This year’s NFL season has been nothing short of miraculous. There were some crazy upsets, amazing plays, and wild conclusions to games that left all spectators speechless. Every player left it all on the field this year. There are also so many young players that have emerged into superstars this year. With the old generation starting to fade away (Tom Brady, Aaron Rodgers, Ben Roethlisberger), there is no question that the new generation will be just as special. If the next couple seasons are anything like this one, NFL fans, we are in for a treat. After an extremely intense and competitive playoffs, the Super Bowl was set to be the Los Angeles Rams against the Cincinnati Bengals.
The Los Angeles Rams started their Super Bowl run back in the offseason when they went out and signed superstar quarterback, Mathew Stafford. Stafford’s talent had been apparent his whole career in Detroit. He was always known to be one of the best quarterbacks in the league but his surrounding team was never that good. The 34-year-old quarterback had never even won a playoff game when he signed with the Rams over the summer. Many people had their doubts about whether he could bring the Rams to a superbowl, which they were wrong about. Despite getting Stafford, the Rams started their season off fairly shaky. They lost some games they shouldn’t have and the team was starting to look a little incomplete. At the trade deadline, the Rams made some gambles. They went out and traded for Odell Beckham Jr. and former Super Bowl MVP, Von Miller. Both of these players made an immediate impact on the Rams, and they finally looked like the team that most people expected them to be. They kept rolling through the regular season and when playoff time came around, they were ready to play. They beat the reigning champions, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. In the NFC championship game they beat their division rivals, the San Francisco 49ers, to make it to the Super Bowl. Their last challenge would be the Cincinnati Bengals.
The Cincinnati Bengals had quite a different path to the Super Bowl. Going into the 2021-2022 season, the Bengals were expected to be one of the worst teams in the NFL. Their second-year quarterback Joe Burrow was coming off of an ACL tear, and they didn’t make any big moves in the offseason. They had the 5th pick in the NFL Draft and with it they took Ja’marr Chase. Many NFL analysts felt that Ja’marr Chase was a bad pick by the Bengals, but Chase proved them incredibly wrong. Ja’marr Chase ended up having one of the best rookie seasons ever in NFL history. He showed the world that he was no joke, and arguably the best player in the whole draft. He and Burrow had previously played in college at LSU, where they torched defenses and won a National Championship. That chemistry stayed between them, and they were a lethal duo this year. The Bengals sneaked up on everybody. They were a fairly average team until the last couple weeks of the regular season where they picked it up a notch. In week 17, they picked up a huge win against the Kansas City Chiefs, giving the Bengals their first division title in a decade. They carried this momentum into the playoffs. They beat the Raiders in the first round and the Titans in the second round. In the AFC championship game, they found a way to pull through against the Chiefs and get the win on a game winning field goal in overtime, sending them to the Super Bowl.
The Super Bowl was a perfect wrap-up to the NFL season. The Rams got an early lead to start the game from an Odell Beckham Jr. touchdown and went into halftime up 13-10. The Bengals answered back to start the second half on a 75 yard touchdown by Tee Higgins. Entering the fourth quarter, the Bengals were up 20-16. Both offenses slowed down in the 4th quarter and the game was still 20-16 with 5 minutes left. The Rams had one last possession that they took all the way down to the goal line. With less than 2 minutes left, Stafford hit Kupp in the end zone to take a 23-20 lead. The Bengals got the ball back with one last chance, but they couldn’t capitalize, making the Los Angeles Rams the 2021-2022 Super Bowl Champions.