Many people expected the Los Angeles Rams to be in Super Bowl LVI, which will be played Feb. 13 in their home stadium.
Few expected the Cincinnati Bengals to be their opponent. Vegas was even befuddled, with 200:1 odds at the start of the season of the Bengals winning the Super Bowl, per the Action Network.
The last time a team had those type of odds and managed to win a Super Bowl … well, it was the 1999 St. Louis Rams, who nudged out the Tennessee Titans to win Super Bowl XXXIV.
But the Bengals’ “why not us” attitude, led by quarterback Joe Burrow, who has shown himself to be in the elite class of signal callers in just his second year, has transformed the entire Cincinnati organization from perennial, hapless losers to a team that figures to be reckoned with now for perhaps the next decade.
On the other side, the Rams pushed all their chips to the middle of the table in a ‘win now’ mode. Los Angeles shipped multiple draft picks and previous starting quarterback Jared Goff to Detroit in the offseason to acquire Matthew Stafford to run the offense.
The Rams’ defense, already one of the best in the league with Aaron Donald wreaking havoc up front, acquired pass rusher Von Miller in midseason to make them even more formidable.
Los Angles also rolled the dice on Odell Beckham Jr., who had worn out his welcome in Cleveland and was dumped on the waiver wire.
What it adds up to is a Rams team that has mortgaged the immediate future to win now against a Bengals team that still has plenty of room for improvement, but has arrived at Super Bowl LVI probably a year or two ahead of schedule and believing that a win Feb. 13 could be the start of an actual dynasty for a team that should only get better.