The 2021 NFL season was the longest ever, and perhaps improbably, it also gave us perhaps the greatest postseason we’ve ever season. Game after game was decided in nail-biting fashion, and Super Bowl LVI was no exception.
The Los Angeles Rams beat the Cincinnati Bengals, 23-20, but it was never a sure thing until the end. The Rams shot out to a 13-3 lead, watched Joe Burrow and the Bengals mount comeback after comeback, got their defense together at the best possible time, and in the end, Cincinnati’s Achilles heel — an offensive line that could probably get blasted by a good SEC defensive front — turned things in L.A.’s favor.
It’s always good to look back at close games like this to see when and how things turned, especially when there were so many twists and turns. With that in mind, here are, in chronological order, all the truly important plays in Super Bowl LVI.