[Elvis]

The Bengals have been getting killed in the trenches but manage to score and win anyway so i wouldn't sleep on them...

[Hacksaw]

QFTOS: RAMS @ BENGALS, SUPERBOWL EARLY PRE GAME EDITION.

"The joke is if you have a cup of coffee with Sean McVay, you're going to be a head coach in the NFL. ... There's a lot of truth to that." Zac Taylor says he owes so much to the Rams HC.

"He's one of the great players of all-time, there's no doubt about that. You have to have a great game plan in place for him... But our guys don't back down to anybody." Zac Taylor on Aaron Donald

Definitely want them there and acclimated. Have to assume they are mature enough not to get sucked into LA nightlife.

You'd have to be an idiot to not praise Donald's play...
The greatest 3tech ever..
As great as he is it still wont be enough to stop the Bengals..

It's only been one day and already I'm annoyed by the takes that say the LA Rams are a clear favorite. I saw on twitter that some media idiot called it a "mismatch" on the basis of BS advanced metrics.
What does Vegas have to say? Looks like Rams are 4 point favorite. So, yes Bengals are underdogs but hardly a mismatch.

I’m surprised no one has mentioned that the LA Rams were originally the Cleveland Rams, so one could say that it’s an all Ohio Super Bowl

Listened to podcast with Pac-Man and Wilcox. Pac said he played with vonn miller in Denver he just wants to rush passer and will not cover his man. Motions to his side lock him up thinking hopefully he is right and we can 4 team on Donald.

Rich Eisen pointed out the Bengals are the first SuperBowl team to make it by only winning three total games by 13 total points. Big deal, it is about winning and not by how many points you win by.

Bengals off. coordinator Brian Callahan reaffirms that rotating Carman/Adeniji was the plan heading into the KC game. "They played well against Kansas City." Notes they'll have to block arguably the best player in football in Aaron Donald.

Brian Callahan on the Rams: “They have great players at all levels of the defense. Aaron Donald has been the best player in football for like five years. Jalen Ramsey is probably the best player at his position.”
“It’s in the Fangio/Staley system with multiple fronts."

Dead. I’m dead.

I’m ready to claim the Lombardi Trophy.

We haven’t won four in a row yet this year. Let’s do that.

Yeah my heart wanted SF and my head says, “seriously? Two words: Matt Stafford.”

Rams have the better QB, they have Donald and Miller on the d line.

By my calculation, Patrick Mahomes is 58-13 in the #NFL, including playoffs. He is 0-2 against Joe Burrow and 58-11 against the rest of the world.

The Rams d-line just might be a problem for the Bengals o-line.

it’s the Rams, they have two weeks to figure out Aaron Donald.

Punch him in the dick

we needed to face Jimmy, dude can spazz out.

McVay vs Taylor, Master and the Apprentice.....

Ive always wanted nothing but the best for Big Whit
Including a Super Bowl win
but
sorry, not this time, big guy

Andrew Whitworth revenge game!
Aaron Donald better not hurt my boy Joe Burrow.

Initial reaction: *Gulp*

AFC is home team in even numbered years. i.e. the Bengals are the home team.

Question - does that mean the Rams vacate their regular locker room and move to the visitor’s locker room for the super Bowl?
I hope so, every little Rams distraction helps

It is still the stadium the Rams play in.......I see this as a HUGE disadvantage

It will probably change but 9 out of 14 of espn guys picked the Bengals in their early preview piece this morning.

#1. Fuck the Rams, who cares?
#2. Yes Donald is a beast, but fuck him too.
#3. Stafford eats dick shaped crackers.
#4. We win.
Any questions ??

I looked at the team defensive and offensive stats on ESPN and these two teams are actually pretty comparable.
More so than I think most would believe.

I think the difference is that the Bengals are not going to quit and I think the Rams know it.
I don't think they've seen much (if any) of that this whole season.

There's some silver lining available when it comes to the Rams defensive line problem, I think, referring primarily to Donald, Miller, and Floyd. Everyone knows what they're capable of without a semblance of doubt. There's no way the Bengals coaching staff can overlook the Rams defensive line strengths. It's impossible. I expect they'll dedicate a greater priority in their planning over the next two weeks to resolving that problem than they did prior to the Tennessee game.

