How matchup of childhood friends may decide whether Titans or Bengals make AFC championship

Tennessee Titans cornerback Kristian Fulton will square off against one of his childhood friends this weekend – and the matchup could play a big role in who plays for the AFC championship.

Fulton and Bengals star rookie wide receiver Ja’Marr Chase were teammates at Archbishop Rummel High School in Metairie, Louisiana, and LSU, where they spent two seasons together and won a national championship in 2019.

In their first game against each other as pros, their one-on-one battle figures to play a big factor in the AFC divisional-round game Saturday (3:30 p.m. CT, CBS) between the top-seeded Titans (12-5) and the Bengals (10-7) at Nissan Stadium.

After an injury-riddled rookie season, Fulton has been a full-time starter at cornerback for Tennessee in 2021. Chase set the NFL record for most receiving yards by a rookie in the Super Bowl era, and he is quarterback Joe Burrow’s favorite target in Cincinnati’s dynamic passing attack.

“I don’t think we both imagined it like this to be honest,” Fulton said Tuesday, smiling, when asked if he and Chase had conversations in high school about facing off in the NFL playoffs. “He’s having a hot year. I just want to do my best to make sure he doesn’t have one of those big games … Just want to stick to the game plan, whatever we got going. Just try to slow him down for sure.

“He can take the top off the defense. He can take a play for 80 yards. I know what he’s capable of.”

The second-year cornerback said he "basically grew up" with Chase. He characterized their relationship as tight, saying they talk regularly during the season.

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That won’t be the case ahead of Saturday’s game, though.

“We're shutting it down this week,” Fulton said.

Chase won’t be the only familiar face to Fulton on the Bengals’ sideline. Burrow and defensive tackle Tyler Shelvin were also on LSU’s 2019 championship team.

Fulton also could find himself lined up against Cincinnati’s Tee Higgins, another 1,000-yard receiver. Fulton covered the former Clemson receiver – an Oak Ridge, Tennessee, native – in the 2019 national title game.

For all the strides the Titans have made on the defensive side of the ball this season, they’ve at times been susceptible to chunk plays in the passing game. It nearly cost the them their game against the Texans in Week 18. Tennessee ranked 25th defending the pass in the regular season.

Burrow led the league completing 70.4% of his passes, and the Bengals ranked seventh in passing yards per game and passing touchdowns in 2021.

The Bengals also have veteran Tyler Boyd, who was a 1,000-yard receiver in 2018 and 2019. He was third behind Chase (1,455 receiving yards), Higgins (1,091) with 828 receiving yards.

“Being able to score really from anywhere and everywhere,” Fulton said of Cincinnati's offense. “They can take it 60 yards on a slant or they can take it over the top. And they can run the ball obviously with Joe Mixon. There’s a lot of things that we’re going to have to account for.

“We have to be on our Ps and Qs at all three levels this week.”

Ben Arthur covers the Tennessee Titans for The USA TODAY Network. Contact him at barthur@gannett.com and follow him on Twitter at @benyarthur.

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Titans-Bengals: Childhood friends Kristian Fulton, Ja'Marr Chase face off