The Cincinnati Bengals fell just short in Super Bowl LVI against the Los Angeles Rams. Multiple Sooners were playing in the game, and either way, a former Sooner would become a Super Bowl Champion. The game came down to the last two minutes, and for casual fans, that’s all you could ask for.
On the Bengals side, Joe Mixon, Jordan Evans, and Samaje Perine all donned the orange and black of the Bengals. Our friends at BengalsWire took the liberty of highlighting the stars, studs, and duds of their team’s performance, and one of the two former Sooners running backs on the Bengals roster landed was named a “stud.”
How good was Mixon running into the teeth of an elite defensive line? He gained 72 yards on 15 carries, averaging 4.8 per chance. If there was a negative, it was the five catches for one yard, but there’s more that goes into that than simple numbers. Mixon was running hard and decisively all night. – Chris Rolling, Bengals Wire
Mixon has always been an excellent running back, but primarily due to Cincinnati’s team success has hardly been given the spotlight he deserves.
He played his heart out running against a defensive line that features two sure-fire Hall of Famers in Von Miller and Aaron Donald on top of having to run against an elite run-stopping defensive lineman like A’Shawn Robinson. The Bengals offensive line held up on the ground and gave Mixon just enough space to get active.
While Mixon didn’t have much of an impact catching the ball, he impacted in other ways. His only touchdown was a passing TD deep in the red zone to wide receiver Tee Higgins set up in part to how well the Bengals were running the ball.
For Mixon, he finished his regular season with 292 carries for 1,205 yards for 13 touchdowns while also hauling in three receiving touchdowns. For Mixon, Perine, and the rest of the Bengals, it’ll be back to the drawing board as they try to figure out what they can do to get back to the Super Bowl next year.
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