Rams' Matthew Stafford: Delivers in Super Bowl crunch time

Stafford completed 26 of 40 passes for 283 yards with three touchdowns and two interceptions during the Rams' 23-20 win over the Bengals in Super Bowl LVI on Sunday. He also rushed three times for six yards.

The veteran signal-caller culminated his first season outside of the football purgatory known as Detroit with a thrilling game-winning drive to secure a Super Bowl championship for the Rams on their home field. On his way there, Stafford had to navigate the absence of trusted tight end Tyler Higbee (knee) and the first-half exit of Odell Beckham, who suffered what appeared to be a serious knee injury of his own. Stafford had opened the game clicking on all cylinders while connecting on nine of his first 10 pass attempts, including touchdown passes of 17 and 11 yards to Beckham and Cooper Kupp, respectively. However, the entire air attack mostly fell into a malaise following Beckham's exit, with Los Angeles only managing a 41-yard Matt Gay field goal until a game-winning 15-play, 79-yard march late in the fourth quarter. Stafford turned back to Kupp, who the Bengals had focused on heavily after Beckham's departure, to spearhead the drive and capped it off with a perfect back-shoulder throw to his star wideout for the game-winning touchdown. The memorable finish caps off a wildly successful first season in L.A. for Stafford, who finished the regular season with his highest passing yardage total (4,886) since the 2012 season and a career-high-tying 41 touchdown passes.