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Of all the players that have left the Giants in recent years, Eli Apple and B.J. Hill didn’t exactly figure to be the two haunting them on championship Sunday.
But there they were on Sunday in Kansas City, making key plays to fuel the Bengals’ 18-point comeback for a ticket to the Super Bowl.
Hill came through with an interception of Patrick Mahomes and Apple delivered a tackle that stopped Tyreek Hill at the goal line to end the first half, lifting the Bengals to a 27-24 overtime win in the AFC Championship.
Hill, the defensive lineman who was a third-round pick of the Giants in 2018, also added a half-sack of Mahomes on the first play of the fourth quarter to force a Chiefs punt.
But it was his hands that made the biggest play late in the third quarter. He batted down a pass from Mahomes at the line of scrimmage and then corralled the ball for his first career interception. The Bengals took over at the Chiefs 27-yard line and turned Hill’s pick into the game-tying touchdown.
“Huge play by B.J.,” Bengals coach Zac Taylor said. “He’s really exemplified everything that we’re about. Joining us at the beginning of the season and stepping in and being a huge part of what we’ve done.”
The Bengals acquired Hill and a conditional seventh-round pick from the Giants just before the regular season in a trade for offensive lineman Billy Price. Hill took on an even bigger role in the playoffs after starting defensive tackle Larry Ogunjobi was injured in the wild-car- round win over the Raiders.
Apple, meanwhile, redeemed himself late in the first half after nearly giving the Chiefs a chance to deliver a knockout punch. The cornerback was called for a defensive pass interference on Hill in the end zone, giving the Chiefs the ball at the 1-yard line with nine seconds left in the second quarter. But two plays later, he blew up a screen pass to Hill in the flat, tackling him short of the end zone to end the half.
“Down 11 at the half that [defense] stepped up!” Apple tweeted. “Put some respect on our names.”
Apple, the Giants’ first-round pick in 2016, was described as “a cancer” by safety Landon Collins in 2017 and then got suspended for the season finale for conduct detrimental to the team. In 2018, the Giants traded Apple to the Saints for fourth- and seventh-round picks. Apple was cut by the Panthers last season before signing with the Bengals in March.
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