5 Matchups to Watch in Super Bowl LI

Vic Beasley vs. Marcus Cannon

Vic Beasley is coming off a breakout year where he led the NFL with 15.5 sacks and posted an additional 42 hurries. His six forced fumbles tied the league lead, and he's developed into quite the playmaker in head coach Dan Quinn's defense.

Unfortunately for Beasley, he draws a tough matchup against right tackle Marcus Cannon, who has been phenomenal this season and has yet to allow a sack with Brady under center. In fact, the Patriots had the league's best Sack NEP per drop back rate in 2016 at -0.06. Cannon has been a major reason for this -- he finished the year as PFF's eighth-best overall tackle this year.

We learned from the AFC Championship game that the key to stopping this Patriots offense is to beat them with pressure, not necessarily the blitz. As JJ Zachariason noted in his Super Bowl preview, without pressure this season, Brady threw 21 touchdowns and no interceptions to go along with a 123.02 quarterback rating.

The Falcons will need to apply pressure by winning their one-on-one battles in the trenches and not sending the house on a blitz.

If there's any hope for Beasley applying pressure on Brady by beating Cannon, he needs to be at the top of his game. Unfortunately, our projections have him on the losing side of that battle.

nF Projection

Vic Beasley: 5.88 tackles, 0.00 sacks, 0.02 interceptions, 0.10 passes defensed, 0.06 fumble recoveries, 0.00 touchdowns