NFC championship game: Defense will be key Sunday.
PHILADELPHIA — One team has a suffocating defense. The other has the NFL’s No. 1 unit.
Defense should win at least the NFC championship.
Two of the league’s elite defenses go at it Sunday when the Philadelphia Eagles host the Minnesota Vikings in the conference title game.
“They have a great defense, we have a great defense,” Eagles linebacker Nigel Bradham said. “Whoever is most complete will win.”
The Vikings allowed the fewest yards (275.9) and fewest points (15.8) per game. The Eagles were fourth in yards allowed (306.5) and fourth in points (18.4).
May the best defense reach the Super Bowl.
“Typically, when you’re good defensively, you’re going to stay in the ballgames,” Vikings coach Mike Zimmer said. “Then you have a chance to win them at the end.”
Minnesota has three Pro Bowl players on defense: end Everson Griffen, outside linebacker Anthony Barr and cornerback Xavier Rhodes. Safety Harrison Smith and Rhodes are All-Pros.
“It’s just a smothering defense,” Eagles coach Doug Pederson said. “(Griffen) is a game wrecker. They just mix it in. You don’t know necessarily what’s coming. Rhodes is a tremendous corner, safeties are playing extremely well.”
Defensive tackle Fletcher Cox and safety Malcolm Jenkins are Philadelphia’s Pro Bowl picks. Defensive end Brandon Graham had an excellent season and cornerbacks Ronald Darby and Jalen Mills are solid.
Hearing about Minnesota’s defense all week is extra motivation for Philadelphia, which is a home underdog for the second straight game.
“When you’ve got the No. 1 defense coming in statistically, obviously, it fires us up,” Cox said. “We know going into this game that whoever’s defense plays better is going to win the game. The way we’re prepared, we won’t change nothing that we do. We’ll just go out and be ourselves.” Fresno connection: The Kendricks family from Fresno is guaranteed to have a son playing linebacker in the Super Bowl. Eric Kendricks is in his third season with the Vikings, and Mychal is in his sixth year with the Eagles.
Eric had his best season with 136 tackles to lead the team for the third straight time, nine passes defended and one interception return for a touchdown. Mychal was fifth on the Eagles with 72 tackles in 2017, adding two sacks.
Both were second-round draft picks, Eric out of UCLA with the 45th overall selection in 2015 and Mychal from Cal with the 46th overall pick in 2012. Their father, Marvin, was UCLA’s leading rusher in 1970 and 1971 and went on to play in the Canadian Football League.
With both teams at the top of the NFC and both defenses at the top of the league all season, the two siblings have traded their share of friendly trash talk along the way. Family members have been known to wear split jerseys to support both players.
“I always make jokes: I feel like my brother gets a little bit of the advantage as far as who the family roots for, because he’s the first born,” Eric said. “It’s all love, though.”