Super Bowl LVI: Site experts pick the winner

Who will win Super Bowl LVI tonight in Los Angeles: the Bengals or Rams?

Though the Houston Texans have missed out on playing in Super Bowl LVI that doesn’t mean we can’t have some fun on “Super Bowl Sunday” as the AFC Champion Cincinnati Bengals and the NFC Champion Los Angeles Rams will play for the NFL championship.

This is the biggest day of the entire NFL season and a game where the whole world is watching. Whether it be for the game itself, the parties, the commercials or the halftime show, there is something for everyone when it comes to this game.

As for the football aspect of the game, the Bengals are coming in looking for the upset as they’ve been set as an underdog, even with playoff wins against the Las Vegas Raiders, the Tennessee Titans and the Kansas City Chiefs as Joe Burrow and the rest of the team from Cincinnati have taken care of business this postseason.

The Rams enter the Super Bowl with playoff wins against the Arizona Cardinals, Tampa Bay Buccaneers and the San Francisco 49ers.

Los Angeles also has maybe the best defense in the entire NFL with the likes of Aaron Donald, Leonard Floyd and Von Miller potentially putting pressure on the Bengals quarterback. It will make for an interesting matchup as the Bengals offense is exciting, but the Rams defense is scary in their own right as well.

Next are predictions for Toro Times site experts as we make our Super Bowl predictions for Sunday’s big game.

Stephen Forsha: This is a very tough Super Bowl to predict because of how strong the offense of the Bengals have shown they can be against the top competition the AFC has to offer, but the Rams defense doesn’t play around once they get going.

The championship will be won in the trenches because if the Bengals’ offensive line can keep Donald away from Burrow, giving the second-year quarterback time in the pocket, the likes of Ja’Marr Chase, Tee Higgins and Tyler Boyd can hold their own against the secondary of the Rams, because the trio of receivers is that good.

Asking the Cincinnati offensive line to slow down the big three of Los Angeles is a big ask because more often than not the o-line of Cincinnati has struggled this season, including in the playoffs where they allowed nine sacks in a game against the Titans. Against the Chiefs they allowed four sacks, and vs. the Raiders it was two sacks allowed.

Even though those games were wins, and they are the AFC Champions, getting hit repeatedly by Donald, Floyd and others will wear any offense down.

Again it is simple, stop the pass rush of the Rams and the Bengals are champions, but that is much easier said than done.

Final Score: Los Angeles 24, Cincinnati 19

Aarron Van Buren: This game is going to be the team that masters the unseasonable Los Angeles heat. Looking back on the previous Super Bowls played, there is one game that offers a parallel to Super Bowl LVI. That would be Super Bowl XXV, where the New York Giants faced off against the Buffalo Bills who were playing in their first of four straight Super Bowls.

The Giants saw that Buffalo’s “K Gun” offense that specialized in no-huddle tactics riddled defenses with holes throughout the season. Bill Parcells countered that by holding the ball on offense for as long as possible, with New York’s time of possession going over 40 minutes of gameplay. New York still needed a missed field goal from Scott Norwood, but it still got the job done.

And that’s exactly what Cincinnati should do here tonight. Run the ball with Joe Mixon and Samaje Perine and tire out this defense by draining the clock and converting third downs (the Bengals converted eight of them in the AFC Championship).

Final score: Cincinnati 20, Los Angeles 17