Surprisingly Accurate Madden NFL Picks Super Bowl 56 Winner

EA has revealed its official Madden NFL 22 prediction that the Cincinnati Bengals will win Super Bowl 55, defeating the Los Angeles Rams by just three points. A tight game is expected with a 24-21 final score, though Madden has only predicted the exact score once — when the Patriots defeated the Seahawks 28-24 in 2015.

Once known for its frightening accuracy, Madden’s Super Bowl predictions have fallen off in recent years. Nevertheless, Madden NFL has managed to be correct 61% overall since the tradition began in 2004.

Madden’s simulation has the Bengals scoring first with a touchdown pass to Ja’Marr Chase, with the Rams equalizing with a four-yard run from Sony Michel. The Rams then take a halftime lead following a 32-yard catch and score from Cooper Kupp, followed by a touchdown from the Bengals early in the third, tying the game.

An intense fourth quarter proceeds in the simulation with a touchdown on each side, but in the closing seconds of the game, Joe Burrow leads a final drive for the Bengals who score and win their first Super Bowl title. It would be a perfect capper for long-suffering Bengals fans, many of whom surely remember Joe Montana tormenting them in the famous Super Bowls of the 1980s.

Some comfort for Rams fans: Madden was wrong in its prediction last year, saying the Kansas City Chiefs would defeat the Tampa Bay Buccaneers by ten points. The real game ended in a 31-9 victory for the Bucs.

IGN said Madden NFL 22 was “okay”, as the game “takes a small and unimpressive first step into the Xbox Series X and PS5 generation, with even its better new ideas hobbled by poor execution.”

Blogroll image credit: Getty Images/David Eulitt

Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelancer who occasionally remembers to tweet @thelastdinsdale.