Auburn football: The Ringer sees Carlton Davis as Super Bowl LV X-factor

Former Auburn football star and the 63rd pick of the 2018 NFL Draft, Carlton Davis, could hold the keys to victory to Super Bowl LV for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

In a piece titled, “How Super Bowl LV Could Be Shaped by Carlton Davis’s Historic No Good, Very Bad Day”, Rodger Sherman of The Ringer pointed to Davis’ struggles against Kansas City Chiefs star receiver Tyreek Hill and how his defensive effort on Sunday night could be the key to who will win the big game:

"The first Chiefs-Bucs matchup this season was defined by Tyreek Hill running circles around Davis. The lessons both teams learned from that performance could decide who’s crowned champion on Sunday."

Digging deeper, Sherman bluntly laid out just how brutal of a game it was on November 29th, 2020, when the Chiefs defeated their Super Bowl LV opponent in their regular season precursor at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, Florida:

"Hill finished the game with 269 yards, the most by any receiver in a game since Julio Jones’s 300-yard game against the Panthers in 2016. When matched up with Davis, Hill had nine catches on nine targets for 211 yards and three touchdowns. Davis also gave up catches to Travis Kelce and Demarcus Robinson, and was credited with 236 receiving yards allowed.It’s hard to explain how ridiculous these numbers are. This was the worst cornerback outing of the year—no one else even allowed 200 receiving yards in a single game this season. According to Pro Football Focus, it was the most yards allowed by any defender in one game since Bills cornerback Justin Rogers allowed 247 against the Jets in 2013. (Rogers was cut weeks later; Davis is still one of Tampa Bay’s starting corners.)"

Needless to say, Fly War Eagle will be watching with bated breath as the 2018 NFL MVP and 2020 Super Bowl LIV MVP Patrick Mahomes goes to work against the Buccaneers defense…especially since fellow former Auburn football defensive stud Jamel Dean will also be representing the Tigers for Tampa Bay.

Slowing down Mahomes will be difficult considering all of the weapons KC possesses in its offensive repertoire. With Hill and Kelce coming off 100+ yard games (and Kelce coming off a two-touchdown performance), it’s likely the Chiefs will be running a west coast offense to take advantage of a Bucs defense that gave up the second-most completions in 2020.

Hopefully, Super Bowl LV can be defined by a big play by a defender with Auburn football roots.

More than likely, though, the narrative will be written by Mahomes and Tom Brady, who will be gunning for his seventh Super Bowl title.

If Brady achieves such a feat, he will have won more Super Bowls than every other NFL franchise.

Let’s hope Tampa’s defense holds up because Davis represented the Tigers well on professional sports’ biggest stage and helps Brady scale to such a summit.

War Eagle, and let’s go Bucs!