Superbowl LVI Thread - Los Angeles Rams v Cincinatti Bengals

eagle eye

Kupp got it, deservedly slow imo.

Xavi6

Cincinnati Bengals

Wasn't a great game but had some great moments, Kupp was my MVP for the season so I'm glad he got at the big dance if the Rams had to win. Came up huge even with the extra attention after OBJ left the game. Donald was good too.

Disappointed for the Bengals, just didn't have enough.

Loved the half time show, thought it was perfect (apart from some dodgy sound). Great to see them all together dropping tune after tune. Just wish it was longer.

techdiver

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118627554#Comment_118627554

That quoted the wrong post...

Itssoeasy

Cincinnati Bengals

Obviously bengals fans will be disappointed but from my neutral view point that team is one that will be around for years to come. They are a young team and provided they can fix that Oline which held out longer than it was expected tonight, then with the skill players they have it wont be the last time we see them at the business end of the season.

techdiver

If The Ram's are to grow as a feature in LA (Their history doesn't lend themselves to a loyal fan base) do you think it's crucial to try and convince the likes of Donald etc to stay on to build the name.

Stafford is box office but Donald has an aura about him. He's only 30 so could easily play on. Is it feasible to offer him top QB type money (as he already earns more than "some" QB's).

You could easily see more kids in LA wearing Donald shirts as opposed to Stafford ones...

Man Vs ManUre

Watched a 5mins highlights of the game this morning. Packers wuda won that easily had 49ers not pulled off a robbery of the century. Only Chiefs or Bills wuda given Packers a game in the final of Super Bowl.

JazzyJ

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118627744#Comment_118627744

LOL and yet none of them were there.

chopperbyrne

LA Rams

Beckham Jrs injury ruined my -8.5 bet.

Wasn't a great SuperBowl, but definitely nowhere near the worst either.

kksaints

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118627997#Comment_118627997

Far better than the last one the Rams were in anyway.

Morrisseeee

LA Rams

As a Broncos fan, delighted for Miller, getting his 2nd SB ring & his 59th QB to be sacked (btw is that a record? probably not).

Actually when trying to find this stat, I came across another interesting 'find', a stat where Archie Manning has a better stat than his son Peyton !!

As Donald tweeted earlier in his career : "Defences win Championships" (they do & he did)

Faugheen

LA Rams

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118628645#Comment_118628645

They certainly do.

Ashawn Robinson had a low-key good game as well I thought.

s8n

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118627744#Comment_118627744

Still a bit salty ?

adrian522

LA Rams

I thought the game was good, Rams probably deserved it but Cincinnati will be kicking themselves, they were in position to win but couldn't get it done.

I thought they had a chance to at least force overtime at the end. 3rd and 1 call to Perine was awful, that needs to be your best call there, they are probably 8 yards from FG range there, at the very least run it with Mixon or get a quick pass with Burrow. So that was bad.

Cincinnati spent most of the second half in cruise control, I feel a bit more aggression and urgency and they could have had a bit of a cushion. From when the got the Int to almost the end of the game they were just way tooo conservative.

For the Rams I thought McVay's play calling was atrocious. He was coaching not to lose rather than to win. The run game was so bad it was comical and he still calling these runs up the middle for no gain well into the 4th quarter. He's got the best receiver in the game and he's throwing to back up TE's and Running backs.

I think both of these coaches kind of panicked on the big stage but the Rams just had better players which told in the end. The Cincinnati O-line held up well in the first half but by the end Burrow was under too much pressure to really pull it out.

I'd also question the officials. no flags the entire game then all of a sudden at the end they are calling every little thing down at the goal line? If you give a team enough chances down there they will score eventually.

Rams probably just about deserved to win but I think KC and Buffalo will be really kicking themselves watching that.

