Convention championship video games are performed in rarefied (and typically skinny) air. The stakes are clearly larger, particular person performs imply extra, and the sport script can veer in extremely unpredictable methods that may resolve issues fairly shortly.
For the 4 groups left within the 2024 season as we flip our consideration to the NFC and AFC Championship video games, it’s additionally about maximizing the efforts of crucial gamers on each side of the ball. Some key gamers are key gamers due to place, some due to expertise, and a few due to particular situations that will require them to play the video games of their lives if their groups are to fulfill their targets of a Tremendous Bowl look.
Given the significance of those X-Components, we’ve expanded the dialogue to incorporate one participant from every workforce on each offense and protection. Right here’s one defensive X-Issue for every of the 4 groups that may face off on Sunday for the honour of taking part in Tremendous Bowl LIX.
Washington Commanders at Philadelphia Eagles
Sunday, January 26, at 3:00 p.m. EST
Philadelphia Eagles: EDGE Nolan Smith
When the Eagles chosen Georgia edge-rusher Nolan Smith with the thirty first general decide within the 2023 draft, it was a little bit of a calculated danger. Not simply because there have been questions in regards to the 6’2, 238-pound Smith’s means to carry as much as the pains of the NFL at his measurement, but in addition as a result of he missed a number of video games in his final season at Georgia with a torn pectoral muscle. Nevertheless, Smith’s standing as principally a coach within the Bulldogs’ second straight Nationwide Championship season, and the good scouting mix he had, allayed a few of these fears.
Smith was a reserve in Philly’s loaded EDGE rotation in his rookie season, totaling two sacks and 9 complete pressures in 95 pass-rushing snaps. And whereas he was mild with manufacturing within the first 4 video games of the 2024 season (no sacks and three complete pressures), the sunshine began to come back on in Vic Fangio’s first season because the workforce’s defensive coordinator. From Week 11 by means of the Divisional playoffs, Smith has led the workforce in sacks with 5, and he ranks third behind Milton Williams and Jalen Carter in complete pressures with 26. To not point out the truth that in two video games in opposition to Jayden Daniels and the Commanders, Smith was in a position to deal with enterprise with two sacks and several other different spectacular pressures.
“He’s carried out an ideal job working, and he’s continually improved,” Fangio mentioned this week of Smith’s growth. “The extra you play, the extra you follow, and he’s getting extra snaps now, too, since BG went down. Will get extra follow performs, sport performs. You get higher. That’s the one manner you get higher is to follow and play. He was enhancing in these first 4 weeks, too. Such as you’ve made word, it’s come to fruition right here since.”
Smith nonetheless has all that pace and athleticism, and he’s discovered to drop the hammer bodily on the NFL stage. Now, there are not any worries.
Washington Commanders: LB Frankie Luvu
Luvu was one among my favourite defensive gamers to observe within the 2022 and 2023 seasons with the Carolina Panthers, as a result of there have been only a few issues he couldn’t do properly – from off-ball run and protection stops to legit edge rushes. The Commanders had been simply as optimistic about Luvu’s potential, as they signed him to a three-year, $31 million contract this offseason. Luvu has carried out the whole lot attainable to stay as much as it – and extra. This season, he’s amassed eight sacks, 38 complete pressures, 73 tackles, 45 stops, and he’s excelled all over the place from the sting to the field to the slot. The Commanders have an excellent linebacker duo in Luvu and Bobby Wagner, however it’s Luvu who permits the protection to be as versatile as it’s.
In two video games in opposition to the Eagles this season, Luvu has been a guided missile far and wide. Two sacks, two tackles for loss, an interception, and tackles, pressures, and stops from all over the place.
“That is my first going run for it, for the playoffs,” Luvu mentioned Tuesday. “And I’m simply making an attempt to maintain my feelings right here, preserve it impartial, and simply I do know all the blokes are the identical manner.”
Frankie Luvu with much more motivation? That might be a scary thought for any opponent.
Buffalo Payments at Kansas Metropolis Chiefs
Sunday, January 26, at 6:30 p.m. EST
Kansas Metropolis Chiefs: LB Drue Tranquill
More often than not, gamers are X-Components in video games due to their optimistic performs and memorable exploits. Within the case of Chiefs linebacker Drue Tranquill, the story goes a distinct manner. Within the Buffalo Payments’ 30-21 Week 11 win over the Chiefs, Tranquill – who is often an excellent participant and a key cog in Steve Spagnuolo’s protection – had a sport he would probably moderately neglect. Buffalo ran the ball 31 occasions for 104 yards and three touchdowns.
It was a nightmare for Tranquill. He missed tackles on every of James Prepare dinner’s two landing runs, and he was out of place on Josh Allen’s 26-yard scramble landing that salted the sport away with 2:27 left within the fourth quarter.
Drue Tranquill is a very good linebacker, however he’ll most likely need to redeem himself within the AFC Championship sport after what occurred to him in Week 11 in opposition to the Payments. pic.twitter.com/28v7wVw5yd
— Doug Farrar ✍ (@NFL_DougFarrar) January 21, 2025
Total, Tranquill has loved a great season, with three sacks, 18 complete pressures, 61 solo tackles, 30 stops, and customarily stable protection. But when Tranquill doesn’t sq. up in these conditions in opposition to Buffalo’s run sport this time round – and make no mistake, Buffalo’s run sport will probably be a really huge deal – that might be a severe obstacle to Kansas Metropolis’s run at a three-peat.
Buffalo Payments: Security Taylor Rapp
For years, when the Payments put their rosters collectively, they might depend on one factor: the NFL’s finest security duo in Jordan Poyer and Micah Hyde. However as is the case with the whole lot within the NFL, issues change. Within the 2024 season, Buffalo’s security duties have been coated by Damar Hamlin (whose personal story is unbelievable), 2024 second-round decide Cole Bishop, veteran Cam Lewis, and Taylor Rapp, the previous Los Angeles Rams defender who signed a backup take care of the Payments in 2023, and did sufficient to advantage a three-year, $10.625 million contract this offseason.
Rapp has alternated between field, slot, and free positions this season, and he’s most just lately recognized for the interception he bagged in opposition to the Ravens within the Payments’ Divisional-Spherical win on a miscommunication between Lamar Jackson and receiver Rashod Bateman. Total this season, Rapp has allowed 14 catches on 22 targets for 236 yards, 95 yards after the catch, two touchdowns, three interceptions, three cross breakups, and an opponent passer score of 90.5.
One other of Rapp’s three interceptions this season got here in Buffalo’s Week 11 win over the Chiefs, during which Rapp was in the appropriate place on the proper time for a Patrick Mahomes pressure-predicated overthrow to tight finish Noah Grey.
.@BuffaloBills security Taylor Rapp, who had a vital interception in opposition to the @Ravens within the divisional spherical, additionally bagged a decide in opposition to the Chiefs in Week 11. Strain precipitated it, however Rapp was in the appropriate place on the proper time. pic.twitter.com/oLxgXORyLX
— Doug Farrar ✍ (@NFL_DougFarrar) January 23, 2025
Rapp has been coping with hip and again points this week, and proper now, he’s day-to-day (as are all of us). If he can’t go, it will likely be a success to a Payments secondary that wants his discipline consciousness and understanding of the sport.