a member of the eventual losing team; Atlanta’s Robert Alford, who did it against New England in Super Bowl 51.
As is always the case with Super Bowl opponents, the Los Angeles Rams and Cincinnati haven’t played each other that often because they come from opposite conferences. The league’s schedule formula only has such teams meeting once every four years (since 2002). Cincinnati leads the overall regular-season series, 8-6, with the Rams breaking a three-game losing streak to the Bengals in 2019. Even though the new interconference placement game was inserted into the schedule as an extra game with the NFC West and AFC North Divisions meeting, the teams did not meet in 2021; the Bengals lost to San Francisco at home.
There have been 64 players to win the Super Bowl with more than one team. They include Baltimore Colts linebacker Ted Hendricks, quarterback Earl Morrall, center Bill Curry, and Ravens players Terrell Suggs, Robert Bailey, Billy Davis, Dannell Ellerbe Corey Graham, Marcus Nash, Shannon Sharpe, Torrey Smith, and Harry Swayne. Ellerbe, Graham, and Smith were all on the Philadelphia team that won Super Bowl 52.
36 head and assistant coaches have won Super Bowls with more than one team, including ex-Ravens assistants Dean Pees, Wilbert Montgomery, Milt Jackson, Jim Caldwell, and Russ Purnell. Former Ravens assistant Steve Spagnuolo has two rings, but neither with the Ravens (New York Giants, 42; Kansas City Chiefs, 54). Twenty-seven individuals have won Super Bowls as both a player and a coach, including former Baltimore assistants Matt Cavanaugh and Todd Washington.
There have been 20 pairs of fathers and sons that have played in Super Bowls and 32 sets of brothers. The relatives include Ravens defenders Peter Boulware (Michael, with Seattle), Cornell Brown (Ruben, with Buffalo), Ma’ake Kemoeatu (Chris, with Pittsburgh), Jamie Sharper (Darren, with Green Bay), and Arthur Jones (Chandler, with New England).
Tampa Bay quarterback Tom Brady has seven championship rings, more than any Super Bowl-era NFL player. At 44 years old, he is the oldest player to ever appear in a Super Bowl; previously, that distinction was held by ex-Ravens kicker Matt Stover, who played for Indianapolis at the time of Super Bowl 44 (42 years, 11 days). The youngest player in Super Bowl game-day history in Baltimore was Jamal Lewis, a rookie who was 21 years, 155 days old at Super Bowl 35 (also played in Tampa).
New England’s Bill Belichick’s six Super Bowl wins are the most among any head coach. Pittsburgh’s Chuck Noll won it four times, and Washington’s Joe Gibbs and San Francisco’s Bill Walsh each won three Super Bowls. Nine head coaches have won two Super Bowls each, including those in the Hall of Fame–Vince Lombardi, Bill Parcells, Tom Landry, Don Shula, Jimmy Johnson, and Tom Flores. All of those coaches pulled off multiple wins with the same franchise.
In their first season, there have been seven head coaches to take their teams to a Super Bowl coaching. Neither of this year’s Super Bowl head coaches is a rookie with his team, even though Cincinnati’s Zac Taylor is only in his third year with his team and Los Angeles’ Sean McVay is in his fifth season. The seven are Don McCafferty (Baltimore, Super Bowl 5), Red Miller (Denver, 12), George Seifert (San Francisco, 24), Jon Gruden (Tampa Bay, 37), Bill Callahan (Oakland, 37), Jim Caldwell (Indianapolis, 44) and Gary Kubiak (Denver, 50). Those first-time Super Bowl head coaches went 4-3 in those games.
The Rams’ Matthew Stafford and the Bengals’ Joe Burrow will become the fifth and sixth starting quarterbacks in Super Bowl history to wear number 9. They are the first duo to do so in the same game; signal-callers with that number are 3-1 in the big game, with only Tennessee’s Steve McNair losing in Super Bowl 34. Tampa Bay’s Tom Brady wears #12 – the most frequent starting-quarterback number in Super Bowl history – and those signal-callers are 17-13 in Super Bowls. Burrow is bidding to become the first-ever second-year quarterback to win a Super Bowl from the old to the young.
