Gnats are tiny. Marcell Dareus is not.
But the Jacksonville Jaguars defensive tackle plans to do his best gnat imitation in Sunday's AFC championship game against the New England Patriots.
In his seventh NFL season, Dareus is in the playoffs for the first time in his career and one victory from reaching Super Bowl LII.
New England quarterback Tom Brady would reach the Super Bowl for the eighth time in his career if the Patