3 games that helped pave way for Bengals to reach Super Bowl LVI

In this run up week to the biggest game that Cincinnati Bengals fans have seen since before Joe Burrow was a gleam in his father’s eye, it’s only fitting that the stripes are traveling to Los Angeles, home of Hollywood. It seems an underdog story this dramatic could only be acted out on a Hollywood sound stage, not the banks of the Ohio River in lovely downtown Cincinnati. Yet, here we are.

This Bengal team has all the key elements of a Hollywood blockbuster. Charming, brash young leader in Joe Burrow, hotshot sidekick in Ja’Marr Chase, and a stellar, if largely unknown supporting cast. In the coming week, America, and the world will get intimately familiar with the Cincinnati Bengals.

What the world outside of Cincinnati won’t know is exactly how this staff and team went from “Bungles” (a moniker I despise btw), to Super Bowl Bengals. It’s been a roller coaster of emotions for Bengal fans, but the lack of any real football this weekend, (not a Pro Bowl fan), got me to thinking. Dangerous, I know.

However what I’ve concluded, at least in my mind, and from watching and writing about this team all season is this most precarious season hinged on several key moments.

I’m not saying if these things didn’t happen the way they did that the Bengals would’ve been 7-10 and thinking about the draft, but the following three key events were critical in the development of the Cincinnati Bengals and their march to Super Bowl LVI.