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Jalen Ramsey and the Super Bowl officials can breathe a sigh of relief that the Rams are champions and the threat of controversy was squashed.
While so many of his superstar teammates performed up to the moment of Super Bowl 56 in a 23-20 victory against the Bengals, Ramsey struggled to handle receiver Ja’Marr Chase and was on the bad-luck end of the game’s biggest blown call.
“Our guys aren’t afraid of anybody,” Bengals coach Zac Taylor said of challenging Ramsey when the rest of the Rams’ secondary is a weakness. “We’ve got tremendous players on our team and they got tired of the narrative of all the things that other teams are going to do to them. Here we are in the Super Bowl, and our guys stepped up and made plays.”
The box score reads that Ramsey allowed the go-ahead 75-yard touchdown on the first play from scrimmage in the third quarter. In reality, Tee Higgins used his left hand to reach around Ramsey, grab his facemask and fling him out of the way to make the catch and walk into the end zone.
For good measure, replays showed Higgins with his hand on Ramsey’s back as the All-Pro cornerback tumbled to the ground. Ramsey looked at the referees in disbelief when he saw no flag was on the field. The pass likely would’ve been a 50/50 jump ball if Ramsey still were on his feet.
Former NFL official Mike Pereira — rules analyst for Fox — wrote on Twitter that it should’ve been a pass interference or facemask penalty against Higgins. Either personal foul would’ve negated the touchdown, leaving the Bengals with first-and-long inside their own 15-yard line, trailing 13-10 instead of leading 17-13.
Apoplectic Rams fans were specializing in hypocrisy considering their last trip to the Super Bowl, in February 2019, was fueled by an even more egregious missed pass-interference penalty in the NFC Championship game. Back then, cornerback Nickell Robey-Coleman was not penalized for early contact on Saints receiver Tommylee Lewis. The Saints settled for a field goal instead of a first down inside the 5-yard line and the Rams won in overtime.
Ramsey can’t blame the other two big plays he allowed in the game on the officials, however.
Chase made a circus one-handed catch for a 46-yard gain down to the 11-yard line in the first quarter. Ramsey quickly rebounded with a pass break-up as Higgins ran a slant route at the goal line. The Bengals settled for a 29-yard field goal.
Chase got the better of Ramsey again on the first play of the Bengals’ final drive, when only a field goal was needed to tie the score. Ramsey overplayed Chase’s route — jumping inside like he might have a chance at an interception — and was out of position and trailing the play as Chase caught a ball thrown to his outside shoulder and turned upfield for a 17-yard gain before running out of bounds.
In the end, Ramsey gets his ring and the officials got to avoid the spotlight.
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