Tampa Bay linebacker Shaquil Barrett and Jason Pierre Paul led the charge against Green Bay in the NFC Championship game.
The Buccaneers, without blitzing, sacked Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers five times.
To win Super Bowl LV against Kansas City on Sunday, Barrett and Pierre-Paul must lead another sack party, and they are the X-factors for the game.
The Chiefs are playing with a re-configured offensive line with right tackle Mike Riemmers moving over to left tackle to replace the injured Eric Fisher. Right guard Andrew Wylie will move to right tackle, and Stefen Wisniewski will step in at right guard.
Chiefs coach Andy Reid credited offensive line coach Andy Heck with moving his players around in practice.
“There’s not a lot of panic there when somebody has to go in, they go in,” Reid said. “He’s already covered those bases by moving guys around in practice, so they know what they’re doing.”
Reid called his line “scrappy” several times leading to the game.
“(General manager Brett Veach) has gone out and gotten guys that might not be the prettiest guys in the world, but they’ll fight you, and that goes a long way,” Ried said. “So, everything isn’t done perfect, but the effort’s there, and that’s helped us get by there.”
Scrappy might not be good enough against Barrett and Pierre-Paul.
“Me and Shaq are just playing, man,” said Pierre-Paul, who led the Bucs with 9.5 sacks in the regular season and had two more against the Packers. “Shaq goes out there and he plays, and if he gets a sack, I want two. If I get two, he wants three.”
All five of the sacks against Green Bay came on four-man rushes.
“It’s important to be able to get to the quarterback with a four-man rush, and that’s what we’ve been able to do so we can have more guys on the back end because they do have some dangerous receivers,” Barrett said. “It’s been nice knowing we can get it done with the four-man rush and even with the blitz.”
Barrett has the attention of Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes.
“Last time we played them, he strip-sacked me, so I got to make sure I know where he’s at on each and every play,” Mahomes said.
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