I think the Bengals staff underestimated the Titans defensive line and didn't have a great plan in place to deal with it. That's likely a product, at least in part, of the Titans defensive line featuring numerous solid-but-not-spectacular players. Simmons had a bit of name recognition, but otherwise it was more "they're good, and we will have to handle it" instead of "they have Aaron freaking Donald and Von Miller, both perennial DPOY candidates over the past decade".

ZT says there is definitely still a chance CJ might be back. He mentions he is familiar with Donald what with him having coached for the Rams and also Donald being one of the best players ever and yes they will be working on a plan.

It could be an easy rally cry for our guys had to beat Titans in Nashville, Chiefs in KC, and now Rams in LA.

I expect very little home field advantage for Rams.

1st - Rams aren't the biggest fan NFL base in the LA area. Its the Raiders or 9ers. They couldn't keep 9er fans out the past two home meetings.
2nd - LA isn't real die hard sport anyway
2nd - Superbowl crowd is a lot of corporate/there to be seen types.

Despite increasingly desperate attempts by the league, Los Angelenos have time and again just refused to give that much of a shit about pro football.

I've been a practitioner of vibes and mysticism throughout this playoff run, and so far it has proven in to be alignment with reality.
My early feelings about Super Bowl LVI are... we're going to win the game.

NFL confirms that Rams will be kicked out of their locker room for the game.
https://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2 ... s-stadium/

And one coach mentored the other in his (NFL) approach, so I guess I can see why the offenses would be so similar. The sack diff is a bit scary.

Like a moth to a flame, all of the talk is being focused on the Rams D line getting to Burrow. And again no attention is being paid to the Bengals defense and how they can affect Stafford.

Donald is the best defensive player in football. That match-up is bad and you know it. I'm interested in how they deal with it.
I fully expect the D to have some success getting to Stafford or forcing a TO or two.

If KC had beaten us by a FG in overtime, do you think they would be a 4 pt underdog to the Rams? Not a chance, they would likely be favorites. Yet even though we beat KC twice in a month, we aren't afforded the same respect.

PFF doesn't say we suck we have the 9th highest OVER grade as a team with an 88.2...the Rams are #1 with a 94.1

I'm not saying we will win, BUT, let's pump the fucking brakes on the Rams-are-a-menace-we-can't-win bullshit bubbling up out there nationwide. At, least, let's pump the brakes on that amongst ourselves.

I think the most important individual player on offense might be Jonah Williams. I am confident the staff is going to come up with a plan to at least reduce the damage Donald can do. That task will be much easier if Jonah can be at his best against the Miller/Floyd tandem.

I was looking at the outcomes of the Rams games a little more.

In each of their 5 losses, they lost the turnover battle.
Those same stellar players still made plays, had the stats, and still lost.

Get after Stafford and pressure the shit out of him. You can't give him all day to sit back there and pick you apart.
He's not going to beat you with his feet in his 43 yards for the season, but has thrown 17 INT's which was tied for worst in the league.
During the regular season, the Rams beat 3 teams finishing with a winning record (Cardinals 11-6 who also beat them, Colts 9-8, Bucs 13-4).

This is NOT an unbeatable team and the more I look at comparables, the more excited I get about our chances.
These are two teams which are VERY similar and we are going to win this fucking game gentlemen.

Looks like one of the nuisances over the next two weeks will be national media idiots that haven’t noticed this team all season until right now.
”Yeah okay they’re good, but why did they copy the Saints chant???”
I will fly to ESPN or FS1 headquarters and kick someone in the nuts if I must.

Bengals off. coor. Brian Callahan on Rams QB Matthew Stafford: I think he's really cemented himself as one of the top quarterbacks in the NFL. Callahan worked with Stafford in Detroit.
Callahan on Stafford, cont.: "I love the guy. I think he's one of the toughest competitors out there... He's a warrior, man. He's as good as they come."

So Callahan has first hand knowledge of how Stafford works and Taylor has first hand knowledge of how McVay coaches ??
Yes, count both of those as advantages for us.

