Super Bowl 2022: Matthew Stafford, Cooper Kupp, Aaron Donald get long-awaited SB rings
Matthew Stafford #9 and Cooper Kupp #10 of the Los Angeles Rams celebrate after Super Bowl LVI at SoFi Stadium on February 13, 2022 in Inglewood, California. The Los Angeles Rams defeated the Cincinnati Bengals 23-20. (Photo by Andy Lyons/Getty Images) Credit: Getty Images/Andy Lyons
INGLEWOOD, Calif.
He went west to seek his football dreams after a dozen years’ worth of frustration in Detroit, a quarterback who loved the Lions team he grew up with but who desperately wanted a chance to win a championship before it was too late.
Finally, Matthew Stafford got what he was looking for. But only with a huge helping hand from two homegrown Rams stars.
The Rams’ 34-year-old quarterback, who asked out of Detroit in January and was dealt to Los Angeles in a blockbuster trade that sent Jared Goff to the Lions, has his Super Bowl ring after a 23-20 win over the Bengals on Sunday at SoFi Stadium.
And so do All-Pro wide receiver Cooper Kupp, who caught two touchdown passes, including the game-winner with 1:25 left in the fourth quarter, and All-Pro defensive tackle Aaron Donald, whose relentless pressures of quarterback Joe Burrow were a huge factor in the second half.
Stafford was 26-for-40 for 283 yards, three touchdowns and two interceptions. Kupp came up big early with an 11-yard touchdown catch and even bigger with the game on the line.
Donald, who made news before the game by telling NBC commentator Rodney Harrison that he might retire if the Rams won, was a wrecking machine in the second half. He rendered Burrow nearly helpless after the quarterback threw a 75-yard touchdown pass to Tee Higgins on the first offensive play of the third quarter to put the Bengals ahead 17-13.
Three stars, three superior performances and one title for a Rams team that had never won it all during the franchise’s first stint in Los Angeles. Only Kurt Warner’s St. Louis Rams had held the Vince Lombardi Trophy aloft before now.
"Our best players stepped up in the most critical, crucial moments," said Rams coach Sean McVay, 36, who became the youngest head coach to win a Super Bowl and avenged a Super Bowl loss to the Patriots three years ago. "They played for one another. You talk about a resilient team. We talk about competitive greatness, being your best when the best is required.’’
The situation was made for champions.
Two weeks after rallying in the second half for a 20-17 win over the 49ers in the NFC Championship Game, the Rams came back with a late fourth-quarter drive to beat the upstart Bengals.
Down 20-16, Stafford and Kupp combined on a 15-play, 79-yard drive that culminated with Kupp’s winning score.
Kupp was a dynamo on the drive, finally breaking through against a Bengals defense that had done just about everything to contain him through most of the game.
The drive of his life started at the Rams’ 21 with 6:13 left, and Kupp came up huge on fourth-and-1 from the Los Angeles 30 with a 7-yard gain on a sweep to the right.
"It was a great player making a great play," McVay said. "If we don’t make that play, we’re not sitting up here."
Kupp wasn’t done. After an 8-yard catch got the Rams near midfield, he took a short pass over the middle 22 yards to the Bengals’ 24. Next play, an 8-yard catch to the 16. Kupp drew three straight defensive penalties to get the Rams to the Bengals’ 1 with 1:35 to play. And this time Stafford hit Kupp for the winning score to make it 23-20.
"That last drive was a special drive, one I’ll never forget," Stafford said. "So many great plays by so many great players. On the touchdown], it was man coverage, and Coop did a great job."
Kupp said afterward that he once told his wife he’d envisioned this moment, walking off the field as a Super Bowl champion. And the game’s MVP. But in the end, he paid homage to his team, not himself.
"Just comes down to this team, the way we prepared, the way we love on each other, trusted on each other," he said. "I don’t feel deserving of this MVP], but I’m so thankful. I don’t know what to say. I’m so thankful for everyone who has been here every step of the way."
And Donald? He was magnificent — just what you’d expect from the greatest defensive player of our time.
The Bengals mostly kept Donald and defensive end Von Miller away from Burrow in the first half, but he had two sacks and a bunch more pressures in the second half to wrest momentum away from the Bengals.
And with the Bengals down to their final play, it was Donald who forced Burrow into a hopeless incompletion on fourth down near midfield.
"It took a big stop to be world champions," said Donald, who was noncommittal about retirement after the game. "You don’t want it any other way. To be the last team standing, you have to be relentless. To see it come full circle and be world champions, all that hard work, that’s what it’s for."
Stafford proved to be the missing piece, helping Kupp and Donald — and McVay — to scale the mountain and reach the top.
Champions at last.
Bob Glauber retired in 2022 after covering the NFL for nearly 40 years. He was selected in 2021 for the Bill Nunn Career Achievement Award by the Pro Football Writers of America, and is a three-time winner of the New York State Sportswriter of the Year by the National Sports Media Association. President of the PFWA for the 2018-20 seasons, he is the author of “The Forgotten First” and “Guts and Genius.”
