/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/70484110/AP22032841965256.0.jpg)
Who do you have to cheer for within the 2022 Tremendous Bowl
That’s a simple query for followers of this 12 months’s contributors — the Cincinnati Bengals and the Los Angeles Rams — however maybe a bit more durable for followers outdoors of these realms.
Right here’s three causes to cheer for the Bengals on Tremendous Bowl Sunday:
Joe Burrow is the following period of savvy quarterbacks
Conversations concerning the Bengals typically revolve round their second-year quarterback, Joe Burrow, and for good motive.
After a torn ACL minimize quick his rookie season, the previous LSU star confirmed simply what sort of playmaker he's throughout his sophomore marketing campaign, finishing a league-high 70.4% of his passes this 12 months for 4,611 yards and 34 touchdowns.
That was simply the beginning for Burrow, who then led Cincinnati to 3 straight playoff wins — together with two on the highway — to get the Bengals again to the Tremendous Bowl.
That included Cincinnati rallying from down 21-3 to Kansas Metropolis within the AFC championship sport to win 27-24.
Burrow had some recommendation for younger gamers — and the place their focus ought to be — days earlier than his first look in a Tremendous Bowl.
“Deal with getting higher,” Burrow stated Monday throughout Tremendous Bowl press availability. “Don’t have a exercise and publish it on Instagram the following day after which go sit in your butt the following day and everybody thinks you’re working exhausting however you’re not. Work in silence. Don’t present anybody what you’re doing.
“Let your efficiency on Friday nights and Saturday nights and Sunday nights present all of the exhausting work you set in. Don’t fear about all that social media stuff.”
The Bengals have by no means gained a Tremendous Bowl
Cincinnati has reached the Tremendous Bowl twice — each instances again within the Nineteen Eighties within the 1981 and 1988 Tremendous Bowls. Each instances, San Francisco beat the Bengals within the title sport, and each instances it was a one-possession sport.
Luckily for the Bengals, Los Angeles knocked out the 49ers within the NFC championship sport this 12 months.
Cincinnati held a fourth-quarter, 16-13 lead of their most earlier Tremendous Bowl, earlier than Joe Montana led a late game-winning landing drive.
This time, maybe, it will likely be Burrow main the way in which to victory.
They’re simply enjoyable — and simple to root for
Simply two years in the past, this franchise gained two video games — that’s how they acquired into place to draft Burrow — and the Bengals have lengthy been recognized for middling soccer.
Now, Cincinnati has probably the most thrilling groups to look at within the NFL. Burrow is throwing passes to his former teammate at LSU, large receiver Ja’Marr Chase, and the Bengals have the look of a workforce that might contend within the AFC for years to return.
It’s not simply Tremendous Bowl futility this franchise has overcome — they've struggled within the playoffs usually. The Bengals went 31 years between playoff wins, and now after three straight postseason victories, they discover themselves on the cusp of their first Tremendous Bowl title.