SAN DIEGO — Watching Super Bowl 56 will be as fun as driving over a spike strip if the Los Angeles Rams match their offensive futility of Super Bowl 53.
Those Rams scored no touchdowns and banged nine punts. Other than Patriots fans, most spectators wondered why they continued to watch.
"I'm kind of numb right now," Rams coach Sean McVay — speaking for many — said after the 13-3 loss to New England in February 2019. "I got outcoached. I didn't do nearly good enough."
Those Rams put up 32.9 points per game in the regular season.
These Rams averaged 27.1 points. The Cincinnati Bengals defense they'll face Sunday at the Inglewood Kroenke Dome held the potent Chiefs to three points in Kansas City's final eight possessions of the AFC championship game.
If the Rams induce another Super Bowl-level food coma, it won't be blamed on McVay being the youngest coach in the event's history. He's 54 games wiser, including a 4-1 mark in the past five playoff games, since he aged rapidly inside Atlanta's dome opposite Bill Belichick.
"I'm sure there are many lessons McVay learned," said former NFL quarterback J.T. O'Sullivan, a San Diegan who breaks down football film on The Quarterback School website.
O'Sullivan said that while it is fair to think McVay, then 33, wasn't just falling on his sword in comments afterward and in fact had a rough Super Bowl, there was a lot more to the collapse of a Rams offense that had scored 30 and 26 points in the playoffs.
The first lesson? "Make sure you've got some world-class personnel," said the ex-QB.
This time, McVay can turn to better playmakers in quarterback Matthew Stafford, receiver Cooper Kupp and receiver Odell Beckham, Jr., none of whom was part of Super Bowl 53.
Because of those upgrades, O'Sullivan doubts football nerds will see much overlap to McVay's chess moves in the two Super Bowls.
"Basically the only thing those two offenses have in common is probably the language of the plays," he said. "The way they're going to attack Cincinnati, I would look for it to be much more aggressive, much more vertical in the passing game, much more what they've evolved into and being able to take advantage of the skill set and roster they've built up on both sides of the ball."
True to McVay's vision, the passing attack matured and leaned less on ground success with last winter's trade for Stafford, who outplayed Tom Brady last month to help L.A. defeat the defending Super Bowl champions in Tampa, Fla.
Kupp's return to health has given Stafford an edge quarterback Jared Goff lacked in Super Bowl 53 when Kupp was sidelined by a knee injury dating to that November.
Beckham, obtained midway through the 2021 season, has punished Rams opponents who assign two defenders to Kupp. He has whipped cornerbacks and exploited various zones.
In effect the Rams boast two true No. 1 receivers, a rarity even for a Super Bowl team. And coaches headed by McVay and coordinator Kevin O'Connell (La Costa Canyon and SDSU) have impressed O'Sullivan, too.
"They've started to learn how to incorporate OBJ a little better into the rhythm of the offense" as he's become more familiar, said the ex-QB, whose NFL coaches included Super Bowl-winning coordinator Mike Martz. "So it's not, 'Hey we've got to throw up a shot ball to you. We can work you into the progression and you can get your touches in a normal, natural flow.'
"So," he added, "it allows both of those guys, Kupp and Beckham, to get their allotted touches to make sure everybody is happy and you'll be operating as efficiently as you can without forcing it. It feels more comprehensive in how they're able to attack defenses."
The Bengals have played a mean game of chess themselves. They held the Raiders and top-seeded Titans under 20 points in playoff victories. At Kansas City, where they trailed 21-3, they rode coordinator Lou Anarumo's varied designs to a 27-24 victory despite losing the overtime coin flip.
The Chiefs' playmaking trio of Patrick Mahomes, Tyreek Hill and Travis Kelce were healthy. They'd zapped Buffalo's defense — first in the NFL — a week earlier in a 42-36 overtime victory.
A Bengals tactic the Chiefs struggled against was to rush only three defenders, assign a spy to Mahomes and deploy seven others in pass coverage. Rather than run the ball, the Chiefs chose to trust Mahomes. He responded with perhaps the worst half-plus stretch of his career.
Because the Rams "are more dynamic at running the ball," O'Sullivan said the Bengals may rely less on that change of pace Sunday.
Another factor he cited is often overlooked: luck. A 49ers safety dropping Stafford's pass, for example, contributed to L.A.'s three-point victory in the NFC title game.
It'll be good luck for most fans if the Rams score a touchdown Sunday.