I also don't agree with the narrative that Cincinnati will necessarily be in contention every year, the AFC is loaded and we saw with like Brees, Rodgers, even Manning for a long time its not easy to get back to that position. Cincinnati have a lot of work to do on that offensive line and defense.

eagle eye

Let's not forget that the Rams needed help from the officials that wasn't there the whole game to get the final TD. I'm talking about the defensive holding call, not the pi call after it. I've no issue with the pi call but the holding call wasn't called on multiple plays all game.

BarryNumber1

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118627744#Comment_118627744

Poor attempt at trolling, Packers had questions all season on special teams, plus the Lions loss. Plus no sense of urgency from Rodgers. Beaten by SF when it mattered who a week prior got past Cowboys by making less mistakes than them. Rams looked the business during the regular season when they turned it on. Rams, Bucs, Bengals would all have beaten Packers comfortably.

Ohmeha

LA Rams

As some predicted the game wasn't as explosive offensively as some might have hoped with both teams somewhat crossing each other out due to McVay and Taylor having such in-depth familiarity of each other systems, both defences were mostly solid and you had a feeling Kupp and Donald were inevitably going to stamp their authority on the game at the right time

Delighted for Stafford, always enjoyed watching him at the Lions and felt he was overlooked as a top 10 level QB by being stuck in that mostly poor Lions team for so many years.

I'm not a fan of short term 'all-in' approaches to try to win a SB but it's been a brilliant execution by the Rams to win it in their own new multi billion dollar stadium 5 years after re-locating to LA. They'll suffer a hangover from this over the next few years without any draft picks, paying Stafford and cap space maxed but a Lombardi is a Lombardi and the profile of the team in that huge market should grow

Unlike most teams over the years who have lost a SB and have struggled to get over it I'm more optimistic the Bengals have everything in place to make it back in this active SB window. The foundations of a talented young team are strong and can improve, Burrow and Chase are respectively 2/3 years away from being paid, they haven't traded any of their future draft picks and they are in great shape with their cap

OU812

LA Rams

I love the fact that in the middle of the Super Bowl, the fonz was having a random discussion with an Irish guy about Soda bread

https://twitter.com/hwinkler4real/status/1493023145158082560?s=21

Faugheen

LA Rams

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118628979#Comment_118628979

Why are people incapable of talking about a game without claiming the officials helped a team to win it.

The Bengals wouldn't have been in the position they were in if that facemask on Higgins was called as it should have been. It wasn't. Rams went back again and again and got a call in their favour.

Also, if you put your hands on the waist of a targeted receiver that late in the game then you're asking for the officials to throw up a flag.

StringerBell

LA Rams

Thought overall the officials did a good job of letting them play, I think the miss of the facemask for the Bengals TD at the beginning of the third maybe caused the refs to look for spots to even it up so to speak but it was great to see them let the teams compete. Not a high quality game but compelling, I thought burrow was great he's gonna have rings no doubt but I do think he made some mistakes towards the end that cost his team. I also thought they did him no favour on the sidelines by waiting so long to go jumbo and shore up that O line

Donald is just a beast, that stop on third down where he just grabs the running back and pulls him backwards while already wrestling with a Bengal was unbelievable.

Rams could get nothing done on the ground all night, could get nothing done through the air once they lost a couple of weapons and it really came down to one drive where they just force fed the ball to Kupp regardless of coverage and it work so fair play. They went with their best weapon and he came through, delighted for him.

Thought it would be close, thought the rams would get it done in the end pre game but at one point I thought it was in the bag for the Bengals when they went jumbo and started protecting the QB and taking it out of his hands a little and the rams could get nothing going

eagle eye

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118630798#Comment_118630798

You see you just pointed out how the game was being officiated. They weren't calling lots of stuff, Ramsey could have been called a couple of times for holding and pi but the officials weren't calling it.

The defensive holding call went completely against how the game was being officiated. That's what I'm pointing out.

It's funny how you start out by asking how people can't talk about a game without bringing up officials helping a team and then you go complaining about the Higgins/Ramsey incident. Hypocritical much?

