Super Bowl 56 will be a matchup between two teams that likely no one saw coming, certainly not at the beginning of the season and likely not at the start of the playoffs, either. Joe Burrow and the Cincinnati Bengals will be taking on Matthew Stafford and the Los Angeles Rams at SoFi Stadium this week.
The Bengals defeated the Las Vegas Raiders on Wild Card Weekend before heading on the road and taking down the No. 1 seeded Tennessee Titans in the Divisional Round. In the AFC Championship Game, they went into Arrowhead Stadium, overcame an 18-point deficit and won in overtime.
The Rams dismantled the Arizona Cardinals during Wild Card Weekend to get things started. They went on the road for the Divisional Round as well, eliminating the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and sending Tom Brady into retirement. In the NFC Championship Game, they overcame a 10-point deficit heading into the fourth quarter to defeat the San Francisco 49ers.
Both teams faced plenty of adversity to get to the Super Bowl and have earned their spots there. A lot of attention in the game will be paid to the battle at the quarterback position, Joe Burrow will be facing off with Matthew Stafford.
Burrow and Stafford are two of the best currently doing it in the NFL. Burrow is only in his second season with the Bengals but looks like a seasoned veteran, overcoming underwhelming offensive line play to help get his team into this position.
He helped turn things around for a downtrodden Bengals franchise that snapped a three-decade-long drought without a playoff win. Stafford knows a thing or two about trying to help a losing franchise turn things around, as he played his entire career with the Detroit Lions before being traded to the Rams.
Stafford didn’t experience anywhere near the success that Burrow has, but he always produced no matter how poor the Lions record was. It was something that would sometimes go overlooked, as in Burrow’s eyes, Stafford was undervalued by some people.
Joe Burrow and the Bengals know what they are going up against in Matthew Stafford and the Rams. It will be a hard-fought game from the opening kickoff through the final whistle. Stafford has gone through a lot in his career to get to this point and would love nothing more than to show people that he is good enough to win when it matters most despite coming up short throughout his tenure in Detroit.