Wiedmer: This Super Bowl was worthy of the best NFL postseason ever

AP photo by Julio Cortez / Los Angeles Rams defensive lineman Aaron Donald lifts his arms in celebration after the team's 23-20 win against the Cincinnati Bengals in Super Bowl LVI on Sunday night in Inglewood, Calif.
AP photo by Julio Cortez / Los Angeles Rams defensive lineman Aaron Donald lifts his arms in celebration after the team's 23-20 win against the Cincinnati Bengals in Super Bowl LVI on Sunday night in Inglewood, Calif.

Evan McPherson would have booted the Cincinnati Bengals into overtime against the Los Angeles Rams if only he'd gotten the chance.

At least that's what Bengals fans - including all those folks in his hometown of Fort Payne, Alabama - will always believe.

But with Cincinnati probably no more than 7 or 8 yards from putting its rookie kicker in position to attempt a tying field goal that would have forced the Super Bowl into an extra period, the best defensive lineman the NFL has probably seen since Chattanooga's Reggie White said enough was enough.

L.A.'s Aaron Donald made two of the biggest back-to-back defensive plays in Super Bowl history to make sure McPherson didn't get on the field and that the Rams would win 23-20.

Then again, in an NFL postseason in which both conference title games were decided by exactly three points and three of the four divisional round games were decided by the same margin, how could this Super Bowl have wound up any differently?

The irony is that arguably the best game of the postseason - Kansas City 42, Buffalo 36 - in the AFC's divisional round may also have been the best game of the whole season, despite its six-point final margin.

photo AP photo by Chris O'Meara / Cincinnati Bengals rookie Evan McPherson kicks a field goal against the Los Angeles Rams during the first half of Super Bowl LVI on Sunday night in Inglewood, Calif.

"I wanted this so bad," Donald said as he fought back tears after stopping Bengals running back Samaji Perine on third down and virtually sacking quarterback Joe Burrow on fourth. "I dreamed it, man. (On that final play) I was thinking 'Strain, strain. One last play and we'll be world champs.'"

And so they are, the Rams, once so synonymous with L.A. before spending 21 seasons in St. Louis, finally winning one for their Left Coast home. Their only other Super Bowl title came inside Atlanta's Georgia Dome at the close of the 1999 season when they stopped the Tennessee Titans 1 yard short of the end zone at the end of the game in a 23-16 win.

For the longest time, it looked as if it would be former LSU star Burrow who would become the third quarterback named Joe to win both a national championship in college and later a Super Bowl, joining the original Joe Cool (as NBC labeled "Broadway Joe" Namath in referencing his college title at Alabama and his Super Bowl III win over Baltimore) as well as Joe Montana, who won a natty at Notre Dame before winning four Super Bowls with San Francisco.

And despite the drive former Georgia quarterback Matthew Stafford and wideout Cooper Kupp orchestrated to give the Rams that three-point lead with less than 90 seconds to go, it appeared Burrow and McPherson might at least force OT when they crossed midfield with more than 40 seconds to play.

But then Donald took over, Cincy ran out of downs and the Rams became the second straight team to win a Super Bowl on its home field after the Tampa Bay Buccaneers did the same a year ago.

photo AP photo by Tony Gutierrez / Los Angeles Rams wide receiver Cooper Kupp pulls in what proved to be the winning touchdown catch while covered by Cincinnati Bengals cornerback Eli Apple during Super Bowl LVI on Sunday night in Inglewood, Calif.

Did it end a wonderful story the Bengals were writing after going from worst to first in the AFC North Division? Absolutely. Burrow at quarterback and the ridiculously accurate "Money Mac" McPherson hitting every field goal he attempted in the playoffs had almost everyone east of Southern California shouting "Who dey think gonna beat dem Bengals?"

And as touching as it was to see Donald shed victory tears and Stafford to win a Super Bowl ring after all those seasons laboring in depressing Detroit, this was also another victory for loading up a roster for a single big run, which is what the Rams did with the addition of Stafford and the midseason arrivals of Odell Beckham Jr. and Von Miller.

Of course, given the overall mediocrity of this year's Super Bowl commercials and halftime show, the game itself needed to be special.

Despite NBC talking head Maria Taylor enthusiastically proclaiming in the minutes before Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg, Eminem and Mary J. Blige took to their elaborate stage, "It will likely be the greatest halftime performance of all-time," it was anything but for many of us.

As for the ads, the spot for Amazon's Alexa with Colin Jost of "Saturday Night Live" and his slightly more famous actress wife Scarlett Johansson was witty, but it's been out there for a week. A late Nissan ad with actor Eugene Levy was somewhat entertaining, as was a Michelob Ultra spot that included Peyton Manning, Miami Heat forward Jimmy Butler and Serena Williams.

But overall, it's hard to believe any of them but the Alexa spot will be talked about for more than Monday morning.

Yet this game will likely be remembered for years, both for the Stafford-Kupp hookups on a stunning winning drive and for Donald's determination to make sure that lead stood up.

Of that final drive, Stafford told NBC that Rams coach Sean McVay - once a high school quarterback for Atlanta's Marist - told the pair: "Matthew and Kupp, go get this thing done."

They did. AND Donald did. And when it was all over, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell rightly said of the final game of the best NFL playoffs ever: "Another ending fit for Hollywood."

Just not for Fort Payne, Alabama.

photo Mark Wiedmer

Contact Mark Wiedmer at mwiedmer@timesfreepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @TFPWeeds.

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