Faugheen

LA Rams

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118632069#Comment_118632069

I'm not complaining about any decision. Those two were questionable and both had a significant impact on the game.

I was just pointing out that I don't know how you could talk about the Rams getting the decisions when they had a clear one go against them.

What gave you the impression I was 'complaining' about anything?

eagle eye

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118632178#Comment_118632178

And you just pointed out again that these type of plays were not being flagged by the officials until right at the end of the game.

Both teams got the same treatment until right at the end when they called the defensive holding.

Now do you understand my point?

Man Vs ManUre

Will this Sofi stadium be the venue for World Cup final in 2026?? Or will it be in Rose Bowl, New York or even unlikely Azteca in Mexico City?? Need to be prepared.

adrian522

LA Rams

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118634659#Comment_118634659

This is off topic for a super bowl thread on the American Football forum, please ask your question on the soccer forum

LA Rams

Delighted for Stafford.

It's a shame he couldn't have been rescued from Detroit earlier. Always had a great, great arm.

collybyrne

LA Rams

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118580735#Comment_118580735

Finished 176-109 for the season. Big shout out to @Paleface who I believe won the picks game by an absolute mile this year!

Bit late getting round to commenting here but figured I might as well finish out the season. I can only say I enjoyed the game as it was close and somewhat exciting up to the end which isn't always the case in the big one. In terms of quality though there really wasn't alot to get worked up about, unless your really really into pass rush. Credit the defences, particularly the lesser know names of the Bengals unit who really grew into a quality outfit in the playoffs. You can't overstate though how much the Rams missed Woods, Higbee and ultimately Beckham, would surely be enough to sink most teams. I suppose that's where mortgaging everything still left them with a strong enough unit to get the job done so credit where it's due.

It never ceases to amaze me in sports how the finest of margins can shape history to such an entirely different storyline. Like the Rams were one score away from this being a complete waste of capital, a coaching disaster for McVay as a two time loser and the potential for them to slip into complete insignificance as their lack of cap space / draft picks comes home to roost in the coming seasons. Now though, it was all worth it. McVay is still the boy genius (even though he spent most of the game running into a brick wall) and banners fly forever as they say.

Well done to the Rams anyways and hard luck to a brave and over-achieving Bengals side. It's easy to say they're young and have a few more of these in them but as we all know on here nothing is guaranteed and they are in a conference of killer quarterbacks now. The fight for the AFC is going to be ridiculously hard fought for years to come.

Just want to say thanks to all the regular contributors in here throughout the season. I really enjoy reading your opinions and speculations every week and as someone who doesn't bet, tracking the picks every week adds a bit of craic to the whole thing for me. Gets me every year how crazy short the NFL season is and how big of a gap it leaves in my weekends. Maybe that says more about my lack of a social life but it's true nonetheless!

Thanks all, hopefully catch you throughout the offseason. 👍️

Itssoeasy

Cincinnati Bengals

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118583450#Comment_118583450

173-112 for the entire season. Not a bad showing. The playoffs especially the divisional weekend was a disaster though.

Paleface

LA Rams

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118601347#Comment_118601347

183 - 102 for the season. Thanks @collybyrne for the shout out! Looking forward to going up against you and everyone else again next season!

Rams made hard work of winning in the end against a team who couldn't protect their QB if their lives depended on it. OBJ going off injured was huge when Higbee had been ruled out before the game. When the run game couldn't get going it was Stafford to Kupp or bust. Fair play to them both for that last drive.

As I said before as a Seahawks fan it was hard to watch them win but there is no denying they have several players who deserve it.

Man Vs ManUre

Haha Rogers is committed to another season, the greatest qb1 in history. I expect Brady to retire again when he hears this. Nobody can stop us from lifting the Super Bowl next year in Las Vegas. Go Pack go.

SHOVELLER

First Superbowl missed in forever. Anyone know where to watch the full game? Have checked the usuals in youtube and vimeo but grateful if there's another platform where it might be available👍️