Every video game player knows the concept of the final boss.
After hours spent griding through different maps and leveling up your skill-set, you end off in a staredown against the toughest challenge the game can put in front of you.
Super Bowls are often football’s version of the final boss. The toughest task a team faces to date. For the Los Angeles Rams in Super Bowl LVI, they might face such a boss in the form of Lou Anarumo’s defense. A unit that turned the AFC Championship game around and, in the process, turned the football world on its head.
The challenges the Rams face Sunday from this group, however, might be the reason they made a decision last winter to trade for Matthew Stafford.
As some argued at the time, including this author, a reason for the move came down to one word. Decisiveness. Where Jared Goff would be hesitant at times in the pocket — perhaps costing the Rams a shot at beating a final boss in Bill Belichick in Super Bowl LIII — Stafford is anything but.
With what the Bengals do on defense, from rotations in the secondary to dropping seven and eight into coverage, Sean McVay will need Stafford to be at his most decisive during Super Bowl LVI.