The Cincinnati Bengals have crashed the Super Bowl after winning a total of just six games over the previous two seasons.
They look to punctuate their stunning turnaround with the franchise’s first title when they battle the Los Angeles Rams on Sunday in Super Bowl LVI at Inglewood, Calif.
The Bengals are the fifth team this century to be a last-place team one season and in the Super Bowl the next.
Progress was expected in coach Zac Taylor’s third season at the helm, but few were forecasting this type of jump for a Cincinnati franchise that hadn’t won a playoff game since the 1990 season.
Taylor insists the magical season — 10-7 plus three postseason wins, including rallying from 18 down to beat the Kansas City Chiefs 27-24 in overtime in the AFC Championship Game — isn’t a shock.
“It’s not really a surprise to us,” Taylor said Wednesday. “There are going to be hard times while you build a foundation. Our guys bought into that and we knew that was going to shape us moving forward. …
“I can’t think of any other way to go through this journey than the way we did.”
The Bengals are appearing in the Super Bowl for the third time. They twice lost to the San Francisco 49ers, after the 1981 and 1988 seasons.
The Rams, playing in their home stadium, are making their second Super Bowl appearance in four seasons. The franchise is 1-3 in Super Bowls, with the lone victory coming after the 1999 season, when the Rams were housed in St. Louis and Kurt Warner and Marshall Faulk were the stars.
Los Angeles also staged a comeback to reach this point, overcoming a 10-point, fourth-quarter deficit to beat the San Francisco 49ers 20-17 in the NFC title game.
When the Rams fell 13-3 to the New England Patriots in the Super Bowl following the 2018 season, they appeared out of sync offensively.
Los Angeles coach Sean McVay admitted this week that he didn’t stick to his scheduled game plan. Instead, he kept tinkering with things, and it created issues.
McVay said he learned from the experience and is trying to keep his players in a normal routine.
“You don’t minimize what a great opportunity has been earned by both teams,” McVay said. “You want to take in the magnitude of the game, but you don’t want to do it to the point where guys are overwhelmed. You want to keep a normal rhythm of the routine during the week.”
McVay (36) and Taylor (38) comprise the first Super Bowl matchup in which both coaches are under 40 years old. Taylor was an assistant for the Rams under McVay for two seasons (2017-18) prior to becoming the Bengals’ coach.
Los Angeles quarterback Matthew Stafford (4,886 passing yards, 41 touchdowns, 17 interceptions in the regular season) has enjoyed a solid postseason with 905 yards, six TDs and one interception. He is 3-0 in this season’s playoffs after going 0-3 in the postseason over 12 years with the Detroit Lions, who dealt him to the Rams last offseason.
Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow (4,611 yards, 34 touchdowns, 14 interceptions in the regular season) has exceeded expectations in his second NFL campaign, particularly during the team’s stellar postseason run. He has thrown for 842 yards with four TDs and two picks in the playoffs.
“He plays with a lot of swag and a lot of heart, he wants it,” Rams star cornerback Jalen Ramsey said of Burrow. “That’s contagious to his teammates, and they take on that persona as well. Talent-wise and skill-set, he has it all. He can make all the throws.”
Burrow, who completed an NFL-best 70.4 percent of his passes, identifies maintaining focus as his main objective.
“The team that handles those distractions the best is going to end up winning the game,” Burrow said. “You see guys who go their entire career without ever getting to the Super Bowl, so when you do get there, you have to hunker down and take advantage of those opportunities.”
Cincinnati rookie wideout Ja’Marr Chase set franchise single-game (266) and single-season receiving-yardage (1,455) marks, while the Rams’ Cooper Kupp led the NFL in receptions (145), receiving yardage (1,947) and touchdown catches (16).
Rams star defensive tackle Aaron Donald (12.5 sacks) leads the Los Angeles defense, while Bengals linebacker Logan Wilson (four interceptions, 98 tackles) excelled in his second season.
Both clubs are waiting to learn if a key tight end will be available. The Bengals’ C.J. Uzomah and the Rams’ Tyler Higbee sustained knee injuries in their respective conference championship games.
–Field Level Media