When we are dealing with teams that Tom Brady is not a part of, that creates a fresh and different narrative when looking into Super Bowl combatants.
For the Los Angeles Rams and Cincinnati Bengals, they are hardly regular Super Bowl participants, with long stretches between appearances. We’ll explain that shortly, and also let you know how each has gotten to this point and what caused it to happen.
The first time the Rams made a Super Bowl was in 1980 and they ended up playing the first Super Bowl pseudo home game (though not official) in Pasadena, which was the last one for Pittsburgh under Terry Bradshaw and coach Chuck Noll, winning four times in six years. Vince Ferragamo was the Rams quarterback and L.A. looked like could win having a 19-17 lead going into the fourth quarter when the Steelers scored two touchdowns to win 31-19 to cover the -10.5 betting odds.
The Rams moved to St. Louis, where they became known as the – Greatest Show on Turf – winning the Super Bowl in 2000 with Kurt Warner vs. Tennessee 23-16 (-7) and losing two years later as two-touchdown favorites to New England with its then-unknown QB named Tom Brady, from which the dynasty was born.
The Rams moved back to L.A. in a contentious divorce from St. Louis (that is still playing out in the courts) to start the 2016 season and three years later under the direction of a very young Sean McVay, the L.A. Rams (The Sequel for Hollywood purposes) faced New England again with Brady and Bill Belichick and were overwhelmed 13-3 as 2.5-point underdogs, in a game you never felt L.A. would win.
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Cincinnati started in the old AFL in 1968 and it took them until 1982 to finally reach the Big Game, where they faced Joe Montana, Bill Walsh, and San Francisco. The 49ers were only a one-point favorite at sportsbooks over the Bengals, which was played in Detroit in the Silverdome, the first-ever cold-weather site. The Niners controlled the action and built a 26-14 lead in the fourth quarter, before winning 26-21.
Seven years later in 1989, the same two teams squared off, with Montana now a veteran QB and Cincy had a 27-year Boomer Esiason leading an explosive offense. The game was tight throughout and a defensive struggle. The Bengals (+7 underdogs) held a 16-13 lead with 3:10 remaining, but Montana led his squad on a 92-yard game-winning drive.
That was it for Cincinnati until Joe Burrow arrived.
Because it had been two decades since the Rams had worn the blue and yellow in Los Angeles, that fan base has dried up like a one-hit-wonder. Enter Sean McVay in 2017 at age 31 and his boyish enthusiasm and attention to detail transformed the Rams into a playoff team in his very first season.
Rams’ ownership understood you have to be a “Winner” to get anyone’s attention in the City of Angels and the following year, the beginnings of a new fan base was started by reaching the Super Bowl. There was no real embarrassment in losing to Brady and Belichick and this looked like a team that would be an annual contender for years.
But the next two years brought disappointment at 9-7 (though 11-5 ATS) and 10-6, reaching the Divisional Round I in 2020, before being thumped at Green Bay 32-18 at +7 point underdogs at the NFL odds.
McVay had soured on QB Jared Goff and it was clear, 2021 was the target year to return to the Super Bowl. Matthew Stafford was brought in to run the ship but a 7-1 start gave way to a three-game losing streak. Los Angeles never wavered in thinking this was their moment and traded for Von Miller and Odell Beckham Jr. and now doesn’t have a first-round pick until 2025. In beating San Francisco, the Rams organization and players understand this is their moment and playing at home, maybe, this is their time.
For most of three decades, Cincinnati was an afterthought in the NFL, save a few good years under Carson Palmer and Andy Dalton. After Marvin Lewis was let go following the 2018 season, they hired a Rams hotshot assistant in Zac Taylor, who was in part credited with L.A.’s offensive success.
Taylor’s first two years were painful at 2-14 and 4-11-1 and a fair 14-15-1 ATS record was not swaying anyone’s attention that his tenure in the Queen City might not be long. However, the addition of top draft pick Joe Burrow brought optimism and his confident swagger began to work in the Bengals locker room.
Coming back from knee surgery did not inspire confidence about Cincinnati whose betting odds were 125-1 to win the Super Bowl in August. A surprising 5-2 start saw the making of a big-play offense with Burrow throwing to LSU teammate Ja’Marr Chase, Tee Higgins, and Tyler Boyd.
Taylor’s young crew showed a lack of maturing after that start with a 2-4 SU and ATS record. However, a hard-fought 15-10 win at Denver started the wheels in motion and that was followed up by a 20-point Baltimore blowout and what turned out to be the first of two Kansas City second-half comebacks, and the rest we’ve witnessed.
For the first time in Super Bowl history, none of the top 3 seeds will play in the Big Game and these squads have not met since 2019 when L.A. won 24-10 as 12-point favorites in London. These are vastly different teams, this should be fun.