Super Bowl
Introduction
It has been a long road since October, the start of the 2021-22 season of the most popular sport in America: Football. But after 18 weeks , a stunning playoffs, and the conference championships, it all ends with the Super Bowl, the most sporting event in the United States with more than 1 in 3 Americans watching it this year, with a total of 112 million viewers, the third most watched Super Bowl, only behind Super Bowl LI, and Super Bowl XLIX .
Description
This Super Bowl saw the American Football Conference (AFC) champions the Cincinnati Bengals go up against the National Football Conference champions the Los Angeles Rams. The game was played at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California, and kickoff was at 6:30 PM Eastern Time, but don’t worry if you missed it because the highlights and the full game are on YouTube.
Halftime
The Super Bowl halftime show, by tradition, invites a few people to perform during halftime at the Super Bowl. This year, we saw a lot of famous rap and hip hop stars take the stage. The Super Bowl halftime show, in fact, has more viewers than the actual game. The performers were Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg, Eminem, Mary J. Blige, and Kendrick Lamar (Don’t worry if you don’t know who these people are, I haven’t even heard of them until now too). But on the more comical side, Bengals kicker Evan McPherson was on the sideline watching the show, when he should have been in the locker room. He stated that he wanted to watch the show really badly because some of his favorite artists were performing.
Game
The game started off with the coin toss, which decided who received the kickoff for the first half, and the other team would receive for the second half. The Bengals won the coin toss and chose to play defense for the first drive of the game. Approximately 10 minutes into the game, Matthew Stafford (QB) threw 17 yards to Odell Beckham Jr. (WR) for the first touchdown of the game. Score: 7-0. A few drives later, the Bengals kicker Evan McPherson scored a 3 point field goal with 30 seconds left in the 1st quarter. Score: 7-3. 2 minutes into the second quarter, Matthew Stafford throws 11 yards to Cooper Kupp (WR) for a touchdown. The extra point is missed. Score: 13-3. With 6 minutes left in the first half, Joe Burrow (QB) hands it off to Joe Mixon (RB), who then throws it to Tee Higgins (WR). Score: 13-10. With only 2 minutes left in the half, Matthew Stafford launches the ball 43 yards to the end zone and it is intercepted by Jessie Bates (S), which makes it the final major play of the first half. After halftime, it’s a 3 point game (Rams leading) and anyone could snag the victory at this point. Then, literally 10 seconds (of gametime) into the second half, Joe Burrow throws to Tee Higgins for a 75 yard touchdown. Score: 13-17. Then, another 10 seconds (of gametime) Matthew Stafford throws an interception to Chidobe Awuzi (CB). Score still 13-17. 5 minutes into the 3rd quarter, the Bengals scored a field goal. Score: 13-20. 6 minutes left in 3rd quarter, Rams kicker Matt Gay scores a field goal. Score: 16-20. And finally, Matthew Stafford throws the game winning 1 yard touchdown to Cooper Kupp with one minute on the clock, securing the Rams first Super Bowl win in 22 years with a 23-20 win.
Conclusion
In my opinion, this has been a pretty decent Super Bowl. The halftime, the game, the tension, and the excitement. I don’t think many people thought these teams were the two that would make it to the Super Bowl, but I enjoyed it.
Future
Super Bowl LVII will be played at State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Arizona on February 12, 2023 at 6:30 PM Eastern so try not to miss it. Who knows which combination of teams will make it there. But this past NFL season will still have its place in the memory books.
Source: The NFL and ESPN