Who is Samson Ebukam, Chiefs-Rams' star?

During three quarters of the Chiefs-Rams battle Monday night, only one player was in the end zone several times in a 40-30 match. It was not Todd Gurley. It was not Tyreek Hill. It was not Travis Kelce, Kareem Hunt or Brandin Cooks.

That was Samsom Ebukam, second-year linebacker for the Rams.

Ebukam's terrorist reign started late in the second quarter, when he cleaned up Aaron Donald's striptease bag for an 11-yard mark that gave Los Angeles a 23-17 lead.

A quarter later, he spotted a quarter of leaders Patrick Mahomes, then took him into the end zone to put the Rams at 40-30.

So who is this guy?

Ebukam is not the first type you think about when it comes to Rams defense. It would be Donald, the defensive player of the year 2017 of the NFL. With players such as Ndamukong Suh, Marcus Peters, Michael Brockers, Dante Fowler, and Mark Barron, he may not have even been in your top five.

But Los Angeles has been a staunch supporter of him since 2017. That's when he was chosen as a fourth-round player from eastern Washington – the same program that gave the opportunity to one of two players, Cooper Kupp. He was an American FCS player who recorded 24 sacks and 44 tackles for a four-season loss with the Eagles, but he had only one touchdown in a historic career in the NCAA . Prior to playing for EWU, he grew up in Nigeria and was a javelin thrower for all states and a weight thrower at Oregon's David Douglas High School.

Samson played a deep role with the Rams as a rookie, playing in all 16 games but starting only two. With two sacks and five quarterback shots despite the steep learning curve of an FCS jump to FBS, he proved that his future was brilliant.

Some experts have read it. The ringDanny Kelly called him the LA Factor X for 2018, placing him alongside explosive talents like J.J. Watt, Josh Gordon and Derwin James:

With the departures of Quinn and linebacker Connor Barwin, L.A. will need someone to intervene. Ebukam is the proverbial next man; The 6-foot-3, 245-pound runner grabbed two sacks and a forced fumble in a rookie role last year and is now on the verge of landing a job. The former outsized player from East Washington is proud of his intriguing athleticism – he ran a 4.5 km run and jumped 39 inches in the green during his professional day of ### Last year – and, playing alongside Suh and Donald, should benefit from a lot of face-to-face rush. Opportunities.

We were not so optimistic about Ebukam, but we also recognized it as a possible reason why the Rams wanted to exchange Robert Quinn last season.

What had he done in 2018 before exploding the Chiefs?

The sophomore entered the season with high hopes and his teammates accepted. Jared Goff told reporters that he had talked enthusiastically about him in August, although he did not reveal his nose for the end zone.

Yes, he is good, he is good. I think he's going to have a very good year and it will be exciting to see his rookie new year coming, where he probably did not play as much as he wanted and had some lightning. This year, I think he will do a lot of clichés and have a good chance of accumulating sacks. It will be fun to watch, he is an exciting player.

Ebukam won his fight in Los Angeles and was the team's outside linebacker all season, adding some pressure from the outside to complete Donald and Suh's brutal thrust. In 10 games before Monday, he had collected two sacks, five tackles for defeat and three forced fumbles.

That's great, but it's not quite "two touchdowns in two quarters as a linebacker to the AFC's highest offensive." On Monday, he did something that only another league player has done in the last decade.

And he even added a bag in the fourth quarter. And then he created the pressure that forced another Mahomes interception with less than two minutes to play. Overall, a good night.