The electric young quarterback never stood a chance to win the Super Bowl, because his overmatched offensive line collapsed under fire.

How quickly it seems to be forgotten that the biggest storyline coming out of Super Bowl LV — the Chiefs’ inability to protect Patrick Mahomes — could be repeated Sunday if the shaky Bengals offensive line renders meaningless the potential magic in Joe Burrow.

“I don’t get caught up in all that stuff,” Bengals offensive line coach Frank Pollack said. “That’s a nice story for [media] and the fans to worry about. Not for us. I always tell them don’t pay attention to the outside noise — good, bad or indifferent.”

Burrow is the first quarterback in history to reach the Super Bowl after he was sacked at least 50 times in the regular season. The Bengals allowed 55 sacks in total over 17 games — third-most in the NFL — and another 12 in three playoff games, including nine to the Titans.

“When they’ve needed to be their best, they rose to the occasion,” Pollack said. “We had a rough game at Tennessee, but that last drive, when we needed to, we hit on all cylinders.”

One year ago, Mahomes ran for 500 yards behind the line of scrimmage on his 52 dropbacks (49 passes plus three sacks) in the Super Bowl blowout loss to the Buccaneers, according to NextGenStats. The Chiefs couldn’t overcome the absence of their top two tackles and top two guards.

The Bengals still have three of their five season-opening starters, but the right side of the line is a major question mark. Isaiah Prince is starting at tackle in place of injured veteran Riley Reiff, while Jackson Carman and second-year pro Hakeem Adenjii are rotating at guard. Such is the other side of a hard-to-argue decision to draft rookie receiver Ja’Marr Chase instead of tackle Penei Sewell in the first round.

“I’ve got a ton of confidence in our guys up front,” offensive coordinator Brian Callahan said. “They’re battle-tested. They’ve played in tough games. They’ve made mistakes. They’ve given up sacks. They just keep coming back and fighting. That’s all you can ask for at this point in the year.”

The Bengals ranked No. 30 in pass-block win rate during the regular season. The Rams — featuring Aaron Donald, Von Miller and Leonard Floyd — led the league in pass-rush win rate. It’s the makings of a mismatch, especially if the Bengals fall behind early, as they did in the AFC Championship game or as the Chiefs did in the last Super Bowl.

“When you [face] talented guys, sometimes you want to step outside yourself and do a little too much because you think it will help you,” center Trey Hopkins said. “It ends up hurting you because guys like Donald and Miller, they take advantage of offensive linemen who play poor technique.”

One pass-rush counterpunch the Bengals could use that wasn’t available to the one-dimensional Chiefs is a strong rushing game: The NFL’s No. 3 leading rusher (Joe Mixon) against the No. 3 rushing defense (Rams).

“We might not have a line full of Pro Bowlers,” Callahan said, “But we’ve got guys that play really hard and play well together. We’re expecting a big game from them.”