Post-Super Bowls Feels Dump

 

I expected this. That doesn't make it any easier.

It's the day after the Super Bowl, and I've never felt this way before. The team I liked all season – maybe my actual favorite team all my life – made it to and lost the Super Bowl in dramatic fashion. Heartbreaking fashion, you might say. Because I feel heartbroken.

I am typically a pretty guarded person who has lived a pretty emotionally-guarded life. I haven't experienced a lot of things that “normal” people experience. There has been a lot of disappointment, but not like yesterday. Not like last night. I, like every Bengals fan who only started checking in on the team after their last Super Bowl appearance, have never experienced a Super Bowl loss. Not as a fan. No team I've actually liked, rooted on and cheered for all season, has made it to a Super Bowl.

The Chiefs are my Number 2 team, have been for years, but I've never actually sat on the edge of my seat during any of their games, never put my emotional well-being on the line in the event the lose. The Chiefs lose, and I'm like, Dang. The Chiefs lost.

The Bengals lost the Super Bowl, and I've been in a sort of emotional malaise for almost 24 hours, now.

Joe Burrow said it right, though: It felt like, after that big run, they were going to be able to march the length of the field and get at least the field goal for the tie. I think that's why it hurts me so much. Who cares what the last several drives had to say about the game? I thought that, too. I really thought the Bengals were going to win that game. Or at least send it to Overtime. I could have dealt with an overtime loss, I think, so much better than the way they actually lost it.

I'm not doubting the mystique of Joe Burrow, either.

And it's funny. I decided I was going to root on the Bengals believing – hedging – in my heart that the Rams were going to win. I even prepared myself emotionally to be disappointed for the Rams and Matthew Stafford. Heck, there were parts of the game were I was already defeat-sympathizing with the Rams. But that's not how it played out, is it?

That's why I can't decide what I'm willing to feel before I feel it.

The easy take, I think, is to say that Joe Burrow didn't have enough Tom Brady in him. I seem to remember Von Miller giving Brady a big L on a fourth quarter drive in a Championship game many moons ago. Maybe I misremember. I seem to be able to remember, too, a Tom Brady strip sack on his final offensive drive against the Eagles. Sometimes the offensive line really does matter. But even that.... Aaron Donald and Von Miller and that entire defense – not so much the back end, but that front 7? They felt like one of those defenses that just wasn't going to lose.

And here I sit, trying not to think about it what it means for Joe Burrow's future, what this loss means about Zac Taylor, what it means that the defense couldn't stop Cooper Kupp and Matthew Stafford when it mattered.

But that's not what I should be thinking about, and I know it.

Those are the thoughts of an emotional and cognitive cutter. Those thoughts are just self-harm. They go nowhere, and they undermine what I actually believe about everyone I'm questioning.

What I should be thinking about, what I should be able to separate myself from the disappointment of losing so I can celebrate, is Matthew Stafford.

He did it. The son of a bitch finally did it. And I think that makes his Hall of Fame bid obvious. Richard Sherman disagrees; but I've always lowkey thought Richard Sherman is an asshole who says stupid things. So. What the fuck do I know?

I was thinking about that during the game. Not the Richard Sherman thing – not even what do I know. Hall of Fame bids. I was thinking about legacies. What it means for each of these quarterbacks – really each of these teams – to finally win this game.

Of course I'm happy for Aaron Donald. I'm even happy he got the ultimate sack (they ruled that a sack in the stat sheets right?) to end the game. I don't think he or anyone on that defense needed a win yesterday to cement their individual greatness among the historians of the League, but I do think that a Win puts Von Miller and Aaron Donald in the Hall. It might get Ramsey a berth, too; but I don't think he deserves it. Not in the same way as those other two.

The thing I keep coming to in my head, even as I was writing that previous paragraph, is how surprised I am that the Rams overcame so many injuries.

As I was watching the game, I kept thinking about how much I was going to hate it if the Rams' injuries, especially on defense, were going to make the game “too easy” for Burrow and Co. I cannot say that I enjoyed Matthew Stafford and Cooper Kupp managing to orchestrate a 15-play scoring drive. Neither can I say that I'm unimpressed they managed to find a way to take the lead in the second half of the game; even if it took the ref's getting involved to make it happen.

But, in all fairness to the officials, sometimes it takes the officials giving a team a score – or preventing a defense from holding a team to only a field goal attempt – to keep the Super Bowl feeling like we got a competitive matchup between two teams at their full strength.

Does that mean that I think the game was either rigged or that these teams were anything approaching full strength? No. No, it does not. I hated the penalties on that final Rams scoring drive. But I also hated several of the no-calls earlier in the game. So I personally feel like that part of the game is a wash.

I suppose what I'm really sulking about in my heart is that I wanted a shootout. And no one in their right minds thought that Burrow was going to get enough time in the pocket to shoot it out with anyone. Does that invalidate my most recent piece wherein I state that I think that offensive weapons are more important than an offensive line? I don't think so.

Stafford wasn't exactly not under duress the whole game. He threw two interceptions. The Bengals defense did what it was supposed to do. The Bengals offense just couldn't get enough first downs. That's what it really comes to, for me.

The gameplan was as traditional as it could have been. The strategy as football as it gets. The Bengals just needed to get a couple first downs somewhere in there and then they don't give the Rams the ball back inside five minutes. But that's how football goes sometimes.

And I'm bummed out about it.

Can we please pack up these Rams as an interesting team, though? I mean, I guess they did do something interesting. And they're in LA, so I know they aren't going anywhere. But we all thought all season that they were too soft to win a game when and where it mattered. And we were all wrong. So can we—

Actually... were we wrong?