Quarterbacks who have started only one Super Bowl during their careers are 16-27. This year’s game marks only the second matchup of quarterbacks making their Super Bowl debuts against each other since Baltimore’s Joe Flacco and San Francisco’s Colin Kaepernick met in Super Bowl 47.
Tampa Bay quarterback Tom Brady, who made ten Super Bowl appearances, became only the fourth quarterback in Super Bowl history to earn multiple starts in the big game with different teams. The other three are Peyton Manning (Indianapolis, Super Bowls 41 and 44; Denver, Super Bowls 48 and 50), Craig Morton (Dallas, Super Bowl 5; Denver, Super Bowl 12) and Kurt Warner (St. Louis, Super Bowls 34 and 36; Arizona, Super Bowl 43).
The two teams in this year’s Super Bowl have resumes that are a study in historical mediocre. Through the end of the 2021 regular season, the Rams have compiled an all-time record of 599-580-21 (.508), which ranks right in the middle of the current 32-team pack. As for Cincinnati, its all-time regular-season mark is 373-459-5 (.449), which ranks as the league’s seventh-worst mark. Last year, Tampa Bay, a team born out of expansion in 1976, had posted a 278-429-1 record (.393), a winning percentage ranking at that point ranking at the very bottom of the NFL. This is the first time in NFL history a team ranking at the bottom of all-time win percentage is playing for a title, and it’s happened only once in the last 50 years in Major League Baseball; ironically, it was done by the 2008 Tampa Bay Rays (.417 at the time), who lost that year’s World Series to Philadelphia.
In lifetime postseason play, the Bengals and Rams have posted similar marks. The Rans are 25-27 lifetime, ranking 17th-best among the current lineup of NFL teams, and the Bengals are 8-14, which is tied with Cleveland for third-worst.
This year’s Super Bowl teams won their divisions, even though they had to play on Wild Card Weekend. Last year, Tampa Bay got into the playoffs via the wild-card route, and no team in ten years has made the Super Bowl that way until now. The last team to do it was the 2010 Green Bay Packers, who became the sixth wild-card team to win a Super Bowl. The last team that made the Super Bowl after winning a division and playing on Wild Card Weekend was the 2012 Baltimore Ravens.
Before the Super Bowl was born, the NFL Championship Game featured the Western Conference winner hosting the game in odd-numbered years, with the Eastern champ hosting in even-numbered years, regardless of record. That practice continued through the 1969 season, then disappeared after the merger.
To debunk a long-held myth about the Super Bowl, seven Super Bowls have been played just one week after the conference title games, and those games have had an average final margin of 11.4 points. The other 47 Super Bowls, played after a two-week break, have not been drastically less competitive, as many believe, for they have had an average margin of just under 15 points. Six of the last ten Super Bowls, all with a two-week break beforehand, have been decided by eight or fewer points. There are no plans in the future to reduce the gap between the conference title games and the Super Bowl to one week; the last time there was such a short break before Super Bowl 37 (Raiders-Buccaneers).
In 55 previous Super Bowls, quarterbacks have been named the game’s Most Valuable Player 31 times, including after 11 of the last 15 games. The MVP trophy was named after late commissioner Pete Rozelle starting with Super Bowl 25 (Bills-Giants, in the old Tampa Stadium), the first Super Bowl to take place after his death.
Before Super Bowl 5 (Colts-Cowboys), the winners’ trophy was affixed with the name of late Green Bay and Washington’s head coach Vince Lombardi, who died just before the start of the 1970 season. The trophy is a sterling silver trophy created by Tiffany & Company, featuring a regulation-size silver football mounted on a tee, sitting on a pyramid-like stand of three sides. The trophy stands 20.75 inches tall, weighs 107.3 ounces, and is worth more than $25,000. The words “Vince Lombardi Trophy” and “Super Bowl LVI” are engraved on the base and the NFL shield logo.
A yet-to-be-announced football dignitary will carry the Lombardi Trophy to the post-game victory platform. This practice was instituted at Super Bowl 40 in Detroit (Seahawks-Steelers). Those who have performed this task have included former Baltimore Colts coach Don Shula, Navy quarterback Roger Staubach, and Colts receiver Raymond Berry. Former Super Bowl MVP Joe Namath has performed this task twice.
