A very millennial Super Bowl
The Rams are world champions, Joe Burrow is probably still in an ice bath, and everyone in their mid-to-late 30s is feeling nostalgic after this year's halftime show.
It was clear all night, from the hip-hop halftime show to the commercials paying homage to The Sopranos, Austin Powers, and The Cable Guy, that my generation was the target audience for this year’s Super Bowl. With every reference, millions of millennials were either pointing at their screens, a la Leo DiCaprio, or quoting Captain America.
I remember Super Bowls before 2000, but that Rams-Titans thriller was the first one I can recall in detail. It also helped usher in a new era of the NFL, one no longer dominated by the likes of John Elway, Troy Aikman, Steve Young, and Dan Marino.
Since the turn of the century, there have been five types of Super Bowls, in my mind:
1. An ugly blowout (examples: Ravens 34, Giants 7 in 2001; Seahawks 43, Broncos 8 in 2014)
2. Trick play is the turning point (examples: Saints 31, Colts 17 in 2010; Eagles 41, Patriots 33 in 2018)
3. Comeback ending (examples: both of the Giants’ wins over the Patriots, 2008 and 2012)
4. Comeback attempt falls just short (examples: Rams 23, Titans 16 in 2000; Patriots 28, Seahawks 24 in 2015)
5. Most memorable for a non-football reason (Nipplegate in 2004; the blackout in 2013)
As it so happens, on the same night when millennials were basking in nostalgia, Super Bowl 56 belongs to what I would call the best of those post-2000 categories: No. 3, the comeback ending.
I don’t think this was an all-time great Super Bowl; neither the Rams nor the Bengals played as well as they could have, and a couple of injuries put a bit of a damper on the game. Still, it was competitive and had a few twists and turns along the way … even if the Rams winning and the 23-20 score weren’t much of a surprise.
Let’s take a look at how each team got to that final result and what’s next for them.
The Rams’ best players stepped up when it mattered most
In the first half, the Rams’ biggest playmaker was Odell Beckham, who showed off his still-great hands with the first touchdown of the game. Not long after, he came through with a 35-yard gain on third-and-11 to keep the drive alive (it ended with the Rams’ second touchdown of the night).
It looked like the Bengals had their hands full with OBJ. Unfortunately, Beckham suffered a knee injury on the ensuing possession, and the Rams struggled to fill the void he left behind. Once Beckham exited, the Bengals initially had an easier time keeping Cooper Kupp in check. After Beckham’s injury in the second quarter, Kupp was held to just two catches for 22 yards and one atrocious throw to Matthew Stafford that had shades of the Patriots’ failed pass to Tom Brady in their loss to the Eagles.
That is, until the final drive. That’s when we finally saw the Cooper Kupp who won the NFL Offensive Player of the Year award and the league’s receiving triple crown.
With the Rams down 20-16, Sean McVay mixed in some tempo to try to get Kupp open. It worked, too. On that drive alone, Kupp hauled in four catches for 39 yards, converted a pivotal fourth down with a 7-yard run, and came down with the game-winning touchdown.
Kupp had some help on the drive from a savvy Stafford move:
And from the refs, who had been quiet for most of the game but then decided to throw three consecutive flags against the Bengals, one of the least-penalized teams this season. Kupp drew all three penalties — the first, on third-and-goal, was particularly egregious.
But Kupp, like he had all season, made the plays his team needed, when they needed them most. Just like Aaron Donald did on the other side of the ball.
Somewhat miraculously, the Bengals contained Donald for the first half, which obviously frustrated the perennial All-Pro. When Donald gave Joe Burrow a hard (but legal) shove out of bounds in the third quarter, it was the first stat Donald recorded in the box score. After that mini-fight, however, the beast was awoken. Donald finished with a 17.5% pressure rate, four tackles, three QB hits, two sacks, and two tackles for loss, including the final two game-clinching plays.
Either Kupp or Donald could’ve taken home MVP honors, but Kupp was chosen and made history in the process:
What’s next: The Rams are dealing with retirement rumors, most notably McVay and Donald, who is only 30 and remains the best player in the NFL. Assuming those two come back, the Rams should be in fine shape for 2022. Stafford, Kupp, Jalen Ramsey, and a healthy Robert Woods and Jordan Fuller will all return.
But their all-in approach to this season will be hard to replicate, especially with such little cap space and draft capital. I don’t think they’re too worried about that at the moment, though.
One player who is almost certainly retiring is 40-year-old left tackle Andrew Whitworth, who has held the title of “oldest active player in the NFL” for a couple weeks. If so, Whitworth had a dream ending to his career: Days after being named the Walter Payton NFL Man of the Year, Whitworth won his first ever Super Bowl and it came against his former team. What a week for older millennials!
