Super Bowl LVI: Kupp Scores Late To Help Rams Over Bengals

LOS ANGELES, CA — Cooper Kupp caught a late touchdown, and the defense came up with a stop on the final drive to lead the Los Angeles Rams to a 23-20 victory over the Cincinnati Bengals in Super Bowl LVI on Sunday night at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California.

Kupp caught a 1-yard touchdown on a back shoulder throw from quarterback Matthew Stafford — their second TD connection of the night — to put the Rams in front 23-20 with 1:25 left in the game.

The Rams' defense held fast against Joe Burrow and the Bengals offense on the ensuing drive, forcing a fourth-and-1 near midfield with under a minute left. Defensive tackle Aaron Donald got pressure on Burrow, who threw an incomplete pass to turn the ball back over to the Rams, who kneeled out for the win.

The Rams defense sacked Burrow seven times with Donald and Von Miller getting two sacks apiece.

"For the offense to be able to find a way and for Aaron to be able to finish it off, it's poetic," Rams head coach Sean McVay said in NBC's postgame trophy ceremony.

The victory gives the Rams their first Super Bowl win since The Greatest Show On Turf team in St. Louis won Super Bowl XXXIV at the end of the 1999 season. It's the franchise's third Super Bowl title overall. Los Angeles also became the second team to win a Super Bowl in its home stadium after the Tom Brady-led Tampa Bay Buccaneers accomplished the feat last season.

The Rams broke out of a second-half offensive slump in the waning minutes of the game, putting together a 15-play drive lasting nearly five minutes to take the lead. Kupp took a jet sweep handoff for seven yards to convert a fourth-and-1 from the Rams' 30-yard line and had catches of 8, 22 and 8 yards to help get Los Angeles inside the Bengals' 10-yard line with under 2 minutes left.

The Bengals were called for two penalties on Kupp inside the 10-yard line to give the Rams the ball at the 1-yard line. Kupp appeared to catch a touchdown while taking a huge hit to the head earlier in the drive, but offsetting penalties negated the play.

Kupp, the NFL's Offensive Player of the Year, was named Super Bowl MVP after racking up 92 yards on eight catches with two touchdowns.

Trailing 13-10 at halftime, the Bengals quickly pulled ahead early in the third quarter when Burrow found Tee Higgins down the sideline for a 75-yard touchdown on the first play of the second half. Bengals cornerback Chidobe Awuzie intercepted Stafford on the ensuing drive, and the Bengals cashed in with a field goal to increase their lead to 20-13.

The Rams' offense bogged down for most of the second half after receiver Odell Beckham Jr. left the game with a knee injury late in the second quarter. Stafford threw first-half touchdowns to Beckham and Kupp and finished with 283 yards passing, but from the 12:51 mark in the second quarter until 6:13 left in the game, the Rams managed just one field goal with four punts and two interceptions.

The Rams' defense gave the offense an opportunity late by keeping the Bengals within striking distance.

"We had to find a way to continue to put pressure on the quarterback, make plays, and I think we did that," Donald said in a postgame interview with ESPN. "Guys bowed up when we needed them to, and we found a way to affect the game and ... win."

Burrow, the NFL's Comeback Player of the Year in his second season after bouncing back from an ACL injury his rookie year, threw for 263 yards and a touchdown, but the Rams kept the Bengals scoreless for the final 25 minutes. Higgins had four catches for 100 yards with two touchdowns, while rookie Ja'Marr Chase had five catches for 89 yards.

Running back Joe Mixon rushed for a game-high 79 yards, and threw a touchdown to Higgins on a trick play in the second quarter.

"We think we've got a special group that's going to continue to build on this," Bengals head coach Zac Taylor said in the NBC postgame. "It doesn't take away from what this group did this year."