JIM LANG’S 10 NFL THINGS: SUPER BOWL LVI
Hi there. Well, that was something, wasn’t it? It has been a long time since the Super Bowl was in LA, (January 21st, 1993, the Cowboys over the Bills 52-17). A lot has changed since then. Instead of playing the game at the ancient Rose Bowl, this year’s game was played at the multi-billion-dollar SoFi Stadium. The new gold standard for sports facilities in North American. Forget about the hype and the money and the half-time show for a second and appreciate the game that we just witnessed. With that in mind, let us take a look back at Super Bowl 56.
1 – Super Match-up – I’m not saying, but I did predict that the Rams would win by three points. I just didn’t imagine how they would do it. The Rams 23-20 win over the Bengals wasn’t easy, not by a long shot. But in the end, the Rams depth and talent and Aaron Donald (more about him later), was simply too much for Joe Burrow and the Bengals to handle. The Rams star players, Donald, Von Miller, Cooper Kupp and Matt Stafford were their best players. It was a great game. Was it an all-time great Super Bowl? I don’t think so. But I loved it and I loved that the game was in doubt right until the very end. I also loved the raw emotion from the players and the coaches after the Rams won. I have been down on the field at the end of a Super Bowl, and I have seen some of the toughest athletes around reduced to tears when they realize that they are champions.
2 – Matt Stafford – Good for Matt Stafford. After suffering through all of those losing seasons in Detroit, Stafford won the football lottery when he joined the Rams. In Sunday’s win over the Bengals, we got example of what Stafford is all about. Stafford’s no-look pass to Cooper Kupp on the game-winning drive was a work of art. He was 26 of 40 for 283 yards and 2 touchdowns, including the game winning throw to Kupp late in the 4th quarter. Stafford also threw two interceptions and was 6 of 15 on 3rd down conversions. I point that out because Monday morning I heard a lot of ‘Stafford is a Hall of Famer’ talk on US sports radio. Stafford is a very good, sometimes great quarterback. But he wouldn’t get my vote for the Hall of Fame. Not that it matters. Stafford has a Super Bowl title on his resume, and nobody can ever take that away from him.
3 – Cooper Kupp – Cooper Kupp capped off one of the greatest seasons ever by a wide receiver by catching the game winning touchdown in the Super Bowl. It doesn’t get much better than that. Kupp had as close to a perfect season a receiver can have in the NFL. Including the post-season, Kupp caught 178 passes for 2,425 yards and 22 touchdowns. What is even more impressive about these mind-boggling numbers is that with each game, opposing teams designed their game plan around stopping him, and Kupp still burned them all for big numbers. Not bad for a 3rd round draft pick. The Rams are bound to go through some changes in the off-season, but with Kupp, Stafford and the Rams will always have a game-breaking receiver to work with.
4 – Aaron Donald – If Aaron Donald does decide that he has done it all and calls it a career, he is going straight to the Hall of Fame. His resume is unbelievable. In the 2nd half of the Rams win over the Bengals, Donald was practically unblockable. The Bengals were double and at times, triple-teaming him and they still couldn’t keep him away from Burrow. In the 2nd half of the Super Bowl, Aaron Donald decided that the Rams were not losing the game. In Joe Burrow’s final 22 pass attempts, he was sacked 7 times. When the game was on the line and the Bengals were staring at a make-or-break 4th down, Donald threw grown men aside like they were stuffed toys and forced Burrow to throw it away. Donald is a 3-time defensive player-of-the-year, a 7-time First-team All Pro, a member of the 2010’s All-Decade team and now, a Super Bowl champion. No matter what happens going forward, the man is a Hall of Famer. If he does decide to retire, offensive linemen around the NFL will be popping champagne!
5 – The Rams – Nobody is questioning the Rams decision to sacrifice draft picks and their future. The Rams went all in, and it paid off, they are Super Bowl champions. The Bucs did the same thing last year. The Rams gambled that winning a Super Bowl is more important than drafting, building, and hoping that you can win in 4 or 5 years. The Rams don’t care that they barely have any draft picks this year, they are Super Bowl champions! If you are a good team, say the Cowboys or the Bills, and didn’t make to the Super Bowl this year, you have to be having those kinds of conversations this week. Why not trade the future and trade draft picks and try to build a team that can win right now? Heck, the Eagles have three picks in the first round. I would trade two of those picks for players that can help them right now.
6 – Joe Burrow – If this year’s playoffs proved anything beyond any doubt, it is that Joe Burrow is a one tough quarterback. Burrow was sacked 7 times and hit another 11 times Sunday, and he still kept coming at the Rams. Even when it looked like he hurt his knee late in the game, Burrow shrugged off the trainers and went back in there for more. Thanks to Burrow, the Bengals will be a perennial playoff team for a long time.
7 – The Bengals – The Bengals and their fans will remember the 2021 season for a long time. Between the draft and free agency, the Bengals have to re-build their offensive line. Not just the offensive line, if I were running the Bengals, I would also look seriously at a blocking tight end. Speaking of free agency, the Saints outstanding tackle Terron Armstead is available for the right price. Returning to the Super Bowl won’t be easy. They will have to deal with the Bills, the Chiefs, the Titans, and many more tough AFC teams. But at least they are a contender. And a few years ago, the mere concept was laughable.
8 – Penalties – Bengals fans need to relax about that weak defensive holding call late in the 2nd half. The refs clearly blew a facemask/offensive pass interference call on the Tee Higgins 75-yard touchdown. Replays clearly showed that Higgins got away with an obvious penalty on the play. After watching that, Bengals fans are in no position to complain about a weak call that went against them later in the game. I am not saying it was a bad call, but calls like that usually even out and both teams benefitted from a missed/bad call. Look, NFL officials have been making bad calls throughout the post-season, why should the Super Bowl be any different?
9 – Gambling – Gambling on sporting events and on the Super Bowl has gone mainstream. So much so, celebrities like to post screen shots of their bets. Drake is a prime example. Drake bet well over $1 million dollars on Bit Coin that the Rams would win, and that Odell Beckham Junior would score a touchdown and have at least 62 yards receiving. When OBJ left the game with that knee injury, he had 52 yards receiving, 10 yards shy of a payout worth hundreds of thousands of dollars. Yikes. But that is why they call it gambling.
10 – Final Thoughts – Finally, a few words about where football is going. Sean McVay is 36 years-old, making him the youngest coach to ever win a Super Bowl. Zac Taylor is 38 years old. The trend of teams hiring young coaches isn’t going away, especially after seeing the success McVay has had with the Rams. The Dolphins new head coach Mike McDaniel is 38 years old. I am not saying that hiring a young coach is a guarantee for success, but there is a definite trend going on right now in the NFL. The NFL combine takes place from March 1st to the 7th. Free agency begins March 16th. The draft takes place between April 28th and the 30th in Las Vegas. This means that all teams, even the Super Bowl champion Rams, have a lot of work to do in the coming weeks so they are prepared for next season.
That is all for now, I will talk to you again as we get closer to the draft. Thanks to everyone who took the time to read about my thoughts of what is happening in the NFL. It is greatly appreciated. It has been an honour and privilege to share my thoughts with you all.
(Jim Lang is Canada’s foremost expert on the NFL. Follow him on Twitter at @JimLangSports)
