SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 13 , 2022. THE WASHINGTON POST EZ SU D15
Betting on football can be difficult, but Super
Bowl prop contests are anything but. All you need
are copies of the questions provided below by your
pals at The Washington Post, pens/pencils/crayons,
a rudimentary awareness of American football and
some good old-fashioned luck. What’s not to love?
There are 20 questions here — plus a tiebreaker
— ranging from the frivolous (the coin toss) to the
irrelevant (will the total points scored be odd or
even?) to the ridiculous (how many songs will beperformed during the halftime show?). Some
questions will be decided early. Some will require
watching the game until the very end.
The questions are mostly borrowed from various
sportsbooks and gambling sites, and most are given
roughly 50 -50 odds, making them virtual coin flips.
(The pregame coin toss is an actual coin flip.) Each
correct answer gets one point, and most points win.
Enjoy the game.
— Matt BonesteelPlay Super Bowl prop bets at homeWill Mickey Guyton sing the national anthem in less than 95 seconds? YesNo
What will be the result of the opening coin toss? Heads Tails
Will there be a score in the first 6 minutes 30 seconds of the game? YesNo
Will the score ever be tied after it’s 0-0? YesNo
Which team will commit the first accepted penalty? Rams Bengals
How many total touchdowns will be scored? Over 5.5 Under 5.5
What will be the largest lead of the game by either team? Over 14.5 Under 14.5
How many total points will be scored in the first half? Over 23.5 Under 23.5
How many interceptions will be thrown? Over 1.5 Under 1.5
How many receiving yards will Ja’Marr Chase have? Over 82.5 Under 82.5
How many receiving yards will Cooper Kupp have? Over 106.5 Under 106.5
How many touchdown passes will Joe Burrow have? Over 1.5 Under 1.5
How many rushing yards will Matthew Stafford have? Over 5.5 Under 5.5
Who will have more completions? Joe Burrow Matthew Stafford
How many songs will be performed during the halftime show? Over 9.5 Under 9.5
Will there be a missed field goal? YesNo
How many total punts will there be? Over 6.5 Under 6.5
Which team will score last? Rams Bengals
Will the total points scored be odd or even? Odd Even
Who wins the game? Rams Bengals
Tiebreaker: How many total points will be scored in the game?Team rosters
AFC CHAMPION
Cincinnati Bengals
Coach: Zac Taylor
NFC CHAMPION
Los Angeles Rams
Coach: Sean McVaySuper bowl lviNO. NAME POS. HT.WT. EXP.COLLEGE
1Ja'Marr Chase WR 6-1 200 0LSU
2Evan McPherson K5-10 195 0Florida
8Brandon Allen QB 6-2 209 5Arkansas
9Joe Burrow QB 6-4 221 1LSU
10 Kevin Huber P6-1 210 12 Cincinnati
11 Trent Taylor WR 5-8 178 4Louisiana Tech
16 Trenton Irwin WR 6-2 207 2Stanford
17 Stanley Morgan Jr. WR 6-0 205 2Nebraska
20 Eli Apple CB 6-1 199 5Ohio State
21 Mike Hilton CB 5-9 184 5Mississippi
22 Chidobe Awuzie CB 6-0 202 4Colorado
24 Vonn Bell SAF 5-11 205 5Ohio State
25 Chris Evans RB 5-11 211 0Michigan
26 Trae Waynes CB 6-0 190 6Michigan State
28 Joe Mixon RB 6-1 220 4Oklahoma
29 Vernon Hargreaves III CB 5-10 204 5Florida
30 Jessie Bates III SAF 6-1 200 3Wake Forest
31 Michael Thomas SAF 5-11 182 9Stanford
32 Trayveon Williams RB 5-8 206 2Texas A&M
33 Tre Flowers CB 6-3 203 3Oklahoma State
