Shreveport’s Trent Taylor Helps Bengals Earn Super Bowl Spot
There's going to be a little bit of Shreveport in this year's Super Bowl.
The Cincinnati Bengals punched their ticket to the Super Bowl after an overtime win against the Kansas City Chiefs. The final score in that AFC Championship game was 27-24. The Bengals had to battle back after being down by 18 points in the game.
One of the biggest plays of the game came from a former Shreveport high school football star.
Near the end of the 3rd quarter, the Bengals had just scored a touchdown, and lined up for a 2-point conversion to tie the game at 21. Former LSU National Champion Joe Burrow knew exactly where he wanted to go with the ball on the play, and that was to Shreveport's Trent Taylor.
The former Evangel Eagle was open the whole way, secured the ball, and scored the 2-point conversion to tie the game up. Completing the comeback, even though the Bengals would still have work to do in the 4th quarter and overtime to get the win.
Before Taylor was a Bengal, he was actually part of the San Francisco 49ers organization for a few seasons. He was drafted by San Fran in the 5th round of the 2017 NFL Draft out of Louisiana Tech.
Before being drafted into the NFL, Taylor was a monster at Louisiana Tech. He was First Team All-Conference USA at wide receiver his junior and senior years, Second Team All-Conference USA as a punt returner his senior year, and a Biletnikoff Award semifinalist his senior year as well.
During his senior season as a Bulldog, Taylor caught 136 passes for 1,803 yards, both of which ranked as the second highest in those categories for single season records.
Before heading to Ruston, Taylor played his high school football at Evangel in Shreveport. While an Evangel Eagle, Taylor caught 107 passes for 1,650 yards, and 20 touchdowns his senior year. Before that, he had 65 catches for 1,075 yards and 18 touchdowns his junior year.
Taylor will now have a chance to return punts, and catch 2-point conversions, in their year's Super Bowl.