Football is a team game, but there are some players and position groups whose contributions will have a significant impact on which the team will win the Sunday AFC championship game between the Buffalo Bills and the Kansas City chiefs.
There is a lot in this game for both teams. For Chiefs, there is the opportunity to play in a fifth Super Bowl record in a period of six years, along with the opportunity to make history when you arrive at a victory of becoming the first franchise to win three consecutive Super Bowls. For the Bills, he is taking the 31 -year -old drought from the franchise without an appearance at the Super Bowl. Buffalo, who is still looking for his first victory in the Super Bowl, would also win the distinction of ending the search for the history of the bosses.
Obviously, the usual suspects, Field Marshals Josh Allen and Patrick Mahomes, among others, will have a great voice that will represent the AFC in the Super Bowl. But each team also has an X factor that will also look out in the result of Sunday.
Let’s take a look at the X factor of each team, starting with the two -time defenders.
Bosses: receive body
While it is successful, the Chiefs offensive has become largely predictable. Everything continues to cross Mahomes and the wing closed Travis Kelce, Xavier Worthy and Kareem Hunt have their moments, and few others contribute from a statistical point of view.
Kansas City’s offensive operated in this way during his victory in the divisional round over the Texans. Kelce caught seven passes for a maximum of 117 yards of the season and a touchdown. Hunt scored a touchdown and won 44 of the 50 yards of Kansas City on the ground. Worthy caught five of her six goals and was the only receiver of the Chiefs to catch a pass.
Yes, you read it well. Worthy was the only receiver of the Chiefs who caught a pass last week. The fact that they won that game despite the fact that there are no other contributions from a broad departure is sincerely amazing, but it is difficult to understand that bosses continue to win in this way.
Each NFL team has some Achilles heels; The team that wins the Super Bowl is often the team that has the smallest and does not allow him to derail his season. The recent lack of production of the chiefs of their receptors (and corridors, for the case) has not yet hurt them, but will do so if it continues on Sunday.
Is this repairable? Absolutely. The bosses have a possible future member of the Hall of Fame in Deandre Hopkins and a former 1,000 -yard receptor in Marquise Brown.
Hopkins has been dealing with a knee injury throughout the year, so it is sure to ask if the injury is the reason why its production has fallen, after a quick start after joining the chiefs through An exchange of Tennessee. Brown, who lost the first 15 games of the season with an injury, said he was not sweating his lack of participation in Houston victory.
“You always want to catch passes,” Brown said. “But I felt that I had a really good game, I ran really good routes. So the ball will come. But I was glad I could play and put some good things in the movie.”
I will have a bank that Brown has an impact on Sunday similar to those he did during his first two games as a boss. Although he did not illuminate the statistics sheet, Brown had several large plays in both games that included a 12 -yard capture in a fourth attempt play that established the first TouchDown of the Chiefs during his victory of the 16th week over the Texans.
With Brown in the alignment, the chiefs now have the fastest receptor duo of the league with Brown and worthy. It’s time for them to put that advantage to use.
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Bills: It’s ‘Miller Time’
There are two common threads in the three defeats of mahomes playoffs. Each of those losses occurred against teams led by the field marshal Tom Brady and Joe Burrow. The other community of the opponent’s ability to press Mohams while taking out the Super Bowl three times from his game.
A year after being constantly persecuted by the Tampa Bay passes runners in the Super Bowl, Mahomes was again under siege since the chiefs were upset by the Bengals in the game for the title of AFC 2021. I have the security that The Bills hope to apply a pressure similar to Mohamses on Sunday night.
Buffalo has to apply that type of pressure if they are going to end with the reign of Kansas City on the AFC. Like Brady, Mahomes (who was fired three times by the Texans and hastened several other releases) is practically unstoppable when he is not pressured, but is remarkably less effective when he is under coercion.
Buffalo registered two captures from the Ravens Field Marshal The fame that has a story of making great plays in the postseason.
In 2015, Miller was appointed MVP of the Super Bowl after saying goodbye to the reigning MVP of the CAM Newton League 2.5 times and force two loose balls in the victory of the Super Bowl of the Broncos over the Carolina Panthers. In 2021, he led all postseason players in captures while helping the Rams to capture their first title as a team based in Los Angeles.
Bills have other formidable pass runners that include Greg Rousseau and Aj Epenesa. But the great X factor here is Miller, who seems to be closer to its All-Pro form after getting lost last year to recover from a knee injury. Before the victory last week over Baltimore, Miller had led the NFL at the Quarterback pressure rate since the 13th week.
Just as he did with the Broncos and the Rams, Miller hopes to help Bills overcome the hump now.
“All these boys are ready to start,” Miller said about his younger teammates. “If some questions ask me, I would love to share something of my experience. But the way we travel now, what is the trajectory, I am only here as a resource … it feeds confidence, let everyone know that we are good enough As to play in this game and win this game. ”
While Miller and Co. will have to press Mohamses, Bills’s internal supporters will have to concentrate on neutralizing their favorite weapons: the wing closed Kelce and Noah Gray, who took second place in the team in TouchDown trapped during the season regular.
Specifically, the task of minimizing Kelce and Gray will fall greatly on the shoulders of Matt Milano, one of the best NFL supporters in terms of passing coverage. Milano, in addition to knocking down the first two -point pass attempt at Jackson last week, led the Bills in pressures during Buffalo’s victory over Baltimore. It was a great reason why Buffalo won last week, and again it will be a great reason for the success of the Bills if they can alter the Chiefs.