34 Samaje Perine RB 5-11 240 4Oklahoma
35 Jalen Davis CB 5-10 185 3Utah State
37 Ricardo Allen SAF 5-9 186 7Purdue
44 Clay Johnston LB 6-1 232 1Baylor
46 Clark Harris LS 6-5 250 14 Rutgers
47 Keandre Jones LB 6-3 220 1Maryland
51 Markus Bailey LB 6-0 235 1Purdue
55 Logan Wilson LB 6-2 241 1Wyoming
57 Germaine Pratt LB 6-2 245 2North Carolina State
62 Damion Square DE 6-2 293 8Alabama
63 Trey Hill C6-4 320 0Georgia
66 Trey Hopkins C6-3 316 7Texas
67 Quinton Spain G6-4 330 6West Virginia
68 Josh Tupou DT 6-3 345 4Colorado
69 Zach Kerr NT 6-2 335 7Delaware
70 D'Ante Smith G6-5 294 0East Carolina
73 Jonah Williams T6-4 305 2Alabama
74 Fred Johnson T6-7 326 2Florida
75 Isaiah Prince T6-7 305 2Ohio State
77 Hakeem Adeniji G6-4 302 1Kansas
79 Jackson Carman G6-5 330 0Clemson
80 Mike Thomas WR 6-1 189 5Southern Miss
83 Tyler Boyd WR 6-2 203 5Pittsburgh
84 Mitchell Wilcox TE 6-4 247 1South Florida
85 Tee Higgins WR 6-4 215 1Clemson
87 C.J. Uzomah TE 6-6 260 6Auburn
89 Drew Sample TE 6-4 258 2Washington
90 Khalid Kareem DE 6-4 265 1Notre Dame
91 Trey Hendrickson DE 6-4 270 4Florida Atlantic
92 B.J. Hill DT 6-3 303 3North Carolina State
93 Wyatt Ray DE 6-3 250 2Boston College
94 Sam Hubbard DE 6-5 265 3Ohio State
96 Cam Sample DE 6-3 274 0Tulane
98 D.J. Reader DT 6-3 347 5Clemson
99 Tyler Shelvin DT 6-3 346 0LSU
NO.NAMEPOS.HT. WT.EXP.COLLEGE
3Odell Beckham Jr. WR 5-11 198 7LSU
5Jalen Ramsey CB 6-1 208 5Florida State
6Johnny Hekker P6-5 241 9Oregon State
8Matt Gay K6-0 232 2Utah
9Matthew Stafford QB 6-3 220 12 Georgia
10 Cooper Kupp WR 6-2 208 4Eastern Washington
11 Darious Williams CB 5-9 187 3UAB
12 Van Jefferson WR 6-1 200 1Florida
13 John Wolford QB 6-1 200 3Wake Forest
16 Bryce Perkins QB 6-3 214 1Virginia
18 Ben Skowronek WR 6-3 224 0Notre Dame
19 Brandon Powell WR 5-8 181 3Florida
20 Eric Weddle DB 5-11 200 14 Utah
21 Dont'e Deayon CB 5-9 159 5Boise State
22 David Long Jr. CB 5-11 196 2Michigan
23 Cam Akers RB 5-11 212 1Florida State
24 Taylor Rapp SAF 6-0 208 2Washington
25 Sony Michel RB 5-11 215 3Georgia
26 Terrell Burgess SAF 5-11 202 1Utah
32 Travin Howard LB 6-1 219 3TCU
33 Nick Scott SAF 5-11 201 2Penn State
34 Jake Funk RB 5-10 205 0Maryland
35 Kareem Orr DB 5-11 195 2Chattanooga
36 Blake Countess CB 5-9 184 5Auburn
38 Buddy Howell RB 6-1 225 3Florida Atlantic
39 Jake Gervase SAF 6-1 212 2Iowa
40 Von Miller OLB 6-3 250 10 Texas A&M
42 Matthew Orzech LS 6-3 245 2Azusa Pacific
45 Ogbonnia Okoronkwo OLB 6-2 253 3Oklahoma
46 Grant Haley DB 5-9 190 3Penn State
48 Chris Garrett OLB 6-4 245 0Concordia-St. Paul (MN)
50 Ernest Jones LB 6-2 230 0South Carolina
51 Troy Reeder LB 6-3 245 2Delaware
52 Terrell Lewis OLB 6-5 262 1Alabama
54 Leonard Floyd OLB 6-5 240 5Georgia
55 Brian Allen OL 6-2 303 3Michigan State
58 Justin Hollins LB 6-5 248 2Oregon
63 Austin Corbett OL 6-4 306 3Nevada
65 Coleman Shelton OL 6-4 299 3Washington
68 AJ Jackson OL 6-7 285 0Iowa
70 Joe Noteboom OL 6-5 321 3TCU
71 Bobby Evans OL 6-4 312 2Oklahoma
72 Tremayne Anchrum Jr. OL 6-2 315 1Clemson
73 David Edwards OL 6-6 308 2Wisconsin
77 Andrew Whitworth OL 6-7 330 15 LSU
79 Rob Havenstein OL 6-8 330 6Wisconsin
84 Landen Akers WR 6-0 191 0Iowa State
86 Kendall Blanton TE 6-6 262 2Missouri
88 Brycen Hopkins TE 6-4 245 1Purdue
89 Tyler Higbee TE 6-6 255 5Western Kentucky
91 Greg Gaines DT 6-1 312 2Washington
93 Marquise Copeland DT 6-2 287 2Cincinnati
94 A'Shawn Robinson DT 6-4 330 5Alabama
95 Bobby Brown III DT 6-4 235 0Texas A&M
96 Michael Hoecht DT 6-4 310 1Brown
99 Aaron Donald DT 6-1 280 7PittsburghThe system
Sometimes it just takes the
right quarterback and right sys-
tem. Edwards still remembers the
conversation he had with Kupp
shortly after the Rams traded for
Stafford last January.
“He was like, ‘This is the first
time in my career that I’m with a
quarterback that has more
knowledge than me,’ ” Edwards
said. “When you look back at it in
his career, that’s true. No disre-
spect to Jared [Goff].... Cooper
has the work ethic as a quarter-
back, and he developed that
knowledge to where he saw a
check before Jared saw the
check.”
Nine years after Stafford
helped Calvin Johnson set the
single-season receiving yards rec-
ord (1,964) with the Detroit Lions,
he’s helping Kupp come within
inches of the record and on the
brink of single-season playoff rec-
ords in catches, yards and touch-
downs.
Though it can often take a re-
ceiver and his quarterback more
than a full season to find a rhythm
and chemistry, Cooper and
Stafford made the transition ap-
pear seamless on game days. All
the heavy lifting was done behind
the scenes.
“I have to get here at 5:15,
5 o’clock [in the morning] to beat
him and Matt t o the office,” Yarber
said. “... They’re putting the work
in for hours. Just going over film,
studying situational, third
downs, red zone, two-minute.
They know exactly what they’re
going to see when they hit the
field.”
Both Kupp and Stafford have
the eyes of a quarterback. So their
interpretation of coverages and
fronts, and their plan to exploit
them, are almost always aligned
— a necessity in any offense but
especially McVay’s.
The system is heavy on bunch
formations and choice routes that
provide Kupp the option to break
in, break out or blow by his de-
fender, depending on his read.
McVay l ikes to move around Kupp
so he can run the same route from
outside, in the slot, at the No. 2
position in a bunch formation or
even lined up in the backfield.
“Sean does a great job of put-
ting us in great positions all the
time,” Kupp said. “But for the few
times that it’s n ot the perfect play,
for us to be able to find ways to
make it come to life and give a
wide range of successful out-
comes. No matter what we’re go-
ing to see, it kind of allows us to
live in that world.”
The two lived in that world in
the final minute of their division-
al-round playoff game against the
Tampa Bay Buccaneers, when
Stafford hit Kupp on a 44-yard go
route from the slot against a six-
man rush. The catch set up the
Rams’ game-winning field goal.
They lived it again in the NFC
championship game against the
San Francisco 49ers. Kupp scored
two touchdowns and gained 142
yards, and he had a couple of
third-down completions late to
set up the game-winning kick.
San Francisco Coach Kyle
Shanahan admitted afterward
that the 49ers t ried to slow the
Rams, with those choice routes
and big third-down plays, but
said, “That’s what they’ve been
doing all year.”
He knew what every other
coach in the league knows all too
well: There’s no hiding Cooper
Kupp.an NFL offensive lineman (Jake
Kupp) has taken an unlikely path
to becoming one of the league’s
premier players.
