It all comes down to this.
If the Tennessee Titans can stop a hot Kansas City Chiefs team on a seven-game winning streak, they advance to their first Super Bowl since the 1999 season.
It won’t be a simple task, but Tennessee has shown what it can do against the odds, defeating the historically dominant New England Patriots and taking down the top-seed Baltimore Ravens to get to this point.
Here are three things the Titans must do to get the victory in Arrowhead Stadium.
1. Force Patrick Mahomes to make mistakes.
Mahomes is one of the best quarterbacks in the league, but the Titans have already proven they can win even with him at the helm.
Bringing the pressure and forcing him to make misfires will be crucial in a game like this though, especially given how close the last matchup was.
The Titans have forced three interceptions this postseason against two highly regarded quarterbacks in Tom Brady and Lamar Jackson. That’s the most the team has had in the playoffs in the Titans era, and they’ll want to continue that into Sunday.
2. Don’t try to fix what’s not broken.
Feeding Derrick Henry has worked wonders for this team, and he’s somehow gotten even better since taking the NFL’s rushing title in the 2019 regular season.
The Titans have been limited on the pass through the postseason, but it hasn’t stopped them from coming out with the win.
He had 182 yards on 34 carries against the sixth-best run defense in the NFL, and 195 yards on 30 carries against the fifth-best rushing defense in the league.
The defense he’s up against Sunday should theoretically be much easier to run through, ranked 26th in rushing yards allowed.
3. Answer back.
This Chiefs team has proven it can score practically at will, recording a 31-51 victory over the Houston Texans.
The Titans have shown a lot of improvement in terms of keeping up in a shootout, and they’ll need to constantly be able to respond on offense if Kansas City finds the end zone as easily as it did last week.
If not, the Titans could find themselves in a big hole and drained of momentum early on.
