A statistical breakdown of Super Bowl LVI

The Cincinnati Bengals and Los Angeles Rams meet on Sunday in a surprise Super Bowl match-up.

Here, the PA news agency takes a look at the statistical issues surrounding the game.

The Bengals will play only the third Super Bowl in their history and first since the 1988 season.

That came when head coach Zac Taylor was five years old, while prior to this season they had not even won a play-off game since January 1991 – almost six years before quarterback Joe Burrow was born.

The Rams won Super Bowl XXXIV after the 1999 season, when they were based in St Louis, and have since finished as runners-up to the New England Patriots after the 2001 and 2018 seasons. This will be their fifth Super Bowl appearance in all.

They follow last season’s champions the Tampa Bay Buccaneers as the second team in successive years to play a Super Bowl on their home ground, a feat which had never previously been achieved. The Bengals, though, are Sunday’s designated home team.

Sean McVay has been one of the league’s most successful coaches since taking charge of the Rams aged just 30 in 2017 – named NFL coach of the year that season, making the play-offs in four of his five years in charge and now preparing for his second Super Bowl.

The first saw his vaunted offence shut down in a 13-3 defeat to the Patriots, and the Rams went 9-7 the following season, but they have bounced back in style.

His success has seen several of his assistants earn head coaching jobs elsewhere – including Taylor, who coached the Rams’ receivers in 2017 and quarterbacks in 2018.

Unlike his mentor, Taylor was not an immediate success – posting a 6-25-1 record before this season – but he has piloted an ascending offence to the big game this time around.

The Rams made the