Is this not a standard throw for a fella running into space?
He doesn’t take his eyes off the other receiver (88) which completely sucks in the safety and opens it up for Kupp. Typically the QB would lock onto Kupp and and safety reads the QBs eyes carries Kupp’s route across the field and you don’t get the play. He no looks it to Kupp with perfect anticipation, Bell takes a step the wrong way drawn to 88 due to Stafford and it creates the tiny window which Stafford puts a laser through - a small handful of QBs can make that play.
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It was a game that was decided by tight margins. The Rams were marginally better and in Kupp, had a player that just separated them from the Bengals. Their key players were just marginally better than the Bengals ones and that ultimately was the main difference. The Bengals, correctly, could point to the couple of late flags/non flags and who knows if the make a difference, but ultimately they had the ball in their possession and had a second and short and failed to get a first down. That cost them more than any flag.
The one thing about the flag called, yes the Bengals had their own fortune with their one on the first play of the third quarter, but a call with pretty much no time left makes it a much more defining call. The rams had a full half to get through the bad call hit on them whereas the Bengals dont have the same luxury. Just one of those things and the Bengals still had the chance for their own destiny but failed. I thought a few of their play calls were a bit iffy. The Rams too had some terrible play calling and their run game was shockingly poor.
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Dan O is going to be tremendous value for the next couple of days. In fairness to him he comes out with some off the wall stuff but has been big on Stafford and Burrow long before others. Although he is also a big Wentz stan
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The Bengals got a break straight after half time and got the lead. They then got outstanding field position and their defence dominating yet only managed 3 points in the remaining 29 minutes playing with a lead despite all the momentum in the second half. They left the Rams in it
4 of 17 on third and 4th down tells its own story
they absolutely did leave them in it. The game for both sides really stalled after that FG, the Bengals never scoring again and the Rams getting 1 FG before their last minute TD. Lots of 3 and outs and the Rams in fairness werent much better going 7 of 16 on 3rd/4th down conversions and getting 2 first downs by penalties. Again, marginally better, and that small margin was reflected in the scoreline.
I think the Rams struggling to get things going was understandable, the offence really struggled without OBJ and Blanton along with the absentees they already had and no run game. The Bengals had Mixon getting close to 5 yards a carry and had all their weapons yet there seemed to be no real intent to either bury the Rams or put together those time eating 10 play + drives.
Missed this last night
could also be as simple as their porous line was finaly crumbling to a very good Rams D. But yeah, they had a chance to absolutely bury them and they were very conservative in their calls.
Nobody puts shady in the corner.
I thought Stafford was really great last night. He made it look easy when he had Beckham to work with and then got it done without him. Hardly put a foot wrong all night.
McVeigh is no genius. The play calling with Akers was just stupid, why didn’t he try a screen play all night? McVeigh is holding them back.
Akers is a great story to make it back from such an injury so quickly but he has been really poor in the playoffs.
Boyd dropping an easy ball was the losing of it for the Bengals, not unlike the 49’ers in the previous game.
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Kevin Clark with a very fair summation of last night and both teams in general
The Stafford fan boys are very creepy.
He goes all season without dropping a ball, then drops one right at the end of the SB - the writing was on the wall from then on.
Harsh.
If he made the catch I don’t think he’s making the yardage regardless
The definitive view - iconic
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The second half was a slugfest, but it will make for a great episode of America’s Game.