The Bengals’ magic ran out … and in the exact way we expected it to
Everyone watching the Super Bowl, even those just here for the commercials, knew that the Bengals’ shoddy offensive line had a Sisyphean task on their hands against a Rams pass rush so frightening that Jordan Peele should make a movie about it.
Thanks in part to Burrow getting the ball out faster than ever, he was only sacked once in the first half, which came late in the second quarter. Unfortunately for Burrow, that was a mere preview of the rest of the night. He was sacked six times in the second half, for a Super Bowl record-tying seven total sacks.
The advanced stats were not pretty for Cincy’s offensive line, as expected:
One of the OL’s failed attempts to block the Rams’ pass rushers happened early in the fourth quarter, when Von Miller got to Burrow, who then grabbed his knee in pain. Burrow limped off and although he never missed a play, he didn’t look like himself after that hit. The calm and collected quarterback who led the Bengals on back-to-back game-winning drives in the playoffs didn’t have the same mojo to pull it off this time.
There were other reasons the Bengals lost, including questionable playcalling on their last drive, missed opportunities like an uncharacteristic Tyler Boyd drop, and poor coverage on Kupp late in the game. The offensive line once again being unable to protect Burrow is the No. 1 reason, though, by a mile.
What’s next: DO WHATEVER THEY CAN TO GIVE BURROW A REAL OFFENSIVE LINE, PLEASE.
The good news for the Bengals is that almost all of their key players are under contract for next year, while Burrow and Ja’Marr Chase are still on rookie deals. They also have plenty of cap space and are suddenly a desirable landing spot for free agents. The bad news is that, for the first time in years, they’ll be picking near the bottom of the draft and the most highly rated offensive linemen could all be off the board.
Whether through a trade, free agency, the draft, or all of the above, the Bengals need to remake their line, just like the Chiefs did last year after losing the Super Bowl. If they can do that, they should be set up nicely for 2022 and beyond.
Then again, we say that almost every year about the Super Bowl runner-up and they almost never make it back the next season. Maybe they’re felled by injuries (like the 49ers in 2020) or maybe they come up just short in a playoff game (like the Chiefs this year). Every little thing needs to go right to even make the Super Bowl in the first place. There’s no guarantee the Bengals can reproduce their success.
Continuing to build around Burrow, and making protecting him priority No. 1, 2, and 3, is a good place to start, though. — SH
Christian’s Shit List
All the things I hated in Super Bowl 56
1. Matthew Stafford’s vivid flashbacks to having to do everything for the Lions
Stafford’s first interception of the Super Bowl was top-tier unintentional comedy and a big reason why Cooper Kupp and not the veteran quarterback earned game MVP honors:
Stafford fell off mightily without Odell Beckham Jr. in the lineup. Here are his numbers before and after losing his rangy WR2:
before OBJ’s injury:
10-11, 130 yards, 2 TDs, 0 INTs, 155.5 passer rating
after OBJ’s injury:
16-29, 153 yards, 1 TD, 2 INTs, 52.8 passer rating
Fortunately for Stafford, Cincinnati’s defense was just bad enough to let him escape with the win.
2. The Bengals’ secondary, who forgot Cooper Kupp existed for a minute here
The play itself is inexcusable. Both Eli Apple and Jessie Bates bit on the motion/handoff fakes, allowing the guy who was just crowned NFL Offensive Player of the Year to sneak into the end zone undetected:
Somehow, NextGenStats’ dots are even funnier:
Look at poor #22, Chidobe Awuzie, just hanging out by his lonesome. No one is within 10 yards of him when Kupp catches that ball. He is socially distanced and taking his safety very seriously on this play.
3. The Bengals’ decision to cover Cooper Kupp one-on-one with Eli Apple with the game hanging in the balance
Apple came into the league with great expectations as a top 10 draft pick and has mostly been a disaster. He’s occasionally average, acts like he’s much more than that, and then is constantly shoved back into his hole by more capable football players. Like, say, Kupp:
The goal-line fade is one of the least efficient plays in football, but with Kupp lined up one-on-one with Apple and his 133.3 passer rating allowed this postseason, the outcome felt predetermined. This was awful news for Cincinnati but tremendous content for those of us invested heavily in schadenfreude; Apple capped off his AFC title game win — a game in which he allowed six completions and a touchdown on eight targets — by talking copious amounts of shit.
The Chiefs saved those receipts, fortunately.
4. Zac Taylor, whose fourth-and-1 call with the game on the line was to put a single blocker on Aaron Donald
Zac Taylor got to the Super Bowl. He is not a good coach. But since he works for the Bengals, he’ll have a job for two decades. This is the standard Marvin Lewis has set.
Good luck, Cincinnati! — CD