Defensive rankings
Overall (yardage):
Bengals 18th (350.8)
Rams 17th (344.9)

*Overall (yards per play):
Bengals T21st (5.5)
Rams T10th (5.2)

Overall (scoring):
Bengals 17th (22.1)
Rams T16th (21.9)

Rushing yardage:
Bengals 5th (102.5)
Rams 6th (103.2)

*Rushing yards per carry:
Bengals T17th (4.3)
Rams T7th (4.0)

Passing yardage:
Bengals 26th (248.4)
Rams 22nd (241.7)

Net yards per pass attempt allowed (includes sacks):
Bengals T22nd (6.3)
Rams T16th (6.1)

Team sacks:
Bengals 12th (42; 50 with playoffs)
Rams 3rd (50; 55 with playoffs)

Offensive rankings
Overall (yardage):
Bengals 13th (361.5)
Rams 9th (372.1)

Overall (yards per play):
Bengals T7th (5.9)
Rams T4th (6.0)

Overall (scoring):
Bengals T8th (27.1)
Rams T8th (27.1)

Rushing yardage:
Bengals 23rd (102.5)
Rams 25th (99.0)

Rushing yards per carry:
Bengals T26th (4.0)
Rams T26th (4.0)

Passing yardage:
Bengals 7th (259.0)
Rams 5th (273.1)

Passing yards per attempt:
Joe Burrow 1st (8.9)
Matt Stafford 3rd (8.1)

Net yards per pass attempt (includes sacks):
Bengals 3rd (7.2)
Rams 2nd (7.3)

*Not all of these are close. Asterisks denote separation.

Obviously these numbers don't mean a whole lot for one game, and they have essentially no impact on my feelings about how the game is going to go. I was just a bit surprised by some of this. On paper these teams are very close to each other over the 17-game regular season. They're also similar for at least the last two rounds of the postseason -- both teams have won their divisional and conference championship games by a combined 6 points.

TO BE CONTINUED ...................

[three rolled tacos]

Have to respect our opponent. Can't go in thinking like we did in Super Bowl 53, which was definitely one of no adjustments and the hangover or the Saints game where I thought that was more in our head than it should've been.
Our D-Line is the key I believe. KC only got one sack on Joe Burrow and the Titan's D got 9. Let's split the difference and start there at like 3 to 4 sacks would be a good win for Aaron Donald and Co. Reeder has to be less prone to being out of position and tackling will be uber key.

Re-watching the Bengals vs. Chiefs game. Seems they were running the ball on the Bengals' D quite well. That's the crux of our offense, get the run involved early and keep at it even if it nets 0 or 1/2 yards. That sets up the safeties to crash down and lends real stock to the play action game. The Bengals applied an 8 man shield against the Chiefs. Stafford, McVay have to show patience and hit the check down if nothing on the outs is open or the middle is clogged. Steal a page from the Belicheck/Brady playbook and use a thousand cuts to move our team down the field.

They have an edge in kicking. I hope Matt Gay won't be called on to kick any 50+ FGs but then again the Bengals' kicker has been lights out this season as a rookie. The hope is the cool wears off at least once in the Super Bowl. That goes for Joe and Ja'Marr as well. Their receiving corps is one of the best, if not the best in the league. So pressure is key.

Let's hope Higbee is healthy to go, if not, Blanton looks poised to fill the role and if he gives us anything close or better than what he did in the NFCCG, we'll be alright.

[HopHead Ram]

I also think the factor of it just being the Superbowl and all that comes along with that will play to the advantage of the Rams. They don't have to travel and worry about getting friends and family settled. They also get to basically keep the same routine as they have for the the whole season. The Bengals have to navigate SuperBowl week while trying to handle all of the media events as well as get on the practice field. Its not a huge advantage but players are creatures of habit and every little change that they have to make that we do not helps.

[Mr. Sparkle]

So what team do you think was/is better? This one or the 2018? Having Suh next to Donald was a sight to behold. And Cooks was great to stretch the field. Even Greg The Leg was fantastic.
BUT I think McVay having this much more experience, and the way this teams plays together, I think this one is better than the last.

I did look over that 2018 season and damn did they destroy everyone.

Just a fun bar conversation to have.

[Rams1PlateSince1976]

How do special teams compare? Bengals seem to have a better and healthier kicker. But what about punting, return and coverage??

[JackPMiller]

[St. Loser Fan]

[St. Loser Fan]

[BuiltRamTough]

3 weeks straight I told you what to take.

Rams spread -4.5 and count your money.

This is how I payed for my tickets..