Ballygunner. Tipperary. Kilcoo. There were plenty of teams leaving it late over the weekend and the LA Rams threw their name in the hat on Sunday.
A late touchdown secured the LA Rams a 23-20 victory over the Cincinnati Bengals in Super Bowl 56 in the early hours of Monday morning.
Wide receiver Cooper Kupp got the decisive score with just over a minute of the game remaining with a big play drive coupled with a few defensive penalties getting the Rams within a yard of the Bengals endzone.
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Trailing with 6:13 remaining, the Rams final scoring drive began with a shotgun call, Stafford throwing short right to Hopings for a nine-yard gain.
Faced with a 4th-and-1 on their own 30, Cooper Kupp picked up seevn yards with five minutes left on the clock to keep the chains moving.
The big move started with three minutes to go, a short past up the middle from Stafford to Kupp yielding 22 yards to get to the Bengals 24.
Two no-huddle calls pushed the Rams up to the Bengals 8 inside the two minute mark. A game-winning TD was nullified by an offensive-holding penalty before the Bengals were penalised for defensive pass interference setting up a first-and-goal on the Bengals one-yard line.
From there, it was Stafford and Kupp linking up for the game-winner with Gay making good on the extra point for a 23-20 win.
Super Stats
As an interesting stat out of the game, Rams QB Matthew Stafford has joined Hall of Famer Peyton Manning as the only starting QBs to lose their first three career playoff games and then go on to win the Super Bowl.
Having jumped ship from the Lions where Stafford went 0-3 in the playoffs over 12 season in Detroit, Stafford went the full 4-0 in his first season in LA.
And in another bit of Super Bowl History, Tee Higgins’ 75-yard score for the Bengals was the first TD on the first play from scrimmage in either half of a Super Bowl.
Kupp’s not without his place in history as well as he becomes one of only three players (think Drew Pearson in ’77 and Jerry Rice twice in ’89 and ’94) to lead the NFL in receiving yards during the regular season and win the Super Bowl that season.
The result means the Rams became only the second team to win the trophy in their own stadium, but the second in as many years with Tampa Bay opening the door last season.
