Los Angeles Rams vs Cincinnati Bengals: Odyssey to the Super Bowl
What a shakeup in events.
The 2021-22 season flew at breakneck speed, with plenty of twists and a few shouts at every round. New stars shone brightly with promise, while an old star – in experience only – burnt out before it could fade away; and teams up and down the ladder widely refreshed, for better or worse, their standing in the league.
It’s fitting that such a season culminates in a final hurrah that will see a solid favourite challenged by rank-outside underdogs in what is shaping up to be one of the most exciting Super Bowls we’ve seen in some time.
On Sunday, the Los Angeles Rams and the Cincinnati Bengals will lock horns on the gridiron, and the Bodog sportsbook will be watching from the bench to as one of them will claw their way to victory in the biggest sporting event of the year. Super Bowl betting with the latest odds in the market.
Los Angeles Rams: How They Reached Super Bowl 56: -185
With the Bodog odds set at -185, the LA Rams are season favourites going into Super Bowl LVI, a position they’ve held ever since the dust settled on last year’s championship. Their favourite position is boosted even more by the fact that the season-ending game will be played in their home stadium, giving them a theoretical advantage.
That home-team advantage isn’t as strong as it could be, as the Rams actually performed better on the road (7-2) than they have at home (5-3). That being said, it may play into their hands anyway, because due to a quirk in convention, Los Angeles will be classified as the away team, despite playing in LA.
And while the Rams haven’t won a Super Bowl for over 20 years, they still have much more experience than the Bengals. The local side last appeared in the big game in just 2018, and they still have many of the same names on their roster in 2022 that they had back then. The Bengals, on the other hand, have been away from the table longer than most of its current players have been alive.
The Rams earned their spot in the playoffs by winning the NFC West with a record of 12-5 with 460 points and allowing 372, making them the lowest-ranked NFC division winner this season.
In the Wild Card round, they managed a comfortable 34-11 win against the Cardinals to go up against the Buccaneers in the Divisional games, winning by just three points. The Conference Championship Game was equally tight, with the Rams picking up 13 points in the final quarter to squeak by the 49ers 20-17.
This habit of close games that are clinched in the dying minutes could lead to an exciting watch.
The Rams’ roster is full of fresh but strong talent that have performed impeccably during the postseason. QB Matthew Stafford hit the ground running with his first ever playoff victory in the Wild Card game against the Cardinals, completing 13 passes from 17 for 202 yards.
Meanwhile, Odell Beckham Jr. also got his first taste of playoff games after signing with the Rams in November. With a 100% record from catching all four of his targets and landing his first postseason touchdown, he could be a key asset on Sunday.
Cincinnati Bengals: Earning their stripes in LVI: +160
If you’d have bet on this year’s Super Bowl 12 months ago, you would have gotten odds of more than +6000 on the Cincinnati Bengals. If you waited until the beginning of September 2021, you could have locked in +12000. By the end of the month, the odds for the Bengals to win the Super Bowl were a whopping +18000.
But since then, the Bengals have looked better and better, beating the Ravens and Chiefs in two of their three final regular-season games. In the Wild Card Round, they trounced the Bengals 26-19, edged out the Titans to a 19-16 Divisional win, and squeezed the Chiefs in overtime to secure a spot in the Super Bowl for the first time since 1988.
For their valiant efforts, Bodog has given the Bengals Super Bowl betting odds of +160. That still makes them the underdog, but the gap between them and the Rams is now wafer-thin.
The Bengals won their division with a 10-7 record, narrowly thumping the Steelers who went 9-7-1. That ranks them as the worst division-clinching team of the season, though their 460 points is identical to that of the Rams.
If the Bengals do manage to go all the way against the Rams, then you can bet the Hollywood scriptwriter poised at the keyboard will have smashed out the next major sports biopic by month’s end. The team has never secured football’s biggest prize before and they hadn’t even won a playoff game for 31 years until their victory against the Raiders in the Wild Card round in this season.
As far as journeys to the Super Bowl go, this is one of the longest, and it could turn out to get a fairytale ending.
The hero in this story would be Joe Burrow, a second-year quarterback who’s been on fire this season. He’s shown himself to be solid and reliable against the most formidable teams and their star players, and we needn’t dig beyond the Week 17 game against the Chiefs to
We Burrow upstaged Patrick Mahomes and again in the AFC Championship game. He’s attempted over 100 passes in the playoffs and completed almost 70% of them. If he can maintain that, the Bengals really could be living happily ever after.
We couldn’t have scripted a better scenario for the Super Bowl if we’d tried. A long-standing favourite will face off against an underdog team that has made it this far by pulling off a series of shock wins. Betting on the Super Bowl this Sunday is going to be one of the most exciting experiences we’ve seen for several years. It’s one you won’t want to miss out on, so make your picks and get ready for the greatest show you’ll see all year.
There are plenty of bets to get behind, but the biggest bet of the season comes down to which team will hoist the Vince Lombardi trophy this Sunday at SoFi Stadium.
The battles have been won and lost, the hard work behind us. All that is left to do now is sit back, relax, and enjoy the Super Bowl in style. You can do just that with an added twist by seeing who is king or queen of the props game by downloading our Super Bowl Props Sheet ahead of the big game.
Download, print it out, and see who comes out on top between you and your buddies. Oh, and there’s also a chance to win an Xbox Series X by tweeting your completed sheet to our @BodogCA Twitter team.
Enjoy the game, and good luck!