Tremendous Bowl Preview: Rams and Bengals Deliver Offensive Energy

After a string of 5 Tremendous Bowls that includes both Tom Brady or Patrick Mahomes, on Sunday, two new quarterbacks, Cincinnati’s Joe Burrow and the Rams’ Matthew Stafford, made positive that pattern did not proceed.

Two weeks from now, the Cincinnati Bengals will face the Los Angeles Rams at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, Calif., within the Tremendous Bowl on Feb. 13. 1 draft picks will face off within the championship sport (Peyton Manning and Cam Newton had been the primary pair in 2016).

Each quarterbacks survived shut calls on Sunday to get there. Burrow led the Bengals to a second-half comeback in opposition to Kansas Metropolis within the AFC championship sport to advance to his first Tremendous Bowl, the third in Cincinnati’s franchise historical past. A couple of hours later, the Rams superior to their second Tremendous Bowl for the reason that 2018 season after getting previous San Francisco within the NFC championship sport.

In simply his second season as an NFL starter, Burrow made the Bengals’ postseason aspirations a actuality, regardless of the franchise going 31 years with no playoff win. Cincinnati completed the common season with a 10-7 document and one of many league’s hottest offenses, powered by Burrow’s poise, a record-setting season by the rookie receiver Ja’Marr Chase and a profession dashing season from operating again Joe Mixon. Chase, who topped 1,400 receiving yards within the common season, caught a game-tying landing within the AFC championship sport on Sunday.

The group, which is as younger and inexperienced as any crew within the postseason, bought previous Derek Carr and the Raiders in time beyond regulation within the wild-card spherical. Then the Bengals used a walk-off discipline purpose in opposition to the AFC’s top-seeded Tennessee Titans to win the divisional spherical. On Sunday, the crew shocked Kansas Metropolis, the AFC’s perennial convention champion, within the convention title sport — keyed by a protection that stifled Mahomes, Kansas Metropolis’s celebrity quarterback.

Burrow’s success in his last season at Louisiana State foreshadowed the profitable and electrifying NFL quarterback he had the potential to be. His confidence was lauded by teammates, and he has been credited with implementing a profitable tradition in Cincinnati, regardless of not even taking part in a full season in his rookie 12 months.

After he tore a number of ligaments in his left knee in week 11, he confronted a check of how he would reply.

“I am positive there was quite a lot of uncertainty on his finish,” Bengals head coach Zac Taylor informed reporters this week. “He needed to reply the proper means.”

The Rams’ basic supervisor, Les Snead, introduced in Stafford throughout the low season after the crew determined that Jared Goff, who led the Rams to a Tremendous Bowl a few seasons in the past, was not its greatest quarterback for the long run. Stafford, who was identified for his large arm, had constructed a formidable popularity because the Detroit Lions’ quarterback. But he had by no means gained in three postseason appearances with Detroit, one thing that many credited to an absence of expertise round him.

In Los Angeles, he cast a reference to one of the crucial productive receivers in soccer, Cooper Kupp, and located one other burgeoning weapon in receiver Van Jefferson. After the deep risk Robert Woods tore an anterior cruciate ligament throughout the season, Stafford discovered one other dependable goal in Beckham, who was one of the crucial gifted receivers within the NFL however had been a transparent mismatch together with his earlier crew, the Cleveland Browns.

Snead’s strategies of placing collectively this Tremendous Bowl-caliber crew have been unconventional and aggressive. He determined to forgo draft picks for established, impactful gamers like Beckham, who gave Stafford a dependent second goal to interchange Woods. Los Angeles additionally plucked a former Tremendous Bowl Most Priceless Participant, Von Miller, from the Broncos to play alongside the dominant defensive finish Aaron Donald. Then the Rams added Sony Michel, a former Patriots operating again, when Cam Akers tore an Achilles’ tendon earlier than the season.

That each one added as much as a crew that many predicted had an excessive amount of expertise to not attain this stage.

Los Angeles’s street to the Tremendous Bowl was not with out bumps, nevertheless, as Stafford piled up late-game turnovers down the season’s stretch. However after throwing 17 interceptions throughout the common season, he has turned the ball over simply as soon as thus far within the playoffs.

The Rams glided previous Arizona within the wild-card spherical and survived a Tampa Bay comeback try within the divisional spherical, with Stafford utilizing a protracted cross to Kupp late within the sport to arrange a profitable discipline purpose. Then, on Sunday, Los Angeles outlasted the 49ers in a detailed NFC championship sport.

The Tremendous Bowl matchup seems to favor the Rams, who certainly opened as a 4-point betting favourite in sports activities books. Taylor, who has been the Bengals’ head coach since 2019, was the Rams’ quarterbacks coach below Head Coach Sean McVay earlier than that. He was with the crew from 2017 to 2018 and was part of Los Angeles’s Tremendous Bowl run on the finish of the 2018 season.

Los Angeles appears to have the benefit on the line of scrimmage, with Donald, Miller and Leonard Floyd ready to face Cincinnati’s much-maligned offensive line.

The Bengals allowed essentially the most sacks (51) throughout the common season, however that solely made Burrow’s elevated passing numbers all of the extra spectacular. He had 4,611 passing yards and 34 touchdowns throughout the common season, then tackled on greater than 800 yards and 4 touchdowns within the postseason.

Stafford, after throwing for 41 touchdowns within the common season, had 4 passing touchdowns within the playoffs, together with two straight 300-yard passing video games.

After Sunday’s convention championship video games had concluded, each quarterbacks donned commemorative hats that celebrated their victories.

“This can be a complete lot higher than what I assumed it was going to be like,” Stafford mentioned after the Rams’ win.