Dustin Baker’s Super Bowl LVI Prediction

Dustin Baker's Super Bowl LVI Prediction
Joe Burrow and Aaron Donald

The Minnesota Vikings have a handful of faces involved in Super Bowl LVI.

Trae Waynes, who curiously hasn’t played much in the playoffs, is on the Cincinnati Bengals roster at cornerback. So is Riley Reiff, but he was injured late in the regular season and will not play in the championship. Former future QB2 for the Vikings, Jake Browning, is on the Bengals practice squad.

But no person is as significant to the Vikings as Rams offensive coordinator Kevin O’Connell. After HarbaughMania, O’Connell emerged as Minnesota’s next head coach, reportedly set to take over the Vikings this Monday or Tuesday. Mike Zimmer was terminated on January 10th, ending a defensive era of football in Minneapolis after eight seasons. Strangely, Zimmer’s defense was rendered ineffective in 2020 and 2021, so it was time to move on with an offensive mind in O’Connell. At age 36, O’Connell is the NFL’s second-youngest skipper, “trailing” his current boss Sean McVay by a whisker.

Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports

As for Super Bowl LVI, the matchup is strange. Nobody — outside of a few Ohio-born Bengals faithful — predicted this pairing. The Bengals were relatively topsy-turvy for some of the season, losing to the Chicago Bears, Cleveland Browns twice, and Mike White’s New York Jets. Yet, when it mattered in the postseason, the Bengals rose to their apex, toppling the Kansas City Chiefs in the AFC Championship.

Los Angeles, on the other hand, was built with purpose like the 1992 NBA Olympic Dream Team. Like a Hollywood production, they’re star-studded, loaded with men like Aaron Donald, Jalen Ramsey, Cooper Kupp, Odell Beckham, Von Miller, Robert Woods, and Matthew Stafford.

And aside from a weird reverse honeymoon after the midseason acquisitions of Beckham and Miller — when the Rams played terribly — the Super Bowl home team hit its stride. It should be no surprise to anybody on the globe these Rams are in playing February football. Los Angeles is stacked.

The Rams best team attribute is the defensive trenches. The Bengals worst team attribute is the offensive trenches. For this reason alone, the Rams will win the Super Bowl handily, torching the Bengals by a score of 38-17.

Joe Burrow is fantastic, and in theory, he should return to the Super Bowl a few times in the next 15 years, although he’ll have to slip by Patrick Mahomes, Justin Herbert, Josh Allen, Lamar Jackson, Trevor Lawrence (eventually), and maybe even Deshaun Watson. The AFC is laced with quarterbacks who possess the talent to respectively dominate for years. Plus. one should be cautious about “Burrow will be back,” as Dan Marino thought the same thing in 1984 — to no avail.

The Rams employ too many playmakers, on offense and defense. Cincinnati’s Cinderella run will dissipate, chiefly because much of its pathway to the Super Bowl was fortuitous. They assuredly deserve to be in Los Angeles this weekend, but the Bengals were the beneficiary of a “game of inches” throughout the postseason. And that’s okay.

Los Angeles wins big.

Dustin Baker is a political scientist who graduated from the University of Minnesota in 2007. He hosts a podcast with Bryant McKinnie, which airs every Wednesday with Raun Sawh and Sally from Minneapolis. His Viking fandom dates back to 1996. Listed guilty pleasures: Peanut Butter Ice Cream, ‘The Sopranos,’ and The Doors (the band).


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