The Los Angeles Rams — and Eric Weddle — are Super Bowl champions for the first time and here's why:
It was in the stars.
Big plays by the best Rams players late in Super Bowl 56 delivered the 23-20 victory Sunday against the Cincinnati Bengals, who led for most of the second half at the Kroenke Dome in Inglewood.
Matthew Stafford?
The quarterback, who had outplayed Tom Brady in an NFC playoff game last month, drove L.A.'s injury-reduced offense 79 yards for a go-ahead touchdown inside of two minutes to play.
Cooper Kupp?
The NFL's winner of the receiving triple crown fueled the final march with four catches — including a 1-yard TD grab — and likely kept his team's Super Bowl bid alive with a fourth-and-1 run around right end at L.A's 37.
Kupp, voted the game MVP, was shouldering a heavier load, due to receiver Odell Beckham's absence after suffering a knee injury late in the first half.
How about Aaron Donald, the brightest Rams star with the longest tenure on the team?
The defensive tackle barged past Cincinnati's left guard on fourth-and-1 at L.A.'s 49. With Donald spinning him toward the ground, Joe Burrow threw a clinching incompletion, much like Donald's play on Jimmy Garoppolo that won the NFC title game two weeks earlier.
The finishing blow by Donald — a three-time Defensive Player of the Year whom the Rams drafted in 2014 — secured the victory and filled the only big hole on his Hall of Fame resume.
"I wanted it so bad," he told NFL Network. "I dreamed this."
Asked if it's possible that it was the final play of his career, the 30-year-old Donald evaded the question.
Weddle, 37, had made it clear that — win or lose against the Bengals — he was returning to retirement after the game.
The former San Diego Chargers All-Pro safety was playing in his first Super Bowl (and fourth postseason game since the Rams coaxed him out of retirement Jan. 11).
Weddle suffered a torn pectoral muscle late in the first quarter, necessitating a shoulder harness.
In visible pain, Weddle still played the rest of the game.
"I know he messed his pec up good and fought through that like a warrior," coach Sean McVay said.
The Rams needed Weddle to overcome the injury to help keep their defense intact mentally.
He was the designated "green dot" player who relayed and adjusted the electronically transmitted calls from the coaches.
In addition to directing the chess match, Weddle finished with four tackles.
And one of those was a big one.
Weddle's first-down stop of Bengals receiver Tyler Boyd on the final drive began the sequence of four plays that won the Super Bowl.
Because Weddle halted Boyd at the 49, by slamming into him at midfield, the Bengals still needed another yard for the first down.
They never got it.
Tight pass coverage yielded a second-down incompletion, followed by Donald and nose tackle Greg Gaines stopping running back Samaje Perine for no gain on third down.
The final chapter of Weddle's career may qualify as unique in NFL annals.
He'd gone 750 days between playing football when he returned to L.A. six days before its playoff opener. Nevertheless, he appeared in all four postseason games.
L.A.'s defense was the better unit in all four of those games. In the final three games — including an NFC title game in which he led the Rams in tackles and had a key tackle for loss — Weddle logged full duty.
"Holy smokes," he said late Sunday. "Five weeks ago, I'm chilling. Now, Super Bowl champion. You can't make this stuff up.
"I've never worked so hard in my life — to try to make up for two years," he said.
Two weeks ago, the Poway resident said he was riding a wave of emotional support toward the Super Bowl from many San Diegans who were pulling for him.
Locals remembered Weddle's nine-year career in town that produced several team captaincies and two All-Pro selections with the Chargers, to say nothing of four playoff berths.
"I feel like they'll be all with me — the city of San Diego, the people that have supported me and been with me the last 15 years," Weddle, who came to San Diego in 2007 as a second-round draft selection out of Utah, had said earlier this month. "At any point in my career, I've felt we're in this together."
McVay, who supported coordinator Raheem Morris' efforts to lure Weddle back to the team, after both Rams starting safeties went down in the season's final game, surpassed the Steelers' Mike Tomlin to become the youngest coach to win a Super Bowl.
The Rams joined the 1983 Los Angeles Raiders as the only Southern California teams to win a Super Bowl.
L.A.'s victory left the Chargers as the only West Coast team without a Super Bowl victory.
For the Bengals, the Rams' late-game dominance prevented Burrow and Co. from claiming the franchise's first Super Bowl victory in three tries. Burrow said he was "a little disappointed" in his own performance, which was influenced by a Rams pass rush that netted seven sacks, including six after halftime.
Burrow, 25, seems likely to play deep into coming Super Bowl tournaments.
The veteran Rams stars just came up with too many big plays, giving the L.A. version of the franchise its first Lombardi Trophy in three Super Bowl games.
