I usually roll my eyes a bit at "star power" but this game lacked it. The biggest star QBs in the league (Allen, Rodgers, Brady, Mahomes, Jackson, Wilson) were watching and not one of them was in this game.
Stafford is a nice story and I'm glad he won, and Burrow is a nice story but neither is really on the level of the guys mentioned above.
That hurt the "feel" of the game to me. Even in a blowout, there's usually that one star QB to carry the show. Often 2.
Think of the SB possibilities when the playoffs began:
Allen V Brady
Allen V Rodgers
Mahomes v Rodgers
Mahomes V Brady
Even Allen or Mahomes V Stafford and the Rams would have been so much better.
It seems like a rip in the fabric of the matrix happened and suddenly the Bengals were there. It was not supposed to happen. They don't even have a real practice facility!
Part of me wondered if their owner was like "Crap! How much is this team going to cost me now?"