{"id":98639,"date":"2022-02-14T12:26:52","date_gmt":"2022-02-14T18:26:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/?p=98639"},"modified":"2022-02-16T12:06:38","modified_gmt":"2022-02-16T18:06:38","slug":"rams-stars-shine-brightest-in-23-20-super-bowl-victory","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/rams-stars-shine-brightest-in-23-20-super-bowl-victory\/","title":{"rendered":"Rams stars shine brightest in 23-20 Super Bowl victory"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>By JP Acosta<\/strong><br \/>\n<em>Medill Reports<\/em><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">INGLEWOOD, Calif. \u2013 <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The NFL couldn&#8217;t resist playing up all the Hollywood tropes for the first Super Bowl played in the Los Angeles area since 1993, right through a pregame video shown in SoFi Stadium in which Halle Berry advised fans to think of the game as &#8220;the next great Hollywood movie.&#8221; The Los Angeles Rams played right along, providing the dramatic ending to Super Bowl LVI in a thrilling 23-20 victory over the Cincinnati Bengals to win the Rams&#8217; second Super Bowl.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">On a night when stars such as Kevin Hart, Chris Tucker and The Rock made appearances, it was the Rams\u2019 stars who shined the brightest in the biggest moments of the game. Or, as Rams defensive tackle Aaron Donald put it, \u201cBig-time players make big-time plays in big-time games.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Donald saved his best for the final game of the season, notching two sacks and three tackles for loss, including a crucial 3rd-and-1 stop on Bengals running back Semaje Perine that resembled Captain America holding the helicopter from flying away in \u201cCaptain America: Civil War.\u201d The Rams defense kept the game close as the offense struggled to find a rhythm, making life difficult for Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow.\u00a0 Los Angeles sacked Burrow seven times in the game, tying a Super Bowl record. According to Next Gen Stats, the Rams pressured Burrow on 41.5% of his dropbacks, a season high for the Rams defense.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The most impactful play came with 43 seconds left, on fourth down, as Donald pressured Burrow into an incompletion and a turnover on downs. Donald ripped his helmet off and pointed to the ring finger on his left hand, the exact same pose he made after the NFC championship game. This time, he can actually put a ring on it.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u201cGuys like him are why you coach,\u201d Rams coach Sean McVay said. \u201cGreatness is making everyone around you better in every situation, and that\u2019s what Aaron does. He is the effing man.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford threw for 283 yards and three touchdowns, but the most important touchdown of the season \u2013 and his career \u2013 went to Super Bowl MVP Cooper Kupp, who was as good of a co-star as anyone could imagine. Think Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper in \u201cA Star is Born,\u201d except instead of singing duets together, they\u2019re shredding defenses. The connection both players had with each culminated with a 1-yard fade route to give the Rams the lead with 1:25 left in the game.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u201cCoop did a great job on his route,\u201d Stafford said. \u201cI tried to put it in a good spot, and he made a great catch.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Stafford putting it in good spots and Kupp coming down with great catches seemed to be the theme of that go-ahead TD drive for the Rams, who struggled through a majority of the game after wide receiver Odell Beckham Jr. went out with a knee injury in the second quarter and didn\u2019t return. Stafford hit Kupp on four of the Rams\u2019 15 plays on that final drive and targeted Kupp an additional three more times, including a dazzling 22-yard catch that Stafford whizzed past Bengals safety Vonn Bell\u2019s outstretched hand. McVay trusted the quarterback traded for this offseason and now has a Super Bowl ring because of it.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u201cYou put the ball in your best player\u2019s hands when it matters most,\u201d McVay said. \u201cThat\u2019s what we did with Matthew, and he delivered in a big way. He\u2019s a world champ.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Cut, print, that\u2019s a wrap.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><em>JP Acosta is a graduate student at Medill. You can follow him on Twitter <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/acosta32_jp\">@acosta32_jp<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By JP Acosta Medill Reports INGLEWOOD, Calif. \u2013 The NFL couldn&#8217;t resist playing up all the Hollywood tropes for the first Super Bowl played in the Los Angeles area since 1993, right through a pregame video shown in SoFi Stadium in which Halle Berry advised fans to think of the game as &#8220;the next great [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":818,"featured_media":98652,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5201,31,5212,5182,5155],"tags":[5203,5157,5205,5158,5202,5204,5207,5206],"class_list":["post-98639","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-medill-explores-2022","category-sports","category-la-sports-2022","category-super-bowl-lvi","category-winter-2022","tag-aaron-donald","tag-cincinnati-bengals","tag-cooper-kupp","tag-joe-burrow","tag-los-angeles-rams","tag-matthew-stafford","tag-next-gen-stats","tag-sean-mcvay"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Rams stars shine brightest in 23-20 Super Bowl victory - Medill Reports Chicago<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/rams-stars-shine-brightest-in-23-20-super-bowl-victory\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Rams stars shine brightest in 23-20 Super Bowl victory - Medill Reports Chicago\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"By JP Acosta Medill Reports INGLEWOOD, Calif. \u2013 The NFL couldn&#8217;t resist playing up all the Hollywood tropes for the first Super Bowl played in the Los Angeles area since 1993, right through a pregame video shown in SoFi Stadium in which Halle Berry advised fans to think of the game as &#8220;the next great [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/rams-stars-shine-brightest-in-23-20-super-bowl-victory\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Medill Reports Chicago\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2022-02-14T18:26:52+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-02-16T18:06:38+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/s3.amazonaws.com\/medill.wordpress.offload\/wp-media-folder-medill-reports-chicago\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2022\/02\/AaronDonaldcart.