Super Bowl 2022: MVP Cooper Kupp's late TD rescues Rams
Mon, Feb 14, 2022
NFL News (AP)
AP Sports NFL Writer
The Los Angeles Rams were down a big-time playmaker, with an injured Odell Beckham Jr. watching in street clothes from the sideline.
It didn't matter.
Los Angeles' do-everything receiver Cooper Kupp once again stepped up during the critical stretch of the game. The Eastern Washington product scored the go-ahead touchdown on a leaping, 1-yard catch on a back-shoulder fade throw from Matthew Stafford with 1:25 left in the game.
Aaron Donald and L.A.'s defense held up, and the Rams took home a 23-20 victory over the Cincinnati Bengals in Super Bowl LVI at SoFi Stadium.
Kupp finished with eight receptions for 92 receiving yards and two scores. For his effort, he earned Super Bowl MVP honors.
"That game today is the story of our season," Stafford said. "It's up and down. It's tough. And we're a frickin' tough team. We showed up late and got it done. I'm excited."
Down 20-16 with a little more than six minutes left and the Bengals in control, the Rams needed to march the length of the field for a score. And they had to do so while shorthanded on offense.
Beckham was on his way to another solid outing early on, posting two receptions for 52 yards, including a 17-yard catch for the first touchdown of the game.
However, things changed quickly for Beckham and L.A.'s offense when he suffered a non-contact left knee injury on second-and-9 from the Los Angeles 45-yard line with 3:54 left in the first half.
Beckham dropped a Stafford pass on a shallow crossing route and immediately went down in pain. He was attended to by trainers, helped off the field and eventually ruled out for the game.
Beckham came out with a white hoodie and a sleeve on his left leg in the second half, relegated to watching from the sideline. The injury was to the same left knee Beckham had ACL knee surgery on in November 2020.
Dr. Matt Provencher shares his prognosis of Los Angeles Rams WR Odell Beckham's Jr.'s non-contact left knee injury in the second quarter of Super Bowl LVI.Beckham had been productive since joining the Rams, catching seven touchdown passes across the regular season and playoffs, tying him with Amari Cooper (Dallas Cowboys, 2018) for the most by a player on a team he didn't start the season with. Beckham previously had just seven touchdowns in 29 games with the Cleveland Browns.
With Beckham out, the Rams struggled to move the football. Ben Skowronek replaced Beckham in the lineup. He finished with just two catches for 12 yards on five targets.
Along with Beckham, the Rams were without two of their top pass catchers from the regular season. Tight end Tyler Higbee did not play due to a knee injury, and the Rams had lost Robert Woods earlier this year with an ACL injury.
Making matters worse, the Rams could not run the football, totaling just 43 yards on the ground.
But on the deciding drive, they somehow moved the football 79 yards on 15 plays for the winning score.
Kupp finished with three catches for 30 yards on the drive. He also ran for a critical first down on 4-and-1 from L.A.'s 30-yard line, scampering 7 yards on an end-around to keep the chains moving. In addition, he coaxed two defensive penalties by the Bengals in the end zone to get Los Angeles closer to scoring position.
"That's hard work, hours spent together," Stafford said when asked about the chemistry between himself and Kupp. "I just thank coach for putting it in our hands, 'Hey, Matthew, you and Coop go get this thing done.' He kept calling plays for him, finding ways to get him the ball, and he made unbelievable plays. That's what he does."
Added Sean McVay: "We were able to get them into some more regulated looks by playing fast. They still were tight-window throws. They made it really difficult tonight. I've got a lot of respect for the Bengals' defense, but we were able to find a way."
Kupp became the eighth wide receiver to win Super Bowl MVP and the first since Julian Edelman took home the trophy in Super Bowl LIII.
During the postseason, Kupp finished with the most receptions ever in a single playoff run (33). Kupp finished with 478 receiving yards and six touchdowns in the postseason, trailing only Larry Fitzgerald (546 receiving yards and seven touchdowns in 2008) in league history.
"I'm just so thankful for everyone that's been in my life, that's encouraged me and been with me every step of the way," Kupp said when asked about winning the Super Bowl MVP.
The Super Bowl was merely a continuation of Kupp playing big in important moments.
During the NFC Championship game, Kupp finished with a game-high 11 catches for 142 yards and two touchdowns in a win over the San Francisco 49ers to get Los Angeles to the Super Bowl.
He also had two big catches to help put Los Angeles into field goal position in his team's three-point win over Tom Brady and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the divisional round.
Kupp finished as the triple crown champion during the regular season, leading the NFL in receptions (145), receiving yards (1,947) and receiving touchdowns (16). Based on that production, he won the NFL Offensive Player of the Year.
For the season, Stafford and Kupp connected on 22 scores, second-most in league history behind Brady and Randy Moss (24) in 2007.
Kupp didn't play during the Rams' 2018 Super Bowl run because of ACL injury to his left knee, so he made the most of his first Super Bowl opportunity.
Super Bowl MVP Cooper Kupp explains in his postgame interview that after the Los Angeles Rams lost the Super Bowl in 2019, he had a vision."In 2019 we walked off the field that last time after losing to the (New England) Patriots," Kupp said during the press conference after his team's victory. "I wasn't able to be part of that thing. I don't know what it was, but I just had this vision God revealed to me that we were going to come back. We were going to be part of a Super Bowl. We were going to win it and somehow I was going to walk off the field as MVP of the game.
"And I shared that with my wife (Anna) because I couldn't share that with anyone else, obviously, what that was. But from the moment this postseason started, there was a belief every game. It was written already and got to play free."
Eric D. Williams has reported on the NFL for more than a decade, covering the Los Angeles Rams for Sports Illustrated, the Los Angeles Chargers for ESPN and the Seattle Seahawks for the Tacoma News Tribune. Follow him on Twitter @eric_d_williams.