I don't think we were. In fact, all those aforementioned Rams injuries incline one to think that maybe the Rams were a Finesse team. The way the game turned out, however, I think the game MVP should have gone to A'Shawn Robinson. If not for him keeping Mixon under control the whole game, I think the Bengals do get that handful of first downs they needed and they kick the field goals necessary to never let this game get back within 8 points or whatever. (I don't feel like doing the math.)

Oh well.

So then I pivot to thinking about how the Bengals are so obviously going to make it back to this game in the future. Joe Burrow is too good. And that has me thinking about how I'm sure everyone watching the game at the time would have said the same thing about Marino and his first appearance.

Super Bowls aren't lifetime achievement awards.

I think that's the big takeaway from what happened yesterday. As much as we want to see guys like Matthew Stafford get their Lombardi so they can step up to the Hall of Fame voters with a resume that includes winning the biggest game of them all, having a Hall of Fame career doesn't guarantee you enough opportunities (even at the Playoffs) to eventually win a Super Bowl. I mean, look no further than Philip Rivers: He's one of the most beloved quarterbacks to ever suit up, and he won't get a legitimate sniff at the Hall because he couldn't win a Super Bowl.

If I move from that framing to what I had intended to say – But Matthew Stafford eventually got his, so the point is moot – I look like I'm trying to argue that Matthew Stafford is a collector. Like I think he's just collecting stats and he had to get a Super Bowl for those stats to come together – that he is, in effect, not actually as good as he is.

Well, I watched those throws he made yesterday. There are only a handful of guys making those throws. Jimmy G wasn't making those throws. Aaron Rodgers isn't throwing to guys I've never heard of. Matthew Stafford not only did make the throws, he not only kept targeting guys not named Cooper Kupp, but he was able to do it against what was by my estimation the best defense in the AFC. I don't know that I like Kupp getting the SBMVP over Stafford, but the SBMVP isn't the Best QB Award like the Regular Season MVP is. I do know that I don't love that it was Eli Apple that was beaten by Kupp for the game-winner.

But I also know it ultimately doesn't matter.

Great game. I'm disappointed. But that's okay. Sometimes defeat is a part of life. And that's okay.

For what it's worth, I don't think this Bengals team is done. I don't think Burrow is the kind of guy to let his team go into a slump. He's too good – too good at the game of football, but more importantly too good a leader of men. I'm not sure about Zac Taylor still, but I'm probably never going to be sure about a coach again. I don't feel like these Bengals are one and done, though. There are too many question marks in the AFC North next season, and I there is absolutely no doubt which team has the best quarterback.

He's got his work cut out for him, but this is only the beginning for Burrow.

It will be interesting to watch and care about another team's off-season for the first time as a fan of the game.

As little interest as I have in the Rams, I will be watching with interested eyes to see where they go from here. I'm not the guy to look to for all the ins and outs of roster building and contract junk, but the Rams feel like a team set to take a pretty significant step back next season. Luckily for them, they aren't in an ultra-competitive division.

Oh, wait. Everyone thinks the NFC West is the most competitive.

I'm being a dick to amuse myself. Really, I don't see the Seahawks improving much next season, Russ or no. (I don't believe in Russ's greatness to the same degree as the rest of the world, evidently.) The 49ers may or may not be good. Trey Lance isn't guaranteed to be better than Jimmy G just because he was drafted by Kyle Shanahan, and that team has some weird luck as it is. Things come in spurts in San Francisco. And the Cardinals might be without Kyler Murray next season?

That whole mess is a whole mess, and I want nothing to do with it.

Except there's too much heat coming off the thing for there to be no fire amidst all that smoke. Chris Mortenson is reporting that he's got sources saying Kyler is selfish and a problem in the locker room? Yeesh.

My instinct says he's trying to force his way back to Texas. Probably to Dallas – because that seems like the kind of move you make if you're a guy like Murray – and wasn't there buzz about him being drafted by Dallas? – but maybe it's Houston. I don't know. I do know he's beloved in Texas and probably thinks he wouldn't be blamed for a loss after having a pretty bad game... if he were in Texas. Which is interesting. Maybe he didn't watch Tony Romo's career. Or maybe he thinks he's that much better than Romo. Don't know.

Maybe I'm wrong about this, too, but it seems like the Cardinals are backing Kingsbury in all this. Which could explain why Kyler wants out, if Kingsbury is basically saying it's Kyler that's letting the offense down, not the scheme letting him down.

It's not like the teamd doesn't have weapons.

But this story has months of legs under it.

The Super Bowl won't be any fun to talk about come tomorrow. Not for me, anyway.

Alright, I think I'm ready to close out, then.

I think, the more I think about letting this thing go and deciding what my emotions are so I can move forward with them, that I'm glad the game played out the way it did. I don't know if I could live with Matthew Stafford's disappointment. The looks on his face on the sidelines after his initial interception about broke my heart.

I think Stafford's been done dirtier than we realize. I don't think Burrow is going to spend any amount of his time in Cincinnati feeling like everything is his fault and his responsibility and like coaches are blaming him that they're going to lose their jobs.

That's what I saw, when I saw his face. I saw a guy who was expecting to get shut out by his coaches (again), who was expecting the game to be called to succeed around him. Like he isn't a genuinely great quarterback in his own right.

But by his final drive, that's not what I was seeing anymore. I was seeing a guy who was uniquely suited to running an offense with nobodies and out of position assholes. I saw a guy who had run that particular offense for twelve years. And so what I am more than anything after this football game is that we got to see Matthew Stafford win the biggest game of his life using those traits unique to his journey through the NFL. That's a narrative, an experience, which makes the heartbreak of this loss worth it (for me).

And that's a learning experience I'm glad I've had.

Hey—

Thanks for checking this out. I'm sure these blogs are going to slow way, way down. But I'll talk at you again sooner or later.