And Cooper Kupp caught Matthew Stafford’s pass for the touchdown 85 seconds from time. The Los Angeles Rams won the second Super Bowl in their history, beating the Bengals (23-20) on Sunday, February 13, after an extremely close match.
Thus ends the championship of the American Football Professional League (NFL), in the line of exceptional play-offs marked by incredible match scenarios. And, like in a Hollywood film in LA’s SoFi Stadium, this Super Bowl, 56th in the name, has had its share of twists and turns.
Crowned for the first time in 2000, when the franchise was based in Saint-Louis (Missouri), the Rams succeeded the Buccaneers, whom they had eliminated in mid-January, accelerating without knowing it yet the retirement of the legendary Tom Brady, seven-time champion.
The start of the game was not to the advantage of the Bengals, as the Rams managed two touchdowns in the first and second quarters, Matthew Stafford finding first Odell Beckham Jr, then Cooper Kupp, already him, after a series of attacks that made the Bengals defense dizzy (13-3).
But Cincinnati responded immediately. Joe Burrow, hardly to his advantage until then, despite some good “drives”, combined with Joe Mixon who played quarterbacks and found Tee Higgins for the touchdown (13-10).
As soon as it restarted, the match then took a big turn, when Beckham Jr injured his left knee on his own. In October 2020, while playing with the Cleveland Browns, he suffered a cruciate ligament rupture against these same Bengals. This curse momentarily knocked out his people.
Because after the halftime show, at the top of hip hop, between current crème de la crème embodied by Kendrick Lamar, and vintage revival with Dr. Dre, Eminem, Snoop Dogg, Mary J. Blidge and 50 Cent as a surprise guest , the Bengals had a thunderous start to the second period.
From his first throw, “Joe Cool” sent the kind of pass that we usually try as a last resort and 70 yards away, Tee Higgins, author of a double, caught it to go to the touchdown. A superb action although marred by a fault not whistled, the receiver having in his race caught the grid of the helmet of his defender (17-13).
The last quarter was on the line and finally, Stafford, on borrowed time, found Kupp, logically designated MVP. For Cincinnati, this defeat on the last step is the third after those conceded in 1982 and 1989 against the San Francisco 49ers. Probably the hardest to collect.