Super Bowl 2022 winners picks for Rams vs. Bengals: Straight up, against the spread, over/under

The NFL season comes to an end tomorrow as Super Bowl LVI kicks off from Los Angeles. The Los Angeles Rams become the second team to play a Super Bowl in their own stadium, joining last year’s Tampa Bay Buccaneers as the clubs to accomplish the feat. The Cincinnati Bengals return to the Super Bowl for the first time since 1988. It is almost time to crown a new champion of the NFL.

Throughout the 2021-2022 season, a group of the contributors here on The Phinsider have conducted a winners picks pool. That comes to a conclusion this weekend as we make our picks for who we think will walk out of SoFi Stadium with the Lombardi Trophy. We primarily focus on the straight-up winners for each game throughout the season, but that does not mean we have not been making picks against the spread and on the total points for the games. The latest odds for the Super Bowl are over at our partner DraftKings Sportsbook.

According to DraftKings, the Rams are currently favored by four points over the Bengals, with the over/under set to 48.5 points.

During the Conference Championship games two weeks ago, Kevin Nogle, Justin Hier, and Marek Brave each finished 1-1, all correctly predicting the Rams would win the NFC Championship game, but all expecting the Kansas City Chiefs to beat the Bengals in the AFC Championship game. James McKinney went 0-2 on the week, predicting a Chiefs versus San Francisco 49ers Super Bowl.

With those results, we come into the Super Bowl with Brave retaking the season-long lead by a half-game over McKinney. It could all come down to the Super Bowl if they wind up on opposite sides in their picks. Meanwhile, Hier, last year’s champion, is just ahead of Kevin Nogle for third place, again with the Super Bowl potentially settling those spots.

Through the Conference Championship games our standings are:

Marek Brave 181-102-1 (63.9%)
James McKinney 180-102-1 (63.8%)*
Justin Hier 174-105-1 (62.3%)*
Kevin Nogle 175-108-1 (61.8%)
*McKinney missed a Thursday game during the season and Hier missed two and two games in the playoffs, giving them fewer games in the standings.

CT Smith and Josh Houtz made picks throughout the year, but were not able to make picks every week. Their records are:

CT Smith 149-90-1 (62.3%)
Josh Houtz 81-51-1 (61.3%)

On to this week’s picks. Check out all of our predictions using the chart below. Thanks to TallySight.com for the widget: