Odell Beckham Jr. had a touchdown and set up another for the Rams before suffering a left knee injury with 3:50 to go in the first half. It was the same knee that Beckham injured in Cincinnati in 2020 while playing for the Browns. (Getty Images)
Rams gut out 23-20 win over Bengals in Super Bowl 56
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Editor's note: Tony Grossi is a Cleveland Browns analyst forTheLandOnDemand.com and 850 ESPN Cleveland.
Instant takeaways from Super Bowl 56 …
1. Still winless: The birth state of the NFL is still without a Super Bowl champion. The Los Angeles Rams overcame the loss of Odell Beckham Jr. and a 20-13 second-half deficit and defeated the Cincinnati Bengals, 23-20, to win Super Bowl 56. The loss ended Cincinnati’s Cinderella run through the NFL postseason and kept the Bengals winless in three Super Bowl appearances. The Browns, of course, have never made America’s biggest sporting event. The Rams’ “all-in” approach to this season paid off. Quarterback Matthew Stafford, for whom the Rams traded two first-round picks and their former starting quarterback Jared Goff, led the Rams for 16 plays on the winning drive, starting at the Rams’ 21-yard line with 6:13 to play. Stafford tossed the touchdown from 1 yard out on a back-shoulder throw to Cooper Kupp with Eli Apple in coverage. Stafford had not won a postseason game in 12 seasons with the Detroit Lions before moving on to the Rams this year. The game was loosely called by the officials most of the night, but the Bengals were called for defensive holding three times on the Rams’ winning drive. The Bengals gave up the ball on downs when Joe Burrow was nearly sacked by Aaron Donald and threw the ball wildly incomplete with 39 seconds to go.
2. Oh, Boyd: The winning drive was set up when Bengals receiver Tyler Boyd dropped a pass on a slant that would have converted a first down at midfield with the Bengals ahead, 20-16. NBC announcer Al Michaels said it was the first dropped pass Boyd had all season.
3. Defenses dominating: The under-rated defenses of both teams began dominating the game in the second half, as the Bengals clung to a tenuous 20-16 lead. Burrow came up limping after taking his seventh sack in the fourth quarter, which tied Roger Staubach (Super Bowl 10) for the record. Six of them came in the second half. Burrow shook off the injury to his right foot. Earlier, Stafford received attention on his left foot after a Cincinnati sack. The Bengals were doing a great job against the run. The Bengals held Rams running back Cam Akers to 21 yards on 13 carries and the Rams overall to 1.9 yards per rush.
4. Zip, zap: The Bengals owned the second-half kickoff and within five minutes turned a 13-10 deficit into a 20-13 lead. On the first play after the kickoff, Burrow hooked up with Tee Higgins for a 75-yard touchdown. Higgins yanked Rams cornerback Jalen Ramsey to the ground after making the catch at the Rams’ 35, and Ramsey fell to the ground as Higgins took it to the house. The non-call was fair game because officials established earlier that they were allowing contact. Two legit interference transgressions by Ramsey in the first half were ignored by the officials. After the Bengals’ kickoff, Stafford was intercepted on first down when his pass deflected off receiver Ben Skowronek’s hands and into the mitts of cornerback Chidobe Awuzie. Cincinnati’s possession was stopped at the Rams’ 20 and Even McPherson nailed a 38-yard field.
5. OH! B-J: Beckham was having a big impact on the game until he suffered an injury to his left knee when his foot caught on the turf while trying for a short pass behind him with 3:50 to go in the first half. This was Beckham’s first game against the Bengals since suffering a torn ACL in his left knee in Cincinnati on Oct. 25, 2020 with the Browns. Beckham clutched the knee in pain, was helped to the medical tent, and then walked into the locker room under his own power. Beckham did not return the rest of the game. Beckham had scored the first touchdown of the game on a 17-yard pass from Stafford in the first quarter and set up the Rams’ second TD with a 35-yard gain on a crossing route.
6. Close, very close: The quarterbacks had identical 12-of-18 passing numbers in the first half, but Stafford had the upper hand with two touchdowns and Burrow had none. Bengals safety Jessie Bates made the only turnover of the half when Stafford threw deep for Van Jefferson three plays after Beckham’s injury and Bates intercepted in the end zone. The Rams led at halftime, 13-10.
7. Razzle dazzle: Burrow finally moved the Bengals to a touchdown with 5:47 left in the second quarter. But Burrow didn’t throw the touchdown – running back Joe Mixon did. Mixon’s effective running made the secondary leave coverage after Burrow handed him the ball on second-and-goal from the Rams’ 6. Mixon stopped in his tracks and tossed the ball to Higgins left alone in the back of the end zone. It was the first pass attempt in Mixon’s five seasons in the NFL.
8. Let ‘em play: The officials were keeping their flags in their pockets. Ramsey got away with two interference calls on the Bengals’ first scoring drive. The first time, Ramsey was tugging on the waist of Ja’Marr Chase but Chase showed terrific concentration and pulled in Burrow’s pass for 46 yards to the Rams’ 11. Three plays later, Ramsey tugged on the shirt tail of Higgins as Burrow’s pass was arriving just over the goal line. The interference pulled Higgins closer to Ramsey and helped Ramsey break up the pass. It wasn’t called. The Bengals kicked a short field goal to trail, 7-3.
9. Cha-ching: Beckham paid off the prop bet for scoring the first touchdown. He did it on the Rams’ second possession when he beat slot corner Mike Hilton at the line of scrimmage and hauled in Stafford’s pass from 17 yards out. The Rams had come out trying to the run the ball and the Bengals tackled them for losses on three of the first six plays (one on a sack). The Bengals turned their first possession over on downs when they were stuffed on a third-and-1 and then had an off-the-mark pass for Chase broken up at the Rams’ 49. Incidentally, it was Beckham’s seventh touchdown in 12 games for the Rams since joining them in November. That was the total number of touchdowns Beckham had for the Browns in 29 games in 2 ½ seasons.
10. Forgotten Four: The families of Browns Hall of Famers Bill Willis and Marion Motley were recognized on the SoFi Stadium field before the game in a presentation honoring the breaking of the color barrier in professional football. Willis and Motley starred for the Browns in the inaugural All-America Football Conference season in 1946. They were joined by families of Kermit Washington and Woody Strode, who signed with the NFL Rams in 1946. The difference is Willis and Motley were signed by Paul Brown because of their football abiity, while the Rams needed to sign an African-American player in order to play home games in Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.
11. No news, good news: In more than a dozen hours of Super Bowl pre-game shows on NFL Network, ESPN and NBC, there wasn’t a single splash devoted to the Browns.
