Rams Top Bengals: How Cowboys Can Borrow from 'Risk' of Super Bowl XVI
It is a bit of a cliche that played itself out over the course of Super Bowl Week, leading up to the "loaded'' Los Angeles Rams' 23-20 victory over the "upstart'' Cincinnati Bengals in Sunday's LVI showdown at SoFi Stadium in Southern California.
The Rams' roster is supposedly "all Hollywood,'' built into a champion with flashy trades.
The Bengals roster is supposedly "gritty as Ohio,'' build into being good enough to be the championship runner-up by first being bad.
The truth - and it is a truth that should be observed by a Dallas Cowboys team that watched this from the couch, as "America's Team'' has now done for 27 years - is more complicated than that.
It's true that Los Angeles has star power, and that was demonstrated here by the work of QB Matthew Stafford, who last offseason escaped the Detroit Lions hoping for exactly this - but also costing the Rams a pile of draft capital, as did the previous trades for cornerback Jalen Ramsey and pass-rusher Von Miller, both of whom played key roles in controlling the Bengals offense.
“I don’t feel deserving of this,” said MVP Cooper Kupp, who caught two TD passes from Stafford, including the late game-winner. “The guys standing here challenged me, they pushed me. I am just so grateful.”
It's also true that a series of down years resulted in the Bengals acquiring top-of-the-draft selections which resulted in back-to-back acquisitions of QB Joe Burrow (an Ohio native) and receiver Ja’Marr Chase.
But the Rams' deep roster isn't all about pricy trades and risky signings (receiver Odell Beckham Jr. representing the latter). There is plenty of "grit'' on this club. And the team's best player is defensive tackle Aaron Donald, a draftee. Led by Donald and Von Miller, LA sacked Joe Burrow a Super Bowl record-tying seven times, shutting down Cincinnati’s offense.
And that's where the Dallas lesson starts.
The Cowboys are hell-bent on "signing their own'' when it comes to big-money guys, and while doing so means Dak Prescott, Ezekiel Elliott, DeMarcus Lawrence, Amari Cooper, Tyron Smith and Zack Martin become long-termers ... it comes along with a declaration that Dallas won't be examining the types of deals that got the Rams their Super Bowl experience.
Wouldn't a better way be to remain open-minded about anything and everything? Or even to go a bit retro, back to when team owner Jerry Jones was so unafraid of being aggressive that he was willing to overpay?
Put it this way ...
Were the Cowboys ever in on trading for DFW native Miller this year? They were not. (Maybe that will change this time around?)
Would this edition of the Cowboys ever dream of paying Beckham Jr., who also has DFW ties and a family that would love to see him as a Cowboy? They would not.
None of this makes the decision-making process of the Rams flawless. They overspent at running back (Todd Gurley) just as Dallas did with Elliott. They are guilty of silly little errors, like trying to seat franchise legend Eric Dickerson in the nosebleeds. (He reportedly declined to attend.) And they now are largely absent future picks, so their title will be difficult to defend.
But at least they have a title that they might fail to defend.
Meanwhile, while using their balls-to-the-wall philosophy, the Rams have now been here twice in the last four years, which is substantially more often than the Cowboys have ... well, you know.
It is often said the NFL is a "copycat league.'' The Bengals benefitted from being bad; that is not advisable for Dallas. But the Rams got here by taking risks. Dallas has done that before.
And maybe should examine doing it again.
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