Super Bowl LVI: Bengals vs Rams

sheamonu

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The best thing to ever say about officials is nothing. The fact that the argument in this thread is about which blown call was worse means they failed in that task. Feel good for Matthew (Detroit Ray Bourque) Stafford and horrible for Cincy.
 

wibi

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Jul 15, 2005
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You realize you are doing the exact same thing here that we were doing? Mentioning it.
So I’m not allowed to comment on people over reacting to a stupid announcer making a stupid comment? Who actually takes Collinsworth seriously at this point?
 

BaseballJones

ivanvamp
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Who knew that when they drafted him, that Sony Michel would be a two time SB winner in his first four seasons in the league?
 

EvilEmpire

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I think Donald deserved the MVP, but I'm happy for Kupp. I enjoyed watching him play for Eastern, and I know there a lot of excited people in this little town right now.
 

DanoooME

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Donald was mostly invisible until the final drive. At least Kupp had that 1st half TD.
He was double teamed pretty much the entire first half, then the defense adjusted and forced the Bengals to block him one-on-one, so he started making plays at that point.
 

sheamonu

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The final tackle of the game the last time the Rams won this is right behind Malcolm's INT for greatest, championship deciding plays. Donald 3rd down tackle was great but not on the level of either of those.
 

McBride11

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In hindsight - even Hightower’s tackle of Lynch on the play before that.

(yes - I’m a total homer).
Yup. That was also more important than donalds tackle on 3rd down around midfield. I get annoucers wanting to hype stuff

BUT you literally announced 2 better defensive plays and better clutch play 5 years ago Cc
 

OCST

Sunny von Bulow
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Bengals were disorganized and pissed away an enormous amount of clock on their last drive. Looked like they had no idea how to handle themselves in that spot.
 

BaseballJones

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Stafford was pretty great too. 26-40 (65.0%), 283 yards, 3 td, 2 int

But of those 2 int's, one was not REMOTELY his fault, and the other was effectively a punt. He could have won the MVP too, being the winning QB who actually played really well.
 

ragnarok725

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Nov 28, 2003
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You need a FG with a kid who is nails. Dumb. Dumb dumb. And when McVay finally decided to go to maybe the best receiver in football they click.
McVay is overrated. Taylor or his offensive coordinator screwed up that last drive.
Yeah. They're just Super Bowl Champion idiots. Can't get out of their own way.
 

steveluck7

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I think Donald deserved the MVP, but I'm happy for Kupp. I enjoyed watching him play for Eastern, and I know there a lot of excited people in this little town right now.
It was close. We were talking this week and I posed the question, “what has to happen for Aaron Donald to win MVP?” Our consensus was at least 3-4 sacks, a relatively low scoring game and that he would need to be directly responsible for points. We also added the caveats that Stafford would need to have a bad game and that no other offensive player went off.
tonight, he was close but the bias towards offense in the voting is super hard to overcome
 

SemperFidelisSox

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McVay made some questionable decisions like all the first down runs with Akers, but Cinci running Samaje Perine on 3rd down was the worst play call of the game.
 

wilked

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Jul 17, 2005
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Look at the receiver at the top of the screen on that play. Defender was 7 yards off. You gotta see that. It’s an easy 1st down
I would say the main issue was the second down call. Call a safe 5-7 TD play, move the sticks.

once it went third down I could tell they were in trouble
 

JokersWildJIMED

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Oct 7, 2004
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I would say the main issue was the second down call. Call a safe 5-7 TD play, move the sticks.

once it went third down I could tell they were in trouble
Yep. Also, running with Perine instead of Mixon in a must get situation is insane (I know he’s the 2 minute back but they had a clock stoppage and could have brought in Mixon).
 

jose melendez

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The game felt sloppy and poorly coached on both sides. The LA D was the only unit that seemed like they were actually good, and that was the difference.

Buffalo should be kicking themselves, because I think they would have killed both of these teams.
 

Jed Zeppelin

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Yep. Also, running with Perine instead of Mixon in a must get situation is insane (I know he’s the 2 minute back but they had a clock stoppage and could have brought in Mixon).
It’ll never make sense to me choosing to keep your best players off the field in the name of a nebulous role like 3rd down RB. It’s the Super Bowl and Mixon was great! Unless the guy just absolutely can’t block, what are you doing?
 

BigSoxFan

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McVay made some questionable decisions like all the first down runs with Akers, but Cinci running Samaje Perine on 3rd down was the worst play call of the game.
When you have Mixon, Chase, Higgins, and Boyd at your disposal, you definitely want to let your season rest on the shoulders of your backup RB. Short yardage conversions is exactly what Boyd is best at doing. You either run Mixon there or do a quick hitter with one of the best slot guys in the league.
 

BigSoxFan

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It’ll never make sense to me choosing to keep your best players off the field in the name of a nebulous role like 3rd down RB. It’s the Super Bowl and Mixon was great! Unless the guy just absolutely can’t block, what are you doing?
He also catches 30 balls / year so it’s not like he’s Blount or Michel out there.
 

sheamonu

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Back and forth on the MVP but in the end I think they got it right. The Bengals knew Kupp was the primary (really the only) option left and he still was not stopped. He gets open, he adds yards, he changed the game. And it's no fluke - he did the same against Tampa. Donald was awesome but the only reason he wasn't watching Burrow kneeling to end the game is because Kupp put them ahead by coming up big time and time again on that last drive. Oh - and it wasn't just in the 2nd half he contributed - his 3rd down conversion on the first TD drive (where he was the 3rd option) set that score up. Plus, he caught the next TD. A great performance.