Voting is now open for FedEx Air & Ground Players of the Year, with the winner being announced during the two-hour primetime "NFL Honors" awards show in Arizona on Jan. 31 on NBC the night before Super Bowl XIX.
Each week leading up to "NFL Honors", we'll take a look at monumental games during the 2014 season for one FedEx Air and one FedEx Ground Player of the Year nominee. This week, we'll kick it off with two players who will play big roles during conference championship Sunday in determining whether or not their respective teams reach Super Bowl XLIX.
Andrew Luck, Indianapolis Colts
One Look Back to Week 9:
Colts 40, Giants 24
Through his first three seasons, Luck has 12,957 passing yards, the most in that timeframe in NFL history. He finished the 2014 season wiht 40 touchdown passes, becoming just the eighth player in NFL history to do so (joining Peyton Manning, Tom Brady, Dan Marino, Drew Brees, Aaron Rodgers, Matthew Stafford, Kurt Warner). A sensational "Monday Night Football" performance at MetLife Stadium helped add luster to what was turning into a historic statistical season for the NFL's most promising young passer.
Luck finished the game with 354 yards and four touchdowns passing. It was the fifth time in as many games that Luck threw for 350 or more yards in a road game; that was a first in league history.
Luck's 4,761 yards passing during the 2014 season are the most in Colts history, which is impressive when you consider the signal-calling alumni the franchise boasts, such as Peyton Manning before Luck and Pro Football Hall of FamerJohnny Unitas long before Manning's time when the Colts called Baltimore home.
Marshawn Lynch, Seattle Seahawks
One Look Back to Week 16:
Seahawks 35, Cardinals 6
This "Sunday Night Football" showdown was essentially the NFC West championship game, and it was Lynch's spectacular 79-yard "Beast Quake 2.0" touchdown run in the fourth quarter that put an exclamation point in the Seahawks' win and the team's clinching of a playoff berth. He'd finish the game with 113 yards rushing and two touchdowns on just 10 carries. The 79-yard touchdown was a career-long run. And, he did all this while befallen by what the team called "an upset stomach."
The brute force touchdown run against the Cardinals was reminiscent of Lynch's legendary scoring rampage during a 2010 NFC wild-card game against the New Orleans Saints that created a seismic event in Seattle.
Fueled by the decisive win over the Cardinals, the Seahawks stormed to home-field advantage in the NFC playoffs. The team's hopes of a rare Super Bowl championship repeat ride on the devastating postseason combination of Lynch's powerful running ability and the undeniably stellar "Legion of Boom" defense.