Cooper Kupp didn’t have a sin-
gle college scholarship offer when
his senior season of high school
ended in Yakima, Wash. He was
unrefined and lacked the chart-
topping measurables. But he was
smart, and what he didn’t know
then he’d soon master through
study and reps.
Kupp left Eastern Washington
University as the all-time leader
in receiving yards at any level of
college football (6, 464 yards), was
taken in the third round of the
20 17 d raft b y the Rams and is now
the gold standard for his position
— a consensus first-team all-pro
whose game inspires his fellow
elite. While Kupp doesn’t h ave the
imposing size or blazing speed
typical of great receivers, what he
does have is far more dangerous:
the mind of a quarterback and the
savvy of a coach — with deceptive
athleticism.
“Cooper Kupp’s game is like
magic, man,” Bengals wide receiv-
er Ja’Marr Chase said. “The way
he plays, the way he gets in and
out of his cuts, the way he sets
defenders up — it’s crazy.... Coo-
per Kupp’s a t another level.”
The knowledge
It took 13 seconds for Kupp to
let the world in on how he saw the
game. In the third quarter of the
Rams’ blowout win over the Jack-
sonville Jaguars in Week 13, Kupp
turned an option route from the
slot into a 29 -yard touchdown.
But it was his explanation of the
play in a postgame interview that
went viral.
“Yeah, they just had a little
three-deep fire zone,” he said.
“Brought the nickel off the edge,
safety d ropped down. They d idn’t
look like they were doing a re-
placement fire zone, so I knew
with the back away, we were going
to get three pushing through. I
had all three to kind of run in
there if I could beat my guy, just
had to beat the safety to the end
zone.”
Right.
The simple version is the Jag-
uars gave a look of man coverage.
Rams quarterback Matthew
Stafford moved his running back,
Sony Michel, to his left so the
Rams would have three receivers
on one side, which would push
the linebacker their way. S o when
the slot corner in front of Kupp
blitzed, the safeties had to rotate,
leaving safety Andrew Wingard
on Kupp and the middle of the
field wide open. Kupp slipped
inside for a clear lane to the end
zone as Wingard watched from
the ground.
“Cooper, he’s a big-picture
thinker,” said Bengals Coach Zac
Taylor, who coached the Rams’
receivers and then their quarter-
backs from 20 17 to 2018. “So he
really understands the structure
of the defenses, the nuances of the
route running, and he cares about
the run game as well. There’s
often times he would screenshot
pictures of defenses with run
thoughts. You’d wake up the next
morning to a midnight text from
Cooper Kupp with thoughts on
things that could help the of-
fense.”
He’d chat with his defensive
teammates, too. Kupp picks the
brains of safeties and cornerbacks
about formations. “When I line up
KUPP FROM D1
that pales in comparison to those
of many of today’s top wide receiv-
ers. Yet Kupp could never be re-
garded as slow.
“He’s got deceiving speed,” Tay-
lor said. “I think people think he’s
not the fastest guy in the league,
and they get fooled by that, and he
runs right by them.”
Whatever Kupp lacks in
straight-line speed, he more than
compensates in lateral quickness
and change-of-direction speed,
allowing him to cut inside or
break out to create cushion with a
defender.
“Speed is a luxury. Q uickness is
a necessity,” Kupp said. “... There
are certainly guys that can get by
without it. Guys that have great
catch radius and are able to make
contested catches consistently.
There’s certainly ways around
that. But quickness is something
that I’ve tried to develop as early
as I can remember. It w as always a
point in the offseasons of develop-
ing quickness and then also being
able to maintain it based on all the
different cuts that you do.”
Don’t be fooled by looks either.
Despite his slender frame, Kupp is
one of the more difficult receivers
to bring down. He led the league
with 29 forced missed tackles,
according to Pro Football Focus —
which helped him lead the league
with 846 yards after the catch.
“He’s got great body control, so
on his choice routes — they love to
run choice routes with him — he
does a great job of keeping his feet
underneath him and breaking
DBs off,” Taylor said. “He’s had a
lot of success doing that, 130
times to be exact.”hallmark of Kupp’s game, but to
develop it he turned to one of the
most basic teachings he received
at a y oung age.