Veteran referee Ron Torbert will work his first Super Bowl as the lead official. He was the alternate referee at Super Bowl 53 (Patriots-Rams) and broke into the league as a side judge in 2010, getting promoted to referee in 2014. His crew threw the fourth-fewest flags around the league during the regular season, but he will be working with a mixed crew at the Super Bowl. He worked this year’s Divisional round game between San Francisco and Green Bay. He is an attorney, as is his fellow referee, Clete Blakeman.
Retired referee Jerry Markbreit holds the head-official record with four Super Bowl assignments. Norm Schachter, Jim Tunney, Pat Haggerty, Bob McElwee, and former Howard County high school ref Terry McAulay have done three Super Bowls each. Ben Dreith, Tom Bell, Ed Hochuli, Red Cashion, Jerry Seeman, Gerry Austin, Bernie Kukar, Bill Vinovich, John Parry, and Cheffers have all been assigned to two Super Bowls.
NBC will handle this year’s Super Bowl telecast, its 20th, second-most to CBS’ 21. Two years ago, Fox broadcast its ninth Super Bowl. CBS and NBC each aired Super Bowl 1 (Chiefs-Packers) with different announce teams and camera crews. ABC, which is no longer part of the current Super Bowl telecast rotation, has shown seven. Fox will show next year’s game, which will be played on February 12, 2022, at State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Arizona, the Cardinals’ home. This year’s game will begin at the usual 6:30 ET time; the Super Bowl has kicked off at 6 p.m. or later (ET) each year since Super Bowl 26 (Redskins-Bills). The last Super Bowl to be played entirely in daylight was Super Bowl 11 (Raiders-Vikings) in Pasadena.
NBC’s Al Michaels will work his 11th Super Bowl (six with ABC, five with NBC), tying the late Pat Summerall’s record of 11 (eight for CBS, three on Fox). Summerall did the color analysis on four additional Super Bowls. CBS’ Jim Nantz has called the play-by-play for six Super Bowls, tying him with Fox’s Joe Buck, who called his sixth two years ago. Noted NBC sideline reporter Michele Tafoya will reportedly retire following this game. NBC’s Dick Enberg called eight Super Bowls, and Curt Gowdy did seven for NBC. Ray Scott had the call for four Super Bowls for CBS, while Greg Gumbel has done two big games on the same network. Frank Gifford (ABC) and Jack Buck (CBS) each called one. Gowdy and Scott called Super Bowl 1, working on separate broadcasts with separate networks, as NBC had the AFL contract at the time, while CBS held the NFL rights.
This year, in the current Super Bowl rotation, it would have been CBS’s turn to broadcast the game. But a deal was struck for NBC and CBS to switch places so that NBC could use this year’s Super Bowl to cross-promote its coverage of the 2022 Olympic Winter Games in Beijing.
Kevin Harlan will handle the Westwood One radio call for a 12th straight year. Harlan succeeded the legendary Marv Albert. Ex-Maryland quarterback and current CBS studio analyst Boomer Esiason worked with Harlan for 18 consecutive Super Bowl assignments. Still, Hall of Fame quarterback Kurt Warner took Esiason’s place three years ago. Warner was 1-2 in Super Bowls, splitting two as the Rams’ quarterback (winning 34, losing 36) and losing Super Bowl 43 with Arizona.
The highest-rated Super Bowl was 16 (49ers-Bengals), which posted a 49.1 reading for CBS. Super Bowl 10 (Cowboys-Steelers) pulled a Super Bowl-record 78 percent share, also on CBS, indicating how many television sets in the country were in use for the entire game. But the highest number of average viewers were tuned in during Super Bowl 51 (Patriots-Falcons) on Fox, during which over 172 million fans watched at least a part of the broadcast. A sign of the times: last year’s 38.2 rating for Super Bowl 55 (Chiefs-Buccaneers) on CBS was the lowest-rated Super Bowl in 31 years, accounting mainly for the numbers of many varying platforms on which the game aired.
