After 21 (!) weeks of games and a week off after the conference championships, Super Bowl Sunday kickoff is here. It'll be the and the going head-to-head for the right to lift the Vince Lombardi Trophy and call themselves champions of the 2021 season.As always, we're here to break down the matchup. But first, here's how you can watch the Super Bowl on Sunday night.Date:Sunday, Feb. 13|Time:6:30 p.m. ETLocation:SoFi Stadium (Inglewood, California)TV:NBC|Stream:fuboTV ( )Spread: Rams -4, O/U 48.5When the Rams have the ballThe Los Angeles offense runs through , who is just about impo sible to cover. He's in the midst of arguably the greatest wide receiver season ever, having followed up his 145-catch, 1,947-yard, 16-touchdown regular season with 25 catches for 386 yards and four touchdowns during the Rams' three-game run through the NFC. Kupp aligns more often than not in the slot (63.2% of his routes, according to Tru Media), which makes Bengals cornerback one of the most important players on the field. You don't nece sarily think of Kupp as a physically imposing presence, but the size advantage he (6-2, 208 pounds) has on Hilton (5-9, 184 pounds) could come into play here, especially on plays where is willing to throw into traffic. Of course, the Bengals play mostly zone coverage, so Hilton will get help from safeties and linebackers on this a signment. But it's not like other teams haven't tried that all year. Kupp just shreds it anyway.All the attention devoted to Kupp should leave copious one-on-one opportunities for . and on the outside. As we covered in our earlier this week, the way III and Von Bell Patrick Roy Jersey handle the back-side dig to Beckham could play a huge role in this game.Bengals defensive coordinator Lou Anarumo has done a good job designing bespoke coverage plans for opponents throughout this season, counting on his veteran-laden defense to be able to handle all different types of looks. The Bengals over the last two offseasons broke with tradition and actually spent some money on outside free agents, and coming away with players like Bell, , and on the back end has helped diversify the defense. Bengals' week-by-week coverage splitsOppWeekCov-0Cov-1Cov-22-ManCov-3Cov-4Cov-6MIN13.8%30.2%17.0%0.0%37.7%3.8%1.9%CHI23.7%18.5%22.2%0.0%37.0%3.7%7.4%PIT31.6%11.3%24.2%0.0%33.9%9.7%14.5%JAX44.0%36.0%8.0%0.0%32.0%8.0%4.0%GB52.4%31.7%17.1%7.3%17.1%7.3%9.8%DET62.3%14.0%23.3%2.3%39.5%2.3%14.0%BAL78.5%12.8%14.9%0.0%36.2%19.1%8.5%NYJ83.9%9.8%9.8%0.0%35.3%13.7 Tyson Jost Jersey %19.6%CLE94.3%43.5%4.3%0.0%21.7%8.7%0.0%LV110.0%10.3%20.7%0.0%37.9%10.3%13.8%PIT120.0%25.0%20.5%4.5%31.8%6.8%9.1%LAC130.0%17.9%15.4%2.6%48.7%10.3%2.6%SF144.3%28.3%6.5%0.0%32.6%15.2%0.0%DEN152.7%37.8%21.6%0.0%27.0%0.0%8.1%BAL164.9%31.7%19.5%0.0%29.3%4.9%4.9%KC172.9%14.3%31.4%2.9%20.0%8.6%8.6%CLE1812.0%24.0%4.0%0.0%40.0%0.0%8.0%LVWC1.8%24.6%14.0%7.0%26.3%15.8%0.0%TENDIV8.0%8.0%12.0%0.0%48.0%12.0%12.0%KCLC4.7%25.6%11.6%0.0%4.7%20.9%23.3%The most important money, though, was spent on the defensive front. That's where the Bengals landed , as well as and , among others. Cincinnati's ability to get pre sure without blitzing is what has propelled its run through the playoffs, and the Bengals will need to do it again in the Super Bowl. During the regular season, the Bengals had the fourth-lowest blitz rate in the NFL (22%). In the playoffs, they've dialed it back even more, sending extra rushers only 17% of the time.That's a good thing, because you really do not want to blitz Stafford. Like, ever. He completed 93 of 130 pa ses for Andreas Martinsen Jersey 1,294 yards, 16 touchdowns and just one interception against the blitz during the regular season. That was good for a league-best 139.6 pa ser rating, and he ranked second in expected points added per blitzed dropback, behind only . (The Bengals notably did not blitz Mahomes very often in the AFC title game. It was a huge part of their game plan.)Hendrickson and rushing off the edges against and should be a fun matchup to watch. Cincinnati's ends aren't the twitchy types who scream around the corner and bend their way to the quarterback. They're power, effort type of rushmen who maintain good lane discipline and just keep working and working until they get the pa ser on the ground. It remains to be seen how the Rams will divvy up their backfield work. For the first time all season, they're expected to have each of , , and active. Henderson was the bell cow early in the season. Michel took over late in the year. Akers soaked up almost all the work by the time the Rams got to the divisional round, but he wasn't very effective and ended up splitting work with Michel in the conference title game after an early-game shoulder injury. The L.A. offense is often at its best when it can marry the run with the play-action pa sing game, and the Bengals have been a bit vulnerable on the ground during the latter portion of the year. The Rams haven't run it well of late, but if they can change that here, that'd be a big plus.When the Bengals have the ballThe big focus on this side of the ball is the matchup in the trenches. As we wrote in our X-factors breakdown:The three most important players in this game might be , , and . That's the trio that will largely be tasked with dealing with the game-wrecking force of on the inside. It's also the single-weakest part of the Bengals offense, which we have seen come into play throughout this postseason. Spain and Adeniji ranked 62nd and 57th, respectively, in ESPN's pa s-block win rate among 63 qualifying guards this season, while Hopkins ranked 26th out of 32 qualifying centers. was the most-sacked quarterback in the during the regular season. Not all of that is on the offensive line, of course. Burrow was only pre sured at the league's 16th-highest rate, but his pre sures turned into sacks at the third-highest rate in the NFL, behind only and . But his pre sure rate has spiked a bit during the playoffs, and his rate of sacks to pre sure has stayed mostly the same.We saw how an interior rush could batter the interior of Cincinnati's offensive line in the divisional round, when laid waste to the Bengals' pa s-protection. Burrow was sacked nine times, with Simmons collecting three of those takedowns. Simmons is a terrific player, but he's not as dangerous as Donald. Donald has a playoffs-high 16 pre sures, and has collected a sack, hit, or hurry on 14% of his pa s-rush snaps during the postseason. That's the highest rate among interior defenders by a not-insignificant margin.All of that is a big problem for Cincinnati, and of course, Donald is not the only problem Blake Comeau Jersey the Rams present up front. There's also the matter of and coming around the edges. and will have their hands full with that duo. The Bengals don't typically like to keep a tight end or back in to help with pa s-blocking, largely because Burrow prefers to have as many receivers as po sible out on routes. If that's the tact they take in the Super Bowl, the Bengals' fate might very well ride on how well he calibrates his internal clock.Another major question is how the Rams plan to deploy . He has not traditionally shadowed opposing receivers this season, though the Rams have made a few exceptions for bigger-bodied receivers because No. 2 corner is very slight. Ramsey followed for Francois Beauchemin Jersey most of the game in the divisional round, for example. is actually quite a bit bigger (6-4, 215 pounds) than (6-1, 200 pounds), but the rookie plays bigger than his size. The smart bet is on Ramsey playing playing his star (slot) position on early downs when the Bengals might be more likely to run the ball, and tangling with whichever wideout the Rams consider the bigger threat when Cincinnati gets into second-and-long or third-down situations.Opponents have been willing to test Williams throughout the postseason, and the size advantages held by Higgins and Chase, combined with Burrow's eagerne s to throw the ball downfield, could lead to some deep shots. The most vulnerable area of the Rams defense, though, is typically short and over the middle. That's where does most of his work, and where can be a threat on checkdowns.The structure of L.A.'s defensive shell often works to bait opponents into running the ball more often than they should. Zac Taylor has shown a willingne s to do just that throughout the season, up to and including during the AFC title game, when the Bengals kept pounding the ball into the line on early downs for little yardage, then asking Burrow to bail them out later in the series. He was able to do it because the defense found a way to shut its opponent down, but that's not nece sarily a winning strategy. Latest Odds: Cincinnati Bengals +4.5 Prediction: Rams 26, Bengals 23
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