ASK THE EXPERTS appears weekly from training camp through the Super Bowl with answers to a new question being posted Thursday morning. How the guest experts responded when we asked them: What will happen in Super Bowl LVI?
SAM HENDRICKS
Rams win 30-17. Mathew Stafford is MVP with 280 yards passing and 3 TDs. Cooper Kupp has 110 of those yards and a TD. The Rams defense rules and has a TD of their own on a turnover. JaMarr Chase has one big play but otherwise Los Angeles dominates from the second quarter onward. The first quarter is a sparring match with neither side showing much. Fireworks kickoff in the after that.
Hendricks is the author of Fantasy Football Guidebook, Fantasy Football Tips and Fantasy Football Basics, all available at ExtraPointPress.com, at all major bookstores, and at Amazon and BN.com. He is a 25-year fantasy football veteran who participates in the National Fantasy Football Championship (NFFC) and finished 7th and 16th overall in the 2008 and 2009 Fantasy Football Players Championship (FFPC). He won the Fantasy Index Open in 2013 and 2018.
DAVID DOREY
The playoffs have been one surprise after another, hence the two worst (No. 4 seeds) division winners playing in the Super Bowl. But I still have to like the Rams to take the win here, mainly due to a better defense. The Bengals beat the Titans because they had a good defense, but Derrick Henry was contained and their offense cannot compete on the pass alone. They beat Kansas City after trailing 21-3 because K.C. let up in the second half and lost all momentum. They couldn't hold on to their lead and let the Bengals back into the game. In overtime, they intercepted the ball and then used Joe Mixon against a tired defense to get the win.
Dorey co-founded The Huddle.com in 1997. He's ranked every player and projected every game for the last 23 years and is the author of Fantasy Football: The Next Level. David has appeared on numerous radio, television, newspaper and magazines over the last two decades.
IAN ALLAN
I think the Rams are the better of these two teams. I like the way they've played the last three weeks against Arizona, Tampa Bay and San Francisco. I think their defensive line will cause problems for Cincinnati's modest offensive line -- that, in my opinion, is the key matchup.
Allan co-founded Fantasy Football Index in 1987. He and fellow journalism student Bruce Taylor launched the first newsstand fantasy football magazine as a class project at the University of Washington. For more than three decades, Allan has written and edited most of the content published in the magazines, newsletters and at www.fantasyindex.com. An exhaustive researcher, he may be the only person in the country who has watched at least some of every preseason football game played since the early 1990s. Allan is a member of the FSTA Fantasy Sports Hall of Fame and the Fantasy Sports Writers Association Hall of Fame.
SCOTT SACHS
The underdog Bengals are the darlings of football. The favored Rams are the best team money can buy. Both teams have a top-level cornerback to line up against Kupp and Chase respectively. The running game is fairly equal. You have a hired gun in Matthew Stafford and a gunslinger in Joey Burrow. Both offenses are loaded with skill players, including very good kickers. Who wins and why? Cincinnati has the weaker O-line and the Rams put a lot of pressure on quarterbacks. Let's say Rams 27, Bengals 23, a 4-point spread just like Vegas predicts!
Sachs runs Perfect Season Fantasy Football, offering LIVE Talk & Text consulting. He has multiple league championships including 2 perfect seasons. Scott is a past winner of the Fantasy Index Experts Poll and a 2-time winner of the Experts Auction League.
MIKE NAZAREK
Bengals 27, Rams 24. Bengals PK Evan McPherson wins it with a game-winning field goal as time expires!
Nazarek is the CEO of Fantasy Football Mastermind Inc, celebrating 25 years online! His company offers a preseason draft guide, customizable cheat sheets, a multi-use fantasy drafting program including auction values, weekly in-season newsletters, injury reports and free NFL news (updated daily) at its web site, www.ffmastermind.com. He has been playing fantasy football since 1988 and is a four-peat champion of the SI.com Experts Fantasy League, a nationally published writer in several fantasy magazines and a former columnist for SI.com. He's also won nearly $30K in recent seasons of the FFPC High Stakes Main Event. Nazarek can be reached via email at miken@ffmastermind.com.
ANDY RICHARDSON
When I look at all the numbers and matchups, I come out with an edge for the Rams. They've got the slightly better defense (especially in terms of pass rush), and no doubt they're going to come away with some sacks and potentially game-turning plays at the line of scrimmage. It's the intangibles that concern me. The Bengals should be plenty loose, playing with the house money; nobody expected them to be here. Although I don't think either team will be running much, the Bengals definitely have the better all-around player in that area in Joe Mixon. I think it will be a close game in which a big play or two late decides things, and I won't be surprised if Joe Burrow makes one of those plays. But I'm giving Matthew Stafford-to-Cooper Kupp the slight edge. Rams 28, Bengals 25.
Richardson has been a contributing writer and editor to the Fantasy Football Index magazine and www.fantasyindex.com since 2002. His responsibilities include team defense and IDP projections and various site features, and he has run the magazine's annual experts draft and auction leagues since their inception. He previews all the NFL games on Saturdays and writes a wrap-up column on Mondays during the NFL season.