Ravens' Odell Beckham Would've Had '250 Yards' in Super Bowl vs. Bengals
Odell Beckham Jr. will probably never get a complimentary bowl of Skyline Chili.
Beckham's status as a member of the rival Baltimore Ravens would probably be disqualifying enough, but he perhaps became an eternal rival of the city of Cincinnati 18 months prior: as a member of the 2021-22 Los Angeles Rams, Beckham scored the first touchdown of a 23-20 victory over the Cincinnati Bengals in Super Bowl LVI.
To date, it marks the last time Beckham has stepped foot on an NFL field: a knee injury and subsequent surgeries to repair it, have kept him off the field but he's currently preparing to return to action with the Ravens after signing with the team in April. Inclusion among the Baltimore ranks features two meetings with the Bengals as part of an AFC North rivalry that extended to the postseason last January.
Speaking with Peter King of NBC Sports, Beckham claims that the injury was the one thing that kept him from a downright historic day at SoFi Stadium.
“People have no idea what I was actually going to do that day,” Beckham claimed. “It was going be the day where I catch 15 balls, maybe 250 yards. The gameplan was for me. We would’ve beat them 42-17.”
It's easy to see where Beckham gained that confidence: after joining the Rams in the middle of the season, he put up 264 yards in the team's three-game in the NFC playoffs, most of it coming in the championship game victory over San Francisco. After his 17-yard touchdown, Beckham had a 35-yard grab that put Los Angeles back in Cincinnati territory. Eventual MVP Cooper Kupp scored on an 11-yard pass that put the Rams ahead 13-3.
Had Beckham indeed reached 250 yards, it would've set a new Super Bowl record, passing the 215 Jerry Rice earned in Super Bowl XXIII ... also against the Bengals.
Beckham is hoping to make a similar impact on a Ravens team trying to break through in the AFC postseason: Baltimore has made the playoffs in four of the past five seasons but has not been back to the conference title game since its own championship run in 2013.
"I think that there’s still some dust on that ’76 Mustang that we need to work out, but the car runs beautifully," Beckham told King of his 2023 outlook. "“I feel like I’m walking that fine line of gratitude and happy to be healthy and playing football … but also I still want to be great."
"I dropped a pass the other day and I was p***ed about it. Really p***ed. If I thought I didn’t care about this game, that dropped showed me no, I care. I absolutely care the same way I always have.”
Baltimore'yearly matchups with the Bengals land on Sept. 17 and Nov. 16, the latter game destined for Amazon Prime Video's "Thursday Night Football" package. In the meantime, the Ravens kick off a three-game preseason slate against the Philadelphia Eagles on Saturday night (7 p.m. ET, WBAL/NFL Network).
Geoff Magliocchetti is on Twitter @GeoffJMags
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