The Rams waited out the Bengals’ biggest weaknesses to win Super Bowl 56

The Rams crushed the Bengals’ o-line and beat their coverage to win Super Bowl 56

The Los Angeles Rams weren’t perfect in Super Bowl 56. They didn’t have to be; they just had to be better than the Cincinnati Bengals.

The Rams exploited the Bengals’ biggest weakness, sacking Joe Burrow a Super Bowl record-tying seven times and biding enough time to mount a comeback en route to a thrilling 23-20 win. Los Angeles wasn’t very good for extended stretches, but the Rams’ lows ultimately didn’t run as deep as Cincinnati’s. The end result saw guys like Aaron Donald, Andrew Whitworth, and Matthew Stafford finally lift the Lombardi Trophy as world champions.

They way they got there wasn’t exciting or innovative. They simply leaned into the Bengals biggest faults and worked their mismatches to the bone. The Rams were the house and Cincinnati was playing baccarat; in the end, their disadvantage was simply too much to overcome for a full 60 minutes.

Let’s start where we knew this would be a very uncomfortable night for Joe Burrow: in the trenches.

The Rams’ pass rush disrupted the Bengals’ passing game all night

We all knew Cincinnati’s disastrous blocking would be an issue against LA. We didn’t know if it could be papered over like it had been on the road through the AFC side of the bracket or if it would prove fatal. It turned out to be the latter:

Joe Burrow had just 2.4 seconds in the pocket per pass, his shortest time in the 2022 NFL Playoffs and 0.3 fewer seconds than he had to react in the AFC title game. He was sacked seven times and hit 11 more, meaning 45 percent of his dropbacks ended with him hitting the turf in some form or another. He got pressured when the Rams blitzed. He got pressured when he had a distinct blocking advantage up front:

Burrow was able to create magic when he had time to throw. He attempted two passes of 25+ yards downfield and completed them both against Jalen Ramsey in coverage, even if Tee Higgins’ facemask-grabbing touchdown catch was a bit suspect:

But Burrow barely had time to make these throws. Only five of his 33 passes traveled more than 10 yards downfield. 19 of those passes came within five yards of the line of scrimmage, per RBSDM’s passing chart.

No time to run meant no room to create space. Burrow’s passes had to be needles threaded into tight seams against the Rams’ coverage. Only Ja’Marr Chase averaged more than two yards of separation per target, The second year quarterback still did his best to turn this chicken crap into chicken salad, but ultimately couldn’t pull this offense out of tailspins in key situations. Cincinnati converted only three of 14 third down situations and one of eight when facing third and five or longer.

Burrow was sacked on three of those third downs. On the game deciding fourth-and-1 play, he had his chances of lifting the Lombardi Trophy extinguished by Aaron Donald:

None of this was surprising! It was wildly predictable that Donald and Von Miller would feast, and they did; four sacks, four tackles for loss, and five quarterback hits between them. The gauntlet was thrown down for Zac Taylor to engineer an offense that succeeded despite its flaws. When the quick passes that worked against the Titans and Chiefs failed to pan out, there was no Plan B to bail out the Bengals — though, with one clutch fourth quarter defensive stop, Cincinnati wouldn’t have needed one.

So let’s talk about the second lingering weakness that sank the Bengals.

Los Angeles kept trying the Bengals secondary until it found something that worked

Cincinnati arrived in LA with a secondary that ranked just 24th in passing DVOA. The Bengals struggled early to contain Odell Beckham Jr., but clamped shut after Odell Beckham Jr. suffered a non-contact knee injury that kept him out for the bulk of the game.

Beckham’s absence loomed over the LA passing offense throughout the second half. He emerged as a valuable and versatile piece of the offense capable of stretching the field deep or taking short crossing routes upfield. Without his presence, the Bengals could leave the much less-threatening Van Jefferson and Ben Skowronek in single coverage and devote all their skill points to shutting down Cooper Kupp.

This was a big deal. Here’s how Stafford’s numbers sank after losing his capable WR2.

before OBJ’s injury:

10-11, 130 yards, 2 TDs, 0 INTs, 155.5 passer rating

after OBJ’s injury:

16-29, 153 yards, 1 TD, 2 INTs, 52.8 passer rating

This could have been enough to deflate the Rams’ offense, especially on a day where their running backs combined for 30 rushing yards on 19 carries. But this was, shockingly, not enough to carry the Bengals to a win thanks to some stunning breakdowns that let Stafford off the hook on a day where he was far from perfect.

I could show you just how botched Cincinnati’s coverage was on Kupp’s first touchdown of the game, but I feel NextGenStats’ dots do a much better job conveying the sheer chaos of a defense losing its collective mind when faced with the prospect of covering the league’s top wideout:

Both Jessie Bates — whose safety coverage shut down Patrick Mahomes in the second half of the AFC title game — and Eli Apple (who’s in for a roasting tonight) bite on a fake run play and give 2021’s receiving triple crown winner a free run to the end zone. Cornerback Chidobe Awuzie, No. 22 in the diagram above, finishes the play without a living soul within 10 yards of him. It’s just a mess, through and through.

Still, it seemed all this could be survivable. The Bengal offense came out firing in the second half. Stafford tapped into some of his basest Lions instincts and tried to force watermelons through key holes.

But when it came time for the final, non-kneeldown drive of his season, Stafford got back to basics. He challenged the Bengals secondary, who had bracketed Kupp throughout the second half and forced the action onto players like Ben Skowronek and Brycen Hopkins, to stop his best player. In the final drive, he turned to Kupp seven times. Each play resulted in either a completion or a penalty that gifted LA a new set of downs.

That included the death blow.

Facing second-and-goal at the 1, the Bengals opted to put embattled cornerback Apple, who is mostly bad at this, on reigning Offensive Player of the Year Kupp, who is much better. Stafford saw the single-coverage mismatch immediately. He turned it into the game-winning touchdown.

Goal line fades are, historically, a low-percentage proposition. But with Kupp on Apple, this felt like a foregone conclusion. LA took the lead, then held steady to win the game.

***

The Bengals very nearly outran their problems. They led Super Bowl 56 inside the final two-minute warning. They very nearly won a world championship despite fielding one of the worst offensive lines in Super Bowl history and a secondary that occasionally broached the idea of coverage as if it were a controversial new subject.

The good news for them is that they have more than $50 million in salary cap space to spend this offseason to address those flaws. With Joe Burrow and a championship-caliber roster already in place, they should have no problem bringing upper-tier talent to Ohio.

The Rams, however, came into the Super Bowl with more ways to win and patiently let the game unfold in their favor. Los Angeles was the more talented team coming into the big game, but that doesn’t automatically mean a win. In the end, they still had to rise up and exploit the mismatches Cincinnati brought to the west coast. Without the veteran play of Donald, Miller, Stafford, and Kupp, this game would have ended in disappointment.

Fortunately for the Rams, they had the right personnel to ensure the Bengals’ fatal flaws were indeed deadly. Now they get to lift the Lombardi Trophy for the first time as a Los Angeles franchise.