Veteran-led Rams edge scrappy Bengals in Super Bowl LVI

Los Angeles Rams defensive end Aaron Donald (99) after the NFL Super Bowl 56 football game Sunday, Feb. 13, 2022, in Inglewood, Calif. The Los Angeles Rams won 23-20. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)

LOS ANGELES (NewsNation Now) — In the city known for moviemaking, the Rams couldn’t have written a better script for themselves. The team with a shiny new stadium won Super Bowl LVI in front of a home crowd (although there were plenty of Bengals fans on hand) in a game that went down to the last minute.

In the end, the vaunted Rams defense, led by indomitable veteran Aaron Donald and the seemingly indestructible Von Miller, held tough and kept the Bengals’ second-year QB Joe Burrow from etching his name in the record books in just his second year in the league.

From the first note of the national anthem to the moment the confetti fell on the winners, Super Bowl LVI delivered its promise of delivering action and excitement.

Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford, who suffered through 11 seasons with the Detroit Lions, can now call himself a Super Bowl champion. After falling behind in the second half, his team loaded with veterans likely looking for a little R&R (ring and retirement) shut down the Bengals’ big-play offense and scored 10 unanswered points to take the victory.

Stafford’s game-winning touchdown pass (and just about every pass in the final drive) went to underdog wide receiver Cooper Kupp, who seemed to find a way to get open every time Stafford needed a target in the final drive. After stalwart Odell Beckham Jr. went down with a knee injury in the second quarter, Kupp stepped up and became Stafford’s prime target.

After leaving Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow, the second-year phenom out of LSU, largely untroubled in the first half, Aaron Donald, Von Miller and the rest of the Rams defense seemed to find the keys to the Bengals backfield, giving the NFL’s most-sacked quarterback during the regular season a frequent taste of more of the same.

Burrow, who fought through a scary fourth-quarter injury, embraced Stafford after the game was over. After winning only four games last year, Burrow said he won’t let this loss take away from his team’s amazing comeback season. “Obviously it stings. But we had a great year. It didn’t come out the way we wanted it to, but we still have something to celebrate.”

Sean McVay now becomes the youngest coach to ever win a Super Bowl, and Odell Beckham Jr., after bouncing from team to team and suffering a scary knee injury in the first half, will finally get a Super Bowl ring.

The Bengals go home to contemplate next year, when they’ll have to face the formidable Chiefs and a Bills team with something to prove to repeat this year’s unlikely feat.

The Rams, well, stay home and bask in the glory of winning their sport’s biggest trophy, one far bigger and some would say harder to get than the little Oscar statuettes to be handed out not too long from now.