Over four million fans (4,172,066) have watched Super Bowls in person. Last year’s crowd was projected to be well under 30,000, less than half of the expanded capacity in Raymond James Stadium, already making it the smallest-ever Super Bowl crowd due to COVID restrictions. The largest crowd was 103,985 at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena to watch Pittsburgh and the Los Angeles Rams (14). The smallest non-virus Super Bowl crowd (61,946) showed up for the first Super Bowl between Green Bay and Kansas City at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. Interestingly, the second-smallest showed up just two years ago (62,417) to see the San Francisco-Kansas City battle at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens.
This year’s Super Bowl will pay out a record $150,000 per player to the winning team and $75,000 per man to the runners-up. Those figures are up a respective $20,000 and $10,000 from last year. This year’s game marks the ninth straight year the payouts have increased. A 30-second advertising spot on television will cost between $6 million and $6.2 million, setting yet another new record.
A popular theory states that when the NFC representative wins the Super Bowl, the Dow Jones Industrial Average will end that calendar year higher and that an AFC win will send the market lower by year’s end. That theory has been correct after 41 of 55 previous Super Bowls, yet it had been wrong for the last five straight years and seven of the last nine before Tampa Bay’s win last year portended a market uptick, stopping the trend.
Country artist Mickey Guyton has been tapped to sing the national anthem. “America The Beautiful” will also be performed (this year by Jhene Aiko); both songs have been sung at the Super Bowl since 2009, although “America The Beautiful” was also sung once previously, four years earlier. Both songs will be signed for the deaf audience by Sandra Mae Frank. Gospel duo Mary Mary will perform “Lift Every Voice And Sing.” Chart-topping rap/hip-hop artists Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg, Eminem, Mary J. Blige, and Kendrick Lamar, will perform at halftime.
In honor of the United States Air Force’s 75th anniversary, there will be a first-of-its-kind flyover above SoFi Stadium during the national anthem. The Air Force Heritage Flight will be a formation of a P-51 Mustang, A-10C Thunderbolt II, F-16 Fighting Falcon, F-22 Raptor, and an F-35A Lightning II. The honorary coin-toss captains and other on-field dignitaries have yet to be announced.
Next year’s game (Super Bowl 57) will be broadcast on Fox and take place on Sunday, February 12, 2023, at State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Arizona, the home of the Arizona Cardinals and the site of Super Bowls 42 (New York Giants-New England) and 49 (Seattle-New England). Next year’s game will be the third Super Bowl in the Phoenix area; Super Bowl 30 (Cowboys-Steelers) was held at Sun Devil Stadium at Arizona State University. This Super Bowl will likely feature Joe Buck and Troy Aikman in the booth and Erin Andrews and Tom Rinaldi on the sidelines.
PREDICTION
Back in August, when I forecast the Rams to advance to this Super Bowl, I had a feeling that it was because they were going to feature a more complete team than anyone could have imagined. But even fewer would have been on board with a pick of the Cincinnati Bengals to get to their first game with a Lombardi Trophy on the line. One of the league’s doormats, the Bengals are a prime example of what can happen when parity kicks into full effect. It also shows what can happen when the high-flying, spread offenses widely used at the college level make the next-level jump, especially when teammates are drafted to play with each other as they did in college.
But I have to believe that even though offense wins more championships than defense these days–and that the game is more about speed- and perimeter-oriented than it has ever been–a few old-fashioned tenets never go out of style. Running, blocking, and tackling are three. Yes, Cincinnati has an attractive, flashy, white-collar style of football, but my take is that the Bengals don’t have enough blue-collar toughness to make it their time, certainly not as much as the Rams have.
The Rams have a passel of targets around which Matthew Stafford can spread the ball, as well as a runner in Sony Michel – late of the New England dynasty – who knows what big games are like. Plus, LAR has an offensive line that is tougher and healthier than anything the Bengals have – not to mention a pass rush and secondary that should hold down the exciting Joe Burrow just enough to slow him down.
All that said, the NFL wants all teams to put on a show this time of year, and these two will oblige in a game the Rams will win by a field goal.
Los Angeles 32, Cincinnati 29
