Aaron Donald is not someone you want to anger if you’re playing against him. Not that he ever needs added motivation, but the Cincinnati Bengals gave him some during Super Bowl LVI.
After Donald shoved Joe Burrow out of bounds early in the third quarter, Bengals players came after the Rams’ all-world pass rusher for hitting their quarterback.
It was a clean play, however, with no flag being thrown. There was pushing and shoving in the scrum, with tempers beginning to flare up in the second half. Donald didn’t think he did anything wrong, nor did Burrow – who told Aaron that it was a clean play.
Donald says that sequence woke him up, which was bad news for the Bengals.
“Actually, Burrow was the one, he looked at me, like, ‘Hey Aaron, that was a clean play,’” Donald told Peter King of NBC Sports. “The quarterback told me that! I feel everybody start pushing me, hitting me. I almost lost it. The refs were like, Aaron, get out of here. They [the Bengals] already got me mad. Now they want to push on me, say all these words to me.
“You just woke me up. You just woke me up!”
Later on that drive, Donald sacked Burrow on a critical third-and-11 play from the Rams’ 11-yard line, forcing the Bengals to settle for a field goal to go up 20-13, keeping it to a one-score game.
Guard Hakeem Adeniji did some talking to Donald, which he took exception to.
“That number 77,” Donald said, “he did a little talking, so I wanted to show him how strong I was.
“Pretty much bowled him back into the quarterback. You wanna start pushing and saying all these words to me? I like a little competition. We can play mean. Let’s play mean. I had to show them. They got three points out of it, but off a short-field turnover, we fought.”
Donald had a case to win Super Bowl MVP, especially with his game-sealing pressure on Burrow on the Bengals’ failed fourth-down play late in the fourth quarter. This sequence forcing the Bengals to settle for a field goal after they had a chance to go up 11 points was also pivotal, showing just how dominant he can be.
If not for Donald, the Rams wouldn’t be Super Bowl champions right now.