The table for Super Bowl LIX will be set on Sunday evening after four become two following the AFC and NFC Championship games.
For the seventh year in a row, the Kansas City Chiefs find themselves four quarters away from the Super Bowl and know that a win over the Buffalo Bills will see them reach the big game for the fifth time in six seasons.
Over in the NFC, the upstart Washington Commanders will attempt to reach their first Super Bowl since 1992 when they take on their NFC East rivals, the Philadelphia Eagles.
NFL fans will be treated to two huge games on Sunday night and there will be narratives galore playing out.
DAZN News takes a look at some of the key storylines to follow.
How does Jayden Daniels handle his biggest game so far?
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The meteoric rise of rookie quarterback Jayden Daniels has been one of the NFL’s best storylines this season, with the number two overall draft pick producing what has been in the eyes of many, the greatest rookie quarterback season in NFL history.
Whether his campaign has been better than the likes of Dan Marino, Cam Newton or Robert Griffin III is a great pub debate, if Daniels is able to clock up two more wins, the matter can be considered closed.
Sunday’s trip to Lincoln Financial Field is obviously the biggest game of his career so far and to date, we’ve little evidence that he will be overawed by the occasion, as the 24-year-old is often the coolest operator on the field.
One note of caution, however. Guard Sam Cosmi tore his ACL against the Lions last weekend and will not play in Philadelphia, which means standout Eagles defensive tackle Jalen Carter will be up against a Commanders back-up, so offensive coordinator Kliff Kingsbury will have to scheme up accordingly.
- Read more | Five players that can decide the Philadelphia Eagles vs Washington Commanders NFC Championship Game
Will Saquon Barkley make (more) history?
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The Eagles free agent move for Saquon Barkley was one of the shrewdest acquisitions of the offseason. A bumper crop of veteran running backs were on the market during free agency in a position that the NFL continues to undervalue.
That may change now, after Barkley’s continued to follow up his 2,000-yard regular season effort with another match-winning playoff performance, torching the LA Rams with 205 yards on the ground, including touchdown scampers of 62 and 78 yards.
The former New York Giant now has 2,329 combined regular and post-season yards and is chasing down Terrell Davis’ record of 2,476 yards that he achieved during the Broncos Super Bowl-winning season in 1998.
There is another record Barkley will set his sights on, but he will likely need another two games to get it. On his way to winning the Super Bowl XVII MVP award in 1983, Washington running back John Riggins ran for 610 yards in the playoffs, a record that remains to this day.
Barkley has 324 rushing yards in two games, putting 287 yards shy of that mark. You wouldn’t bet against it…
Does Von Miller have one more big game in him?
At the age of 35, Von Miller is in the twilight of his career, but his crucial 39-yard fumble return when Lamar Jackson coughed up the ball last weekend shows he still has plenty to offer.
The Super Bowl 50 MVP ended the regular season in fine form and has that knack for raising his game when he needs to. Chiefs offensive coordinator Matt Nagy this week noted the impact the linebacker has had in recent weeks.
“His motor is going nonstop, all the time,” he said. “This year, he’s playing really fast, and he’s productive; you saw what he did last week.”
Miller has won Super Bowl rings with the Broncos and the LA Rams and his influence on a team that has struggled to get the Patrick Mahomes-shaped roadblock for the past five years, cannot be understated.
Can the Chiefs shake off their heel tag?
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It’s fair to say that the longer this current Chiefs dynasty goes on, the fewer and fewer neutrals will be rooting for them.
The Chief’s Super Bowl LIV win over the 49ers came 12 months after Tom Brady’s New England Patriots swansong and appeared to mark the passing of the torch from the most decorated player in NFL history to the new gunslinger Patrick Mahomes.
As the Patriots experienced, sustained excellence and the drip-drip-drip of Super Bowl titles does not endear you to the majority of fans, as you quickly get a target on your back.
With the Chiefs evolving into a pragmatic, experienced team that does just enough to win, they have a feeling of crushing inevitability about them, which has made them hard to love.
Can they put in the kind of splashy performance that will win back the casual fan this weekend?
- Read next | Kansas City Chiefs vs. Buffalo Bills: Keys to victory for both teams in the AFC Championship Game
Who has the deepest box of tricks?
The Eagles and Commanders have already met twice this season, while the Bills and Chiefs also faced each other in the regular season, meaning that both Championship games will feature a familiar cast of characters for all involved.
"Any time you play somebody multiple times, you're going to know things about them,” Eagles head coach Nick Sirianni said earlier this week. “But going back, they're going to have new wrinkles for us.
“Like I said, we're going to have new wrinkles for them. And it will be a game that, 'Hey, they're doing this off of that,' and we're going to have to adjust to things. You see the things he hurt us on last game and you try to correct them. And I know they're doing the same."
It will therefore be fascinating to see who has learned their lessons and which coaches are able to bring something new to the party.
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