The 2021 season was something out of a video game for Cooper Kupp. The Rams receiver earned the triple crown after leading the league in receptions, receiving yards, and receiving touchdowns throughout the regular season. That alone was good enough for Kupp to earn Offensive Player of the Year honors, but the 28-year-old continued his stellar play during Los Angeles' playoff run and now has a Super Bowl MVP to show for it.
Kupp was vital in the Rams 23-20 victory over the Cincinnati Bengals in Super Bowl LVI, catching eight of his 10 targets for a team-high 92 yards and two touchdowns. That second score was the monumental switch in the game as quarterback Matthew Stafford was able to find him in the corner of the end zone to give L.A. the lead with just under 90 seconds left in regulation.
COOPER KUPP FOR THE LEAD!
— Los Angeles Rams (@RamsNFL) February 14, 2022
📺: #SBLVI on NBC pic.twitter.com/PTY7GWXBig
"We had a little run alert in," Kupp said of the touchdown after the game, via Nicki Jhabvala of The Washington Post. "We call the run if we get the look we want if we get man or something, or we get zero [coverage], I think we ended up getting zero on that one. We're able to alert things—alert and throw a little fade ball out there.
"Eli Apple had been playing me pretty well the entire game. Really came up, challenged me, doing a really good job with that. You know, cover zero, you got that inside leverage so I tried to just weave to his leverage, make him move in a little bit, jab him one time and be able to just give Matthew some room to put the ball wherever he wanted to. He made a great back-shoulder throw, and I was able to come down with it."
While that touchdown grab will garner its fair share of headlines, Kupp was dominant throughout the entire final drive. Arguably his second-biggest play of the game came earlier in the drive when he took a jet sweep seven yards down the field to convert on a fourth-and-1 attempt at the Rams 30-yard line.
All that not only helped Kupp finish the year as the Super Bowl MVP and a world champion, but it put a cherry on top of what is one of the most dominant seasons by a wide receiver in NFL history.
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