Super Bowl LVI prediction:

Quarterback prodigies don’t come strolling through destiny’s front door as often as we might like — it’s a bald-face reality that there simply don’t seem to be enough top-rank QBs to stock all the NFL franchises. But at the conclusion of his second full year under colors, Cincinnati QB Joe Burrow has accomplished virtually everything asked, in guiding the long-shot Bengals to become the AFC’s representative in Supe LVI.

LSU has turned out its share of front-row QBs over the years, and at this stage, Burrow doesn’t appear interested in taking a back seat to anyone — though any fair-minded observer must also give full marks to Los Angeles QB Matthew Stafford for quickly adapting his considerable talents to smoothly guiding his Rams teammates past the Cardinals, Buccaneers and 49ers in 2022 postseason play.

The Stafford-to-Cooper Kupp QB-to-WR battery remains as impressive a yard-generating entity as any we’ve seen in a while. You must grant the Rams considerable respect for their ability to generate optimal season-long levels of performance, once they made their way past their three-game losing skid encompassing the Thanksgiving holidays. They have lost just once since.

This is the third consecutive game away from home for Cincinnati, following their dramatic win over the visiting Raiders on Jan. 15. (At least they’re not laying points!) Skin-tight field-goal victories against the top-shelf Titans and Chiefs followed.

The Bengals capitalized on their additional good fortune and they’ve been able to take full advantage of two full weeks between their conference championship and Super Bowl LVI.

The Rams find themselves playing this Super Bowl in their home stadium (SoFi). Even Rams aficionados are compelled to acknowledge that the Los Angeles offense has been more than a little fortunate to be able to survive and advance in the face of a gross differential in team turnovers since mid-December, with the Rams having turned the ball over an average of two times per game in their seven most-recent outings … a far worse performance figure than the pair of turnovers the Bengals have endured during the same period.

We find it markedly difficult to get past the reality of the increase in poise exhibited by these two juggernauts since the postseason began, and we aren’t ashamed to admit we anticipate a competitive game deep into the second half.

We also must point out that the Rams have made an undeniable form advance since they acquired Odell Beckham Jr., to provide more diverse offensive opportunities, after he was cast off by the Browns.

For all that, we still can’t see the differential regarding overall expectation reflecting the prevailing point spread in its current state. One significant semi-hidden advantage likely lays in Bengals head coach Zac Taylor’s previous NFL employment on the Rams’ staff. You are free to mention Brian Callahan, who was the Lions’ quarterbacks coach at Detroit in the 2010s.

So long as market trends reflect reality, money has been steaming in on the Bengals. It’s difficult not to be enchanted by the Burrow-to-Ja’Marr Chase attack being fielded by the Bengals — and the history of the Rams in these affairs is their occasional tendency to make the difficult more difficult than it should be.

The Bengals have taken marked care in terms of ball control, especially in the postseason. Their extraordinary poise in being able to maintain grace in their postseason second-half rallies is another strong indicator of compounding team maturity.

Embrace the coming team.

Conference championships: 1-1
Season: 129-125-2