The Roar
The Roar

Advertisement

Los Angeles defeat Cincinnati in a thriller to win their first Super Bowl in two decades

Autoplay in... 6 (Cancel)
Up Next No more videos! Playlist is empty -
Replay
Cancel
Next
14th February, 2022
5

The Los Angeles Rams have defeated the Cincinnati Bengals 23-20 to be Super Bowl champions for the second time.

With the win, the Rams, whose only other NFL title came 22 years ago when they were based in St. Louis, joined last year’s Tampa Bay Buccaneers as the only teams to win a Super Bowl on their home field.

In a venue built for champions, the Los Angeles Rams carried off the crown jewel: a Super Bowl trophy.

It took a precise 79-yard drive capped by Cooper Kupp’s 1-yard touchdown reception with 1:25 remaining for a 23-20 victory Sunday over the Cincinnati Bengals to give the Rams their first NFL title since the 1999 season — and their first representing Los Angeles since 1951.

They did it in their home, the $5 billion SoFi Stadium, making the Rams the second consecutive host to win the championship after Tampa Bay became the first a year ago.

The winning series, during which Kupp’s 4-yard touchdown reception was negated by offsetting penalties, ended soon after with the NFL Offensive Player of the Year easily beating Eli Apple in the right corner of the end zone for the winning score.

Advertisement

Kupp had four receptions for 39 yards on the championship drive.

Even with that brilliant, decisive march to the Lombardi Trophy, it was LA’s “fearsome fivesome” that made the difference. Led by Aaron Donald and Vin Miller, they sacked Joe Burrow a Super Bowl record-tying seven times, shutting down the Cincinnati offense after a 22-second spurt to start the second half gave the Bengals the lead.

Fittingly, Burrow was under pressure on fourth-and-1 and threw incomplete, setting off a football fiesta this city has not seen since the LA Raiders won the 1983 championship.

Stafford completed 7 of 11 for 57 yards on the 15-play, 79-yard series.

Earlier Stafford became the sixth player to throw for 6,000 yards in a single season.

Advertisement

He joined Drew Brees, who had 6,404 yards in 2011, Peyton Manning with 6,387 in 2013, Eli Manning had 6,152 and Tom Brady 6,113 in 2011 and Dan Marino with 6,085 in 1984. Stafford needed 209 yards to reach 6,000, and he got that with a 16-yard pass to Brycen Hopkins in the third quarter.

© AAP

close