Super Bowl LVI Results: Rams Win on Own Home Stadium, Stafford Validates NFL Legacy

For the second consecutive season, the team who also happens to be hosting the Super Bowl wins the Lombardi Trophy on its own home turf. The Los Angeles Rams fended off the Cincinnati Bengals, 23-20, for the Rams’ first Super Bowl victory since the franchise’s Kurt Warner-Marshall Faulk era back in the 1999 NFL season.

Los Angeles, whose Super Bowl LVI odds against the spread were set at +3.5 points (and failing to cover said spread), fended off the feisty Bengals in a championship showdown that saw four lead changes. The Rams scored a go-ahead touchdown late in the fourth quarter and held on to their three-point lead with a defensive stand in under two minutes against a formidable Cincinnati squad led by former LSU teammates Joe Burrow and Ja’Marr Chase.

The Bengals were the Cinderella darlings of the season, making the playoffs for the first time in six years as the division winners over in the AFC North with a 10-7 record. They went on a hot postseason streak to remember by eliminating the Raiders in the Wild Card Round before stunning former AFC Conference Championship contenders the Tennessee Titans in the Divisional Round and the Kansas City Chiefs in the AFC Championship Game.

Alas; the Rams’ decision to go all-in by trading for veteran quarterback Matthew Stafford during the 2021 NFL offseason paid off in spades, as the former Detroit Lions quarterback immediately reached the NFL summit in his very first year in LA. Stafford finished with 283 passing yards and three passing TDs in Super Bowl LVI, albeit whilst also throwing two interceptions to Cincy’s stingy defense. Those two turnovers likely denied Stafford a Super Bowl MVP award, but the 13-year league veteran is more than glad to defer that honor to arguably the best wide receiver in the NFL right now.

Super Bowl MVP

After taking home the rare receiving triple crown during the 2021 NFL season and an NFL Offensive Player of the Year award in the process, Rams wide receiver Cooper Kupp continued to impress on the biggest stage of them all. Kupp finished Super Bowl LVI with eight catches for 92 receiving yards and a pair of touchdowns, which was enough for him to secure the Super Bowl LVI MVP award.

Super Bowl MVP odds aren’t usually very kind to wide receivers, but that might change for the 2022 NFL season’s Super Bowl betting odds given this recent affair. Kupp joins Pittsburgh’s Santonio Holmes and New England’s Julian Edelman as the only wide receivers to win the Super Bowl MVP award since 2009.

Had Cincinnati won Super Bowl LVI instead, the team’s own young wide receiver in Tee Higgins would’ve likely taken home the Super Bowl MVP award. Higgins had a very productive effort as well, hauling in four receptions for 100 receiving yards and a pair of trips to the end zone to rival Kupp’s own numbers.

As of this writing, the Buffalo Bills are the current odds-on favorites to win Super Bowl LVII, which is set to take place on February 2023 in Glendale, Arizona.