National Football League

Super Bowl 2022: Rams rally past Bengals in Hollywood ending

Updated Jan. 18, 2023 10:45 a.m. ET

By Martin Rogers
FOX Sports Columnist

INGLEWOOD, Calif. — This was always the idea for the Los Angeles Rams, the way it was intended. To not just become a team capable of winning a Super Bowl but to also do it like this, with superstars, watched by superstars, in a city that loves its superstars, capped off with a Hollywood ending.

It doesn’t always work, the kind of approach that involves loading up on big-name talent — cost and egos and potential for discontent all be damned. But it worked this season, and it worked Sunday — just barely — as the Rams squeezed past the Cincinnati Bengals 23-20 in Super Bowl LVI, providing the ultimate validation of the franchise’s go-for-broke policy.

Matthew Stafford, the quarterback without a playoff victory in his career before he was acquired from Detroit, drove down the field and threw the game-winning touchdown — his third of the evening — with 85 seconds remaining.

Stafford found MVP Cooper Kupp, the NFL’s best receiver according to its triple crown of core statistics, to provide the final lead change of an enthralling contest at SoFi Stadium.

"I don’t feel deserving of this," Kupp said. "The guys standing here challenged me. They pushed me. I am just so grateful."

Cooper Kupp envisioned Super Bowl MVP in a Rams win

Cooper Kupp says in his postgame interview that after the Rams lost the Super Bowl in 2019, he had a vision that the Rams would win the Super Bowl title and he would be MVP.

As the Bengals attempted a final rally, it was cut short by Aaron Donald, perhaps football’s most feared defender, getting to Joe Burrow on fourth-and-1 at midfield.

A tearful Donald said after the crowning achievement of a certain Hall of Fame career: "I wanted it so bad. I dreamed this."

Added McVay, at 36 the youngest Super Bowl-winning head coach: "For the offense to be able to find a way and then Aaron to be able to finish it off, it’s poetic, man."

'So proud to be associated with them' — Sean McVay on the Rams

Los Angeles Rams head coach Sean McVay shares what it means to win the Super Bowl with the Los Angeles Rams after a long and hard-fought season.

The Rams were the ones with all the flashy personnel tools, by purposeful design and with the specific intent to not just be good but also make a splash with it. This is Los Angeles, so that’s the way it had to be to get notice around these parts.

In all honesty, it was a fitting concept. You don’t build a $5 billion stadium that feels like it’s from the future only to fill it with journeymen and prospects.

The reason for pursuing star power is the force it brings at those precise times when you need someone to do something that shines bright.

For the Rams, that was at 6:22 in the first quarter, when Odell Beckham Jr. provided the game's first score with a superb, twisting TD catch. Later in the first half, Beckham was ruled out for the remainder of the game due to a knee injury, just when he looked primed for a critical impact on the contest.

By then, the Rams were leading 13-3, with Stafford having found Kupp on a short route to temporarily silence the throng of traveling Cincinnati fans.

Despite the Bengals’ comeback from 21-3 down in the AFC Championship at Kansas City, this one had begun to feel like it was slipping away, only for Burrow to remind everyone watching why so many think he could be the brightest of the NFL’s crop of electrifying young quarterbacks.

A strong drive down the field ended with a neat bit of trickery, with running back Joe Mixon floating it into the end zone for underrated receiver Tee Higgins to make the grab.

The Bengals went into halftime on a high, despite trailing 13-10, with Jessie Bates intercepting Stafford just before Snoop, Dr. Dre, Mary J. Blige and Eminem headlined a performance for the ages.

After the interval, the game turned rapidly. On the first play from scrimmage, Burrow uncorked one down the left sideline, and Higgins did a number on Jalen Ramsey, walking into the end zone when the Rams' star corner ended on his backside.

After the teams traded field goals in the third, the game turned into a defensive slugfest. The Rams' defense got to Burrow time and again, and Stafford was unable to find the throws he needed.

Until the end.

Stafford energized the franchise upon his arrival. Stifled all those years in Detroit, his move to L.A. came to fruition after a meeting with coach Sean McVay in a Mexican resort in Cabo San Lucas just more than a year ago.

Stafford ground his way down the field, picking up key gains and benefiting from some timely penalties in what had been a rarity amid a fast-paced clash. That he would look for Kupp was no secret, and he targeted him again and again.

Ultimately, the Bengals could not answer, and the partnership that formed the backbone of the L.A. offense all season came up big when it mattered most.

"We wanted to be in attack mode and pressure them as much as possible," Bengals coach Zac Taylor said of the Rams' final drive. "Sometimes, it worked. Sometimes, it didn’t."