Go here for this week's Rushing Matchups.

Top Passing Matchup

Philadelphia vs Kansas City

Philadelphia's passing offense has been a highly efficient yet low-volume unit, as Jalen Hurts is averaging just 23 pass attempts per game throughout the playoffs. While the volume is low, the Eagles are completing 70% of their passes throughout the playoffs as they've been efficient all season, as they completed 69% in the regular season. We have seen a decrease in downfield throws for the Eagles throughout the postseason as Hurts is averaging just 7.3 yards per attempt compared to 8.0 in the regular season. However, we did see a breakout last week against Washington, where Hurts averaged 8.8 as A.J. Brown finally had a breakout game with 96 yards on six receptions. Brown had been quiet prior to the game against Washington, failing to top 20 yards in each of his previous two outings, but he's critical for the downfield passing upside, especially with the Chiefs having a very good run defense. The good news for the Eagles is that Dallas Goedert participated fully on Wednesday. He has not had a full week of practice since the Wild Card round, as he had been dealing with an ankle injury that kept him out of practice prior to the Washington game. The one offensive injury to monitor for the Eagles is Devonta Smith, who was limited on Wednesday with a hamstring injury. He's going to play, but he's been noticeably quiet throughout the playoffs as he has just four catches in each of the three games thus far, while he had been averaging eight receptions per game in the final three games of the year. The key to this game could be the pass rush in the heavy blitzing scheme of Steve Spagnuolo compared to the elite offensive line of the Eagles. We saw the Rams succeed against this offensive line as they sacked Jalen Hurts a season-high seven times. Hurts does have a tendency to hold onto the ball longer than he should, waiting for A.J. Brown or Dallas Goedert deep downfield, as the team has not checked the ball down nearly as often as they should, with Saquon Barkley having just 33 receptions this season, which is a career low for the running back.

Kansas City's pass defense has been a league-average unit for most of the season. During the regular season, Kansas City allowed 234 passing yards, which was the 16th-most while allowing the 14th-most fantasy points to opposing quarterbacks. While the corners are a strength of this defense, the Chiefs have a major flaw at safety, as Bryan Cook has been unable to consistently defend the pass. This has been a significant reason that Kansas City has allowed the most receiving yards to opposing tight ends with 70 per game despite being one of the better teams in the NFL against wide receivers, as they've only allowed 139 receiving yards per game to the position, which is sixth-best. For as much as Steve Spagnuolo gets credit for his heavy-blitz scheme, the Chiefs have seen a significant decline in their sack numbers this year. Kansas City has 39 sacks this season compared to 57 in 2023, and while they do have 10 in just two games throughout the postseason, getting pressure will be critical this week against the Eagles, who have the best offensive line in football. As great as Chris Jones is, he has struggled with getting so much of the defensive attention this season, as he only has five sacks on the year compared to 15.5 in 2022 and 10 in 2023. Defenses are simply taking their chances with another defensive lineman to beat them. While George Karlaftis has had a nice postseason with three sacks in two games, they will need this unit to step up as they're getting very little pressure from their linebackers or corners like we've seen in prior seasons for Spagnuolo's defenses.

Bottom Passing Matchup

Kansas City vs Philadelphia

Like most of the season, Patrick Mahomes II has done just enough to win throughout the playoffs, as this is a flawed passing unit. In their two playoff games this postseason, the Chiefs are averaging just 211 passing yards per game, slightly below his season average of 231, the lowest of his career. Despite Christian Benford leaving early in the Bills game, the Chiefs were unable to take advantage of the extremely favorable matchup and threw for just 245 yards. The issue that has haunted Kansas City throughout the season has been consistency at the wide receiver position. Xavier Worthy has established himself as the number one receiver in Kansas City as he has 40 yards or more in nine straight games. Outside of Worthy, the Chiefs just have not had any consistency from JuJu Smith-Schuster, Marquise Brown, or DeAndre Hopkins. Throughout the playoffs, Hopkins has been a complete non-factor, as he has just one catch on three targets, and his snap counts have fallen from 50% to about 20% throughout the postseason. Brown has picked up those snaps as he's been at 65% in each of the two playoff games, but he has just three receptions on seven targets for 35 yards total in the two postseason games. The key piece to this passing offense is Travis Kelce. Kelce was dominant in their Divisional Round victory against the Texans as he had 117 yards and a touchdown, but he was largely a non-factor last week as he had just two receptions for 19 yards against Buffalo as he was kept into chip block Von Miller while Buffalo did a great job taking him away with the combination of Matt Milano and the safeties Damar Hamlin and Taylor Rapp. Kelce had his 14-game playoff streak of 70+ receiving yards snapped against Buffalo, and it will be critical for him this week to have a significant impact in this game.

Philadelphia has built a juggernaut of defense almost overnight through the draft. The Eagles spent their first- and second-round picks on cornerbacks and have hit on two of the best rookie cornerbacks in the draft. Both Quinyon Mitchell and Cooper DeJean have been outstanding, which has led the Eagles to the fewest passing yards per game during the regular season at just 192. Even more impressive is that they allowed just 6.0 yards per attempt, which led the NFL by over half a yard. Throughout the postseason, the Eagles have seen an increase in opponent passing success, but that is largely due to game script and volume as they're allowing 263 passing yards per game but just 6.3 yards per attempt, which is still elite as each of their past two opponents has needed to throw more than 40 times per game. In the playoffs, the Eagles have been outstanding at forcing turnovers as they have four interceptions in their three games, along with six fumble recoveries as their defensive backs and linebackers are some of the best in the NFL in punching the ball out of receivers hands.