“You’re taught from the very
first time you learn to run routes
[that] everything is supposed to
look like a go ball and then every-
thing comes off of that,” he said.
“So I think that’s kind of the root
of where this whole thing comes
from — trying to make everything
look like the same thing and then
being able to build off that.”
Every move and every second
have a purpose for Kupp. A de-
layed release can create yards of
separation. One quick step can
turn a safety a round 180 degrees.
But two of Kupp’s greatest
skills are ones that can’t be quan-
tified — and are ones younger
players often struggle to grasp.
Kupp has both spatial awareness
and play awareness.
“He’s smart enough to know
where he is in the progressions
and how to get open at the time
the quarterback’s looking at him,
because he’s not always the first
receiver; he may be the second or
third,” said Wade Phillips, the for-
mer Rams defensive coordinator.
“A l ot of guys run out and they just
try to get open on their route.
Well, they get open, but the quar-
terback’s not looking that way.
Kupp has that dimension that a
lot of them don’t have, is his
ability to get open at the right
time.”The physical skill
Sometimes numbers can lie. At
the combine in 20 17, Kupp ran a
4.62-second 40 -yard dash, a timein Tampa, they start having this
Mike run through to take away
some of those seam-runners, and
now the offense has to adjust and
find ways to attack Tampa 2. Just a
give and take. It’s a beautiful
thing, this game.”The technique
Nick Edwards, Kupp’s former
receivers coach at Eastern Wash-
ington, remembers Kupp as an
unpolished rookie who every year
set out to master another layer of
his game. He was always looking
for that extra edge. So by Year 3 he
was studying offensive and defen-
sive linemen.
“Because D-line and O-line are
similar to DBs and receivers,” Ed-
wards explained. “He was study-
ing the D-lines’ pass-rush moves
just so he can get another advan-
tage.”
Edwards was a senior when
Kupp took his recruiting trip to
Eastern Washington. Instead of
going out at 1 1 p.m., they watched
game film and caught tennis
balls, and soon Edwards’s meticu-
lous routine was taken to a mania-
cal level by Kupp.
“He strives for perfection. He’s
always trying to better himself,”
Yarber said. “After every season,
I’m trying to get rest, maybe a
two- or three-week break after a
season is done, but no, Cooper
Kupp’s coming in. ‘Yarbs, you got
my p oint-of-attack tape ready?’ ”
Mastery of the details is what
makes Kupp almost impossible to
defend.
Every route looks the same
presnap, allowing him to disguise
his plan of attack. It h as become ahere, [where] do you think I’m
going to go?” Taylor recalled Kupp
saying. “He understands the de-
fense’s a pproach.”
Rams coaches describe Kupp
and injured wide receiver Robert
Woods as coaches themselves.
Both arrived in 20 17, one as a
rookie, the other as a veteran free
agent, but both see the game from
a wider lens — a lens often wider
than the actual coaches.
When they make suggestions
about the game plan, Sean
McVay’s s taff listens.
“They want to know the whole
game plan, and when you got guys
like that who want to know the
whole game plan, you know they
have something special in the
making,” Rams receivers coach
Eric Yarber said. “A lot of times
they even know what the linemen
are supposed to do, where they
point [to] the linemen: ‘Oh, no,
no, no. The Mike i s 55. You’re here.... P ush it out here to this nickel,
24 .’ You see stuff like that in prac-
tice, you say, ‘Oh, these two guys
get it.’
“I’m just glad Cooper or Robert
don’t need a job right now, be-
cause Coach McVay would hire
both of them right now over me.”
Kupp, meanwhile, views him-
self as a lifelong student. He
knows enough now to teach, but
when he talks about the broader
concepts of the game — of the
various schemes, of the blended
systems, of the evolution of de-
fenses — his eyes light up.
“Like learning about the Tam-
pa 2,” he says. “Things start off
playing cover-two, you start run-
ning seams against it. Down there
There’s no hiding the Rams’ Kupp.There’s no stopping him, either.ICON SPORTSWIRE/GETTY IMAGES
Cooper Kupp was the NFL’s receiving triple crown winner this season with 145 catches for 1,947 yards and 16 touchdowns.