Photo: Reed Hoffmann/AP
A Cincinnati Bengals fan had faith during the second half of the AFC Championship game against the Kansas City Chiefs on Jan. 30, 2022 in Kansas City, Mo.
The Cincinnati Bengals would be the worst team in NFL history to ever win the Super Bowl if successful on Sunday against the Los Angeles Rams. The Bengals truly have no right to be playing in a Super Bowl this soon. Maybe next year or the year after but not now.
The Bengals have lost seven games this year. They lost to the Chicago Bears and New York Jets. Their head coach, Zac Taylor, has a career record of 16-32-1 in the regular season. He was nearly fired this time last year. The Bengals’ offensive line, which plays like a goalie in a NHL All Star game, allowed 55 sacks this year. The Bengals have been outgained in all three of their playoff games this year.
They got to play Derek Carr, who had an interim head coach, and Ryan Tannehill, who had a rusty and limited Derrick Henry, in the first two rounds of the playoffs. Go ahead, name five Bengals not named Joe Burrow or Ja’Marr Chase. And, no, Boomer Esiason, Cris Collinsworth and Ickey Woods do not count and we also won’t accept, “Some guys named Tee and Apple.”
The honor of worst Super Bowl winner right now is a toss-up between the Joe Flacco-led Baltimore Ravens that beat the San Francisco 49ers and the two New York Giants’ teams with throw-it-up-and-pray Eli Manning that beat Tom Brady and the New England Patriots. All three of those teams lost six or seven games in the regular season, just like the Bengals. So, yes, we’re saying the Bengals have a chance on Sunday.
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The Bengals’ chances, of course, rely on quarterback Joe Burrow’s ability to stay in one piece. He is that special.
Put Burrow on the Rams this season and they might be going for a perfect season on Sunday. Put Rams’ quarterback Matt Stafford on the Bengals and they likely wouldn’t have even made the playoffs, like most of Stafford’s Detroit Lions teams. This Super Bowl all comes down to how well the Bengals protect Burrow. He carried this Bengals team to Sunday’s game on his back. Stafford will be in the Super Bowl because they didn’t allow him to mess things up.
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Did the city of Los Angeles make a deal with the sports devil about two years ago? The Rams lost the Super Bowl in February 2019 after the Los Angeles Dodgers lost the World Series in 2017 and 2018. The Loe Angeles Lakers hadn’t won a title since 2010. The sports devil then must have knocked on all their doors.
The Dodgers then won the World Series in October 2020 and the Los Angeles Lakers won the NBA Championship a few weeks earlier with both winning those titles in a germ-free, homogenized sports bubble clear of distractions and worries.
The Dodgers and Lakers never had to play a road game in the opposing team’s venue or city, never had to pack up and get on a plane and travel or even order room service in a different hotel throughout their entire championship series.
The Dodgers played that entire World Series in Arlington, Texas in front of about 11,500 barely noticeable fans in a city that was more interested in college football and NFL regular season games and they got to play the Tampa Bay Rays on top of it.
The Lakers got to play in some fantasy land called the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex at Disney World. It could have actually been on some Hollywood sound stage or LeBron James’ private court, for all we knew. The only fans present were on an annoying video board and they were just mostly celebrities (L.L. Cool J, Bad Bunny, Fat Joe and Timbaland) looking for some free publicity, retired NBA greats trying to stay awake or ESPN personalities paid to be there. And, to top it off, the Lakers got to play the Miami Heat.
And now we have the Los Angeles Rams playing a home game at the Super Bowl on their own turf (just the second time that’s happened in NFL history) and getting to play the seven-loss Bengals.
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A Rams’ loss would be the biggest Super Bowl choke since the perfect Tom Brady and the 2007 Patriots somehow lost to Eli Manning and the Giants.
Yes, the Atlanta Falcons choked away the Super Bowl five years ago to Brady after leading 28-3 but they were, well, the Falcons and not supposed to win anyway. The Baltimore Colts choked away Super Bowl III to the New York Jets but that was more about the old, slow, tired and overconfident Colts of the NFL losing to a younger, faster, more motivated Jets team of the upstart AFL.
A Rams’ loss at home to the Bengals would be devastating to the Rams. It will truly be Super Bowl title or bust for the Rams on Sunday. The Rams followed the Lakers (LeBron James) and Dodgers (Mookie Betts) strategy of trying to buy a title with superstars and if it doesn’t work, well, there will be a price to pay. Stafford and the Rams might not be able to live down a loss on Sunday.
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The Rams should win this game something along the lines of 30-17. It might be more like 38-13 if the Rams win the turnover battle, bury Burrow in the ground about eight times and Stafford turns into former Ram great (and 1951 NFL champion) Norm Van Brocklin. That (1951) was the last time the Rams won a title on their home field.
Burrow won’t be afraid of the spotlight (he was amazing in the college football title game just two years ago) and the Rams seem to always play below their potential. So, if the Bengals run the ball effectively to keep the Rams’ pass rush honest and throw short, quick passes to frustrate that pass rush, we could have a close game.
But the Rams should still win. Then again, if Matt Stafford turns into Vince Ferragamo, well, anything is possible.
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Burrow will be the sixth quarterback named Joe after Namath, Theismann, Flacco, Kapp and Montana to appear in a Super Bowl. The Super Joes, so far, are 7-2 in their nine combined Super Bowls with only Theismann and Kapp losing. There have been two other Matts in the Super Bowl and they (Ryan, Hasselbeck) both lost.
Want another reason to think the Bengals have a chance? The AFC has won 15 of the last 24 Super Bowls.
Want another reason to put your money on Burrow? The young man never loses important games. All he knows is ridiculous success. He could become the first quarterback in history on Sunday to win a NCAA national title, win the Heisman Trophy, become the No. 1 pick in the NFL draft and win a Super Bowl. And he will have done it all in just three years.
Only two quarterbacks have ever won a college national championship and a Super Bowl. And both were named Joe (Namath with Alabama and the Jets and Montana with Notre Dame and the San Francisco 49ers).
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Did Nevada Wolf Pack quarterback Carson Strong help or hurt his NFL chances in last Saturday’s Senior Bowl? Well, neither. Strong was 6-of-11 for 67 yards and an interception in the game. He connected with Wolf Pack tight end Cole Turner twice for 44 yards (Turner’s only two catches) and misfired on one pass to Wolf Pack wide receiver Romeo Doubs (two catches, 18 yards).
But the actual game at the Senior Bowl has almost zero affect on a players’ draft chances. It’s just a fun way to end the week for everyone. The important moments at the Senior Bowl occur during the week before the game when NFL scouts see the players up close and talk to them.
What did scouts likely find out about Strong? Well, they saw a young man with a strong arm, a physical and mental toughness, a strong competitiveness and an intelligence that is able to grasp any offense. But they also likely saw a guy with bad knees who can’t run away from a NFL pass rush and whose stats were likely inflated by playing in a pass-happy offense in college in a bad conference.
Strong, who was touted at one point by misinformed websites as the possible No. 1 pick in the draft, will more than likely be picked no sooner than the second or third round.
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This draft, though, is the right time for Strong to head to professional football. He’s probably as good as any quarterback in this draft. NFL teams, it seems, aren’t drooling over any of them.
Malik Willis of Liberty, Kenny Pickett of Pittsburgh, Desmond Ridder of Cincinnati, Bailey Zappe of Western Kentucky, Matt Corral of Mississippi and Sam Howell of North Carolina are all lumped in together with Strong. They all have strengths, weaknesses and red flags. So Strong, without question, made the right choice coming out now.
Next year, after all, the 2023 draft class is expected to include Bryce Young of Alabama, C.J. Stroud of Ohio State, Spencer Rattler of South Carolina and D.J. Uiagalelei of Clemson. Fresno State’s Jake Haener, who beat Strong and Nevada this year, will also be available next year. And there will always be a handful of new names, like Strong this year, that jump into the mix.
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NFL teams aren’t drooling over this 2022 quarterback class for another reason. There will likely be a handful of veteran, established quarterbacks available this off-season to quench the thirst of desperate NFL teams. It’s a list that could include the likes of Aaron Rodgers, Russell Wilson, Kyler Murray, Jimmy Garoppolo, DeShaun Watson, Kirk Cousins, Mitchell Trubisky and Baker Mayfield. If Matt Stafford loses on Sunday he might also be on this list.
Tom Brady changed the quarterback world and their mindsets before last season when he left the New England Patriots for the Tampa Bay Bucs and immediately won a Super Bowl.