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1114\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"621\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"josephacosta2022\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"josephacosta2022\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/rams-stars-shine-brightest-in-23-20-super-bowl-victory\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/rams-stars-shine-brightest-in-23-20-super-bowl-victory\/\",\"name\":\"Rams stars shine brightest in 23-20 Super Bowl victory - Medill Reports Chicago\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/rams-stars-shine-brightest-in-23-20-super-bowl-victory\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/rams-stars-shine-brightest-in-23-20-super-bowl-victory\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/s3.amazonaws.com\/medill.wordpress.offload\/wp-media-folder-medill-reports-chicago\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2022\/02\/AaronDonaldcart.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2022-02-14T18:26:52+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-02-16T18:06:38+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/#\/schema\/person\/d9f22ad261d6fc9020c465ca2501ca62\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/rams-stars-shine-brightest-in-23-20-super-bowl-victory\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/rams-stars-shine-brightest-in-23-20-super-bowl-victory\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/rams-stars-shine-brightest-in-23-20-super-bowl-victory\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/s3.amazonaws.com\/medill.wordpress.offload\/wp-media-folder-medill-reports-chicago\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2022\/02\/AaronDonaldcart.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/s3.amazonaws.com\/medill.wordpress.offload\/wp-media-folder-medill-reports-chicago\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2022\/02\/AaronDonaldcart.jpg\",\"width\":1114,\"height\":621,\"caption\":\"Aaron Donald rides with his children in a golf cart after the Super Bowl. (JA Adande\/Medill Chicago)\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/rams-stars-shine-brightest-in-23-20-super-bowl-victory\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Rams stars shine brightest in 23-20 Super Bowl victory\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/\",\"name\":\"Medill Reports Chicago\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/#\/schema\/person\/d9f22ad261d6fc9020c465ca2501ca62\",\"name\":\"josephacosta2022\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/31c803d2e4ebeb34c6725f086ec73b267cecf98ecddcb2ef5ba5778591869a83?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/31c803d2e4ebeb34c6725f086ec73b267cecf98ecddcb2ef5ba5778591869a83?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"josephacosta2022\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/author\/josephacosta2022\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Rams stars shine brightest in 23-20 Super Bowl victory - Medill Reports Chicago","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/rams-stars-shine-brightest-in-23-20-super-bowl-victory\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Rams stars shine brightest in 23-20 Super Bowl victory - Medill Reports Chicago","og_description":"By JP Acosta Medill Reports INGLEWOOD, Calif. \u2013 The NFL couldn&#8217;t resist playing up all the Hollywood tropes for the first Super Bowl played in the Los Angeles area since 1993, right through a pregame video shown in SoFi Stadium in which Halle Berry advised fans to think of the game as &#8220;the next great [&hellip;]","og_url":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/rams-stars-shine-brightest-in-23-20-super-bowl-victory\/","og_site_name":"Medill Reports Chicago","article_published_time":"2022-02-14T18:26:52+00:00","article_modified_time":"2022-02-16T18:06:38+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1114,"height":621,"url":"https:\/\/s3.amazonaws.com\/medill.wordpress.offload\/wp-media-folder-medill-reports-chicago\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2022\/02\/AaronDonaldcart.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"josephacosta2022","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"josephacosta2022","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/rams-stars-shine-brightest-in-23-20-super-bowl-victory\/","url":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/rams-stars-shine-brightest-in-23-20-super-bowl-victory\/","name":"Rams stars shine brightest in 23-20 Super Bowl victory - Medill Reports Chicago","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/rams-stars-shine-brightest-in-23-20-super-bowl-victory\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/rams-stars-shine-brightest-in-23-20-super-bowl-victory\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/s3.amazonaws.com\/medill.wordpress.offload\/wp-media-folder-medill-reports-chicago\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2022\/02\/AaronDonaldcart.jpg","datePublished":"2022-02-14T18:26:52+00:00","dateModified":"2022-02-16T18:06:38+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/#\/schema\/person\/d9f22ad261d6fc9020c465ca2501ca62"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/rams-stars-shine-brightest-in-23-20-super-bowl-victory\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/rams-stars-shine-brightest-in-23-20-super-bowl-victory\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/rams-stars-shine-brightest-in-23-20-super-bowl-victory\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/s3.amazonaws.com\/medill.wordpress.offload\/wp-media-folder-medill-reports-chicago\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2022\/02\/AaronDonaldcart.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/s3.amazonaws.com\/medill.wordpress.offload\/wp-media-folder-medill-reports-chicago\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2022\/02\/AaronDonaldcart.jpg","width":1114,"height":621,"caption":"Aaron Donald rides with his children in a golf cart after the Super Bowl. (JA Adande\/Medill Chicago)"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/rams-stars-shine-brightest-in-23-20-super-bowl-victory\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Rams stars shine brightest in 23-20 Super Bowl victory"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/#website","url":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/","name":"Medill Reports Chicago","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/#\/schema\/person\/d9f22ad261d6fc9020c465ca2501ca62","name":"josephacosta2022","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/31c803d2e4ebeb34c6725f086ec73b267cecf98ecddcb2ef5ba5778591869a83?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/31c803d2e4ebeb34c6725f086ec73b267cecf98ecddcb2ef5ba5778591869a83?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"josephacosta2022"},"url":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/author\/josephacosta2022\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98639","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/818"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=98639"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98639\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":98675,"href":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98639\/revisions\/98675"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/98652"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=98639"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=98639"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=98639"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}