The Los Angeles Rams finally accomplished their ultimate goal, beating the Cincinnati Bengals in Super Bowl LVI at SoFi Stadium to be crowned champions.
It wasn’t pretty as the Rams offense struggled for most of the second half after Odell Beckham Jr. went down, leading to a 20-16 deficit late in the fourth quarter.
The offense needed to put one final drive together to regain the lead though, and that’s exactly what they did, going 79 yards on 15 plays to score the game-winning touchdown.
Matthew Stafford targeted Cooper Kupp seven times on that drive, including in the end zone for the touchdown to cap it off with 1:27 to play.
After the game, Stafford, who has the most fourth-quarter comebacks in the NFL since he entered the league, said this is one he’ll never forget, via Myles Simmons of Pro Football Talk:
“That last drive was a special drive — one I’ll never forget. So many great plays by so many great players,” Stafford said. “Just so happy to get it done.”
Stafford wasn’t able to target Kupp for most of the second half since the Bengals defense was keying in on him with Beckham out. On the last drive though, Stafford was able to find success targeting him anyway and discussed how he was able to do so:
“It was tough,” Stafford said. “They were doubling Coop on every third down. We just missed on a few plays here or there that could’ve been big plays for us. On that final drive, I thought Sean [McVay] did an unbelievable job of letting us go out there and play with a bunch of tempo. So many guys stepped up. Coop obviously had some huge plays. And then the game-winner was icing on the cake.”
Stafford’s legacy is now etched in stone as a Super Bowl champion, and it happened in the first season after the blockbuster trade that sent him to the Rams.
While Kupp was named MVP of the game, the win and the entire season wouldn’t have been possible without Stafford, who was not only a great quarterback on the field, but also a great leader in the locker room all season.
