Now that the weekend has passed, it’s time for the Los Angeles Rams to move on from their emotional win over the San Francisco 49ers in the NFC Championship game. Following their gritty performance on Sunday, the Rams will begin preparing to face the Cincinnati Bengals in the Super Bowl.
With Los Angeles turning its attention to Cincinnati, Sean McVay shared his initial thoughts on the Bengals ahead of the Super Bowl. He’s still early in his evaluation of the Rams’ upcoming opponent, but he unsurprisingly applauded the job Joe Burrow has done, while also recognizing the talent Cincinnati has at wide receiver.
“We’re just diving into these guys, so to say anything schematically would be difficult. I’ve watched him from afar and we’ve crossed over with him a little bit. But I think when you just look at the three years with Zac, I think it’s a great testament to the consistent approach to a process, a commitment to a philosophy, and then you get the right guys at the key spots and how instrumental that can be in flipping the switch and flipping the narrative,” McVay said. “Obviously, Burrow’s been outstanding. I thought they’ve made some key additions in the draft with their skill players. Joe Mixon has always been a really good runner, but you look at the impact that Tee Higgins has had, obviously Ja’Marr Chase has been phenomenal. (Tyler) Boyd is one of the more underrated players in this league. And he was on that roster prior to Zac getting there. But their core group of skill players has been phenomenal. Their line is – they’re tough, competitive. They’ve made some key additions in free agency defensively. You look at some of the guys they added in the back end – really on both levels. They got rookie guys. They got young players that are really contributing, and then they’ve always been a really good special teams outfit. It’s going to be a tough matchup, but I’m looking forward to really being able to dive into it, probably have a little bit more specific answers for you over the next couple days.”
Being that the Rams just played on Sunday, they haven’t begun putting together their game plan for the Super Bowl versus the Bengals. But with McVay having experience working alongside Zac Taylor, he’s kept tabs on how Cincinnati is performing.
The skill players do present a challenge for the Rams as Mixon, Chase, Higgins, and Boyd have all been extremely effective with Burrow at the helm. The one area where Los Angeles has a definitive edge is in the trenches, which McVay seemed to hint at with his hesitant response when speaking about Cincinnati’s offensive line.
It feels like an eternity until the Rams and the Bengals battle one another in the Super Bowl on Feb. 13, and until then, we’ll hear plenty more from McVay and the members of both teams in the days leading up to the big game.
