Los Angeles Rams wide receiver Cooper Kupp (left) catches the ball for a touchdown on February 13, 2022 in Inglewood, California. Photo: VCG
Los Angeles Rams head coach Sean McVay knew what he wanted.
"Let me get a beer!" he told the NFL Network's postgame show after he had seen his team complete a dramatic end to a dramatic season, scoring the touchdown that they needed to win the Super Bowl.
The Rams had taken the ball with 1:25 left on the clock and the scores at 16-20. This was not the gameplan for McVay's Rams, and nor was losing Odell Beckham Jr to injury - even if the former New York Giants and Cleveland Browns wide receiver had answered his critics with a touchdown to help the Los Angeles team to a 13-0 halftime lead.
With Beckham Jr off the field and reduced to being another spectator in the Inglewood crowd at the SoFi Stadium, it fell to McVay to resort to "Plan A" - the combination of quarterback Matthew Stafford and receiver Cooper Kupp. The Cincinnati Bengals knew what was coming but somehow Stafford, Kupp and the rest of McVay's Rams found a way into the endzone and got the touchdown that they needed.
There are questions over what will happen next for McVay, who became the youngest coach to win the Vince Lombardi Trophy, aged 36.
The questions were put aside by the coach when asked if this was the end, having gone all the way just three years after his Rams lost the Super Bowl to the New England Patriots.
"No," McVay said. "I'm so happy for this team right now. So happy to be associated with it. We're going to enjoy tonight. I'm not going to remember any of it."
The scenes of Rams fans enjoying their Super Bowl win in downtown Los Angeles meant that McVay was not going to be the only one with a sore head the next day, but there will be lasting memories from the historic win.
McVay is 303 days younger than Pittsburgh Steelers coach Mike Tomlin was when he won Super Bowl XLIII at 36 years and 333 days.
The Rams coach had shared kind words for Tomlin before going on to the Super Bowl and breaking his record.
"Mike is one of the more impressive people I've ever met," McVay told the media.
"He's been great to me. I couldn't be more grateful, really. I got a chance to get to know him a little bit a few years ago through Raheem Morris [now the Rams defensive coordinator].
"I think one of the things that's been great about Mike is he's so willing to share, you know, really kind of put his arm around you and really help kind of, you know, be a mentor and answer any questions that you have. His leadership, his command, his mental toughness, how that really relates to the way that his teams play, the way they respond from the good and the bad. I think he's one of the best leaders that this sport has to offer."
McVay also had kind words after the game, praising the players that helped him put his own name in the history books.
"It feels outstanding," McVay said after watching his team win. "You talk about a resilient team - coaches, players - I'm just so proud of this group. For the offense to find a way, and then Aaron [Donald, Rams defensive lineman], to be able to finish it off, it's poetic, man."
Donald, who had been tipped to retire if the Rams were to win, put in the tackle that ended the Bengals' hopes of the most unlikely of Super Bowl wins. He pointed to his finger after making the play - in full knowledge that he was about to finally get a ring on his finger.
His teammates do not want to see him go - and cannot understand how he could after finally tasting the success of a Super Bowl win.
"He's done everything you could possibly do," Rams teammate Von Miller said, "but this feeling right here, there's nothing like it. It's addictive. Coming to the Super Bowl is one thing, but winning it is different. This feeling is great, it just makes you want it more and more and more. But he's definitely capping off a great career if he chooses to do that. But this is an addictive, feeling, man, and I just can't see him walking away from this."
Miller, who won his second Super Bowl, was one of a number of high-profile recruits made by the Rams management in their quest for the Lombardi Trophy.
He, along with Stafford and Beckham, were part of a Super Bowl or bust strategy in Southern California, but it ended with the trophy and the Rams became only the second team to win the NFL showpiece in their home stadium.
"It's amazing, and I am just really proud of this group," said Rams owner Stan Kroenke. "So happy for them, and then you talk about these players.
"They're unbelievable, and they just hung in there. It was a tough game and I'm just so proud of them executing like they did.
"As far as building this stadium goes, I think it turned out alright," the real estate mogul said of the SoFi Stadium, which had cost some $4 billion to build.
"Thanks to the great fans of Los Angeles, your first Super Bowl trophy in Rams house."
Where there was joy for the Rams, there was heartbreak for the Bengals - most typified by Tyler Boyd who dropped his first catch of the season, leading to them punting and the Rams getting that game winning touchdown.
"That's football," Boyd said. "I don't think I'm getting down on myself after one drop. I still needed to catch it and get the first down. But I'm human. I'm going to drop passes here and there. I don't beat myself up over things like that."
The Bengals had one more chance but Donald ensured it was not to be.
"We believe in [quarterback] Joe [Burrow] and we believe in our offense to go down and score whenever we need to, especially in crucial times," Boyd said. "We always deliver. Unfortunately it didn't go our way."
That would be poetic for Bengals fans.