The Cincinnati Bengals play against the Kansas City Chiefs on Sunday for a chance to make it to the Super Bowl for the third time ever. There's an orange glow on the face of this city right now, and it looks good on ya.
We have heard the experts weigh in, we've seen the Vegas odds, we've seen every single headline from believers to naysayers. But we wanted to know what Cincinnatians and Bengals fans think. Will the Bengals win and make it to the Super Bowl? And if they win, do we want to play the Rams or the 49ers in the big game?
What about the Bengals MVP of the playoffs so far? Who's that? Those questions were rumbling around in our collective noggin, so we took those questions to the same place where every other thought ends up. Social media.
We polled our followers on Twitter and Facebook with those exact questions. Here's how y'all responded.
Will the Bengals make it to the Super Bowl?
Starting off easy and simple: Will they win?
And ya know what? This city is boiling over with confidence. A resounding 79.8% of you said "YES!" on Twitter and another 73.4% on Facebook. Those Twitter peeps were just a little bit more sure of the win. Looks like Twitter breeds confidence. That tracks, folks.
2. Who would you rather the Bengals face in the Super Bowl?
The next question: Would you rather go up against the San Francisco 49ers or the Los Angeles Rams in that final game?
Well, this one is complicated.
Sure, the Rams are the higher seed, and arguably the better team. And the stinkin' Super Bowl is being held at SoFi Stadium. That's in Los Angeles. Where the Rams play football.
As one Twitter user stated, "Honestly, it’s because you do NOT want to face a team with home-field advantage for the SUPER BOWL. That’s insane." We feel that, @KrissyMcWhorter.
All of that being said, the Bengals have been to the Super Bowl twice. In 1982 and 1989. And they lost to the 49ers BOTH times. Would welcoming that matchup be a tempting of fate? Or an opportunity for redemption?
Again with the confidence, y'all were pretty one-sided on this one. 85.3% of Twitter voters said the 49ers, and another 76% on Facebook agreed. Redemption it is!
3. Who is your Bengals playoff MVP so far?
Now the third poll was our hottest ticket. How do you pick a Bengals playoff MVP? We whittled it down to Joe Burrow vs. Evan McPherson vs. Ja'Marr Chase vs. The Defense. All worthy of the title as those wins would likely have been losses without any one of them.
Let's make a case for each one.
Joe Burrow. He's Joe Freakin' Burrow. The leader. The magic. Duh.
BUT!
Evan McPherson, aka Money Mac, aka Shooter McPherson ... He's 8-for-8 in the playoffs. Including the walk-off 52-yarder that sealed the victory against the Titans. He was the front-page star in that win. Strong case for the MVP.
Ja'Marr Chase. Numero Uno, The Chosen 1. The first rookie wide receiver with multiple 100-yard games in the playoffs EVER. And he caught the pass that set the team up for that last-second field goal against those Titans. Another strong case.
And The D. What else can you say about the defense in the playoffs? They held the Raiders to 19 points and the Titans to 16. Germaine Pratt sealed the win over the Raiders with an interception. Against the Titans, three interceptions ... AND that absolute stuffing of Derreck Henry on fourth down in the middle of the fourth quarter. Just HUGE.
But we're sure you took all that into consideration.
And here's how the Twitter poll votes turned out (Facebook folks agreed), but we give our MVP trophy to the whole team, because we can.
- 1st: Joe Burrow at 45.3%.
- 2nd: Evan McPherson at 28.9%.
- 3rd: The Defense at 19.8%.
- 4th: Ja'Marr Chase at 6.1%.
Y'all did Ja'Marr dirty with that one, but now we're ready to see him drop another 266 yards against the Chiefs on Sunday to make you scratch your heads a bit. Let's enjoy the ride, Bengals fans. Thanks for playing.
