“Hollywood Ending”
When that final whistle was blown and the yellow and blue confetti started to rain down, it meant that the Los Angeles Rams won the Super Bowl. This ending was a perfect “Hollywood” ending for the Los Angeles Rams, especially after all they overcame during this game.
Before the game started, the Super Bowl had special guests make several appearances including Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson and National Anthem singer Mickety Guyton. After the pregame Super Bowl events, the game had to start and someone would be crowned a champion that night. The Cincinnati Bengals won the opening toss but decided to defer the ball to the L.A. Rams, and the L.A. Rams could only gain 1 yard on their first possession. It wasn’t any better for the Bengals’ opening possession when they went for it on 4th down and didn’t get the conversion. On the Rams following possession, Matthew Stafford ended up hitting Cooper Kupp in stride for 20 yards. This then set up an Odell Beckham Jr. touchdown from Matthew Stafford for 17 yards. After a bunch of no movement on the ball from both sides, the Bengals ended up scoring a field goal on an Evan McPherson kick to end the first quarter. The Rams continued their hot start to begin the second quarter. Matthew Stafford had a connection with Odell Beckham Jr. up until his injury, with Matthew Stafford hitting Odell Beckham Jr. for a 35-yard connection, and then on the following play, Matthew Stafford threw the ball to Darell Henderson on a wheel route for 25 yards. This eventually set up a Cooper Kupp touchdown for 11 yards, but on the extra point attempt, Johnny Hecker messed up the snap and instead of going for the extra point, they had to go for 2 points. They didn’t end up getting it and the score was 13-3.
The Bengals had to score during the next possession in order to make it a close game and instead of going down by two possessions go down by one possession. That is exactly what they did when they ran a trick play to score where Joe Mixon threw the ball to Tee Higgins in the back right corner of the end zone. The score was 13-10 and the Rams got the ball back and they looked as if they would score again. However, that stopped when Odell Beckham Jr. got injured on a little drag route across the middle of the field. It really hurt the Rams offense because up until Odell’s injury, he had 2 receptions for 52 yards and a touchdown. Either way, they couldn’t let this halt them, but it did and a couple of plays later Matthew Stafford threw an interception on a pass that was intended for Van Jefferson. Luckily for the Rams there were no points capitalized off of this and going into the half the score was 13-10 Rams in the lead.
Following the amazing halftime show, the Bengals received the ball and on the first play of their opening drive, Joe Burrow hit Tee Higgins in stride for a 75-yard touchdown. Now this touchdown didn’t come without controversy since when Tee Higgin was going for the catch he pulled down Jalen Ramsey’s face mask and many argued that the touchdown should’ve been reversed but no call was made. Coming out of the half many were questioning how this Odell Beckham Jr. injury could impact the game for the Rams. Up until Odell Beckham Jr’s injury, he was being targeted or taking defenders with him. So when the Rams opened up during the second half Matthew Stafford and his Rams were looking to get rid of this narrative. Unfortunately, the Rams couldn’t do anything on their opening drive, and on a pass that was thrown over the middle for Ben Skowronek it got intercepted and it looked as if the Bengals would run away with this game. Going into the 4th quarter the score of the game was 20-16 and this game was slipping away from the Rams. That was until late in the 4th quarter when the Rams got the ball back and were moving down the field. They were making smart decisions with the ball and then the referees started to make questionable calls. There were some defensive pass interference calls that ended up costing the Bengals this game. During that drive, the biggest questionable call was when the referees called a holding call on middle linebacker Logan Wilson, and from the replay, there was no holding at all during that play. If the refs don’t call that the Rams are forced to kick a field goal and go for the onside kick but since they did. The Rams get a whole new set of downs, and on the following couple of plays, Matthew Stafford hit Cooper Kupp in the endzone. The Bengals had one last chance to tie this game but that was stopped when 3x Defensive Player of the Year brought down Joe Burrow ending the drive for the Bengals and putting an end to their season. After the play, Aaron Donald signaled to his ring finger pointing where he wanted his Super Bowl ring. The Rams won the Super Bowl to end their amazing season, who would’ve thought that a year after trading Jarred Goff and struggling to compete in the NFC Championship, they would go on to win the Super Bowl.
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Daniel is a senior, and this is Daniel's first year for writing for the Trumpet Newspaper. He enjoys writing about sports and a few entertainment articles....
