Winners and losers from Bengals’ crushing Super Bowl LVI loss to Rams

Bengals losers from Super Bowl LVI

Vernon Hargreaves

Was this stupid or what? When Jessie Bates picked off Matthew Stafford to prevent the Rams from adding points before the half, the Bengals had an excellent opportunity to go down the field and put up points of their own.

Well, as the stripes defense was celebrating in the end zone, someone stuck out like a sore thumb. That someone was cornerback Vernon Hargreaves, who wasn’t dressed for the game and in turn, gave his team a really dumb penalty that put them on their own 10-yard line. The Bengals proceeded to go 3-and-out and failed to take advantage of the end of the first-half opportunity they had.

Offensive Line

After keeping Burrow upright for the first quarter, the Bengals’ offensive line fell apart as the game went on, allowing seven sacks on their quarterback, including the game-deciding sack on 4th down. The o-line has to be fixed this offseason or we’re going to be in this same situation next season.

Eli Apple

A lot of people were happy to see Eli Apple get roasted, as the Bengals cornerback had been talking a tremendous amount of trash leading up to this Super Bowl game. Apple couldn’t contain Cooper Kupp and was the one who got burned on the Rams’ touchdown pass that ended up being the final score of the game.

It’s unfortunate that this game ended the way that it did but I’m incredibly proud of this Bengals team for making it this far. No one predicted them to win the division after going 4-11-1 a season ago and absolutely no one could have predicted them to make the Super Bowl.

While the end of the season doesn’t feel right, someone had to win the Super Bowl and someone had to lose. It’s hard not to think that the stripes will be right back in the big game during the Burrow era but it sucks knowing how close they were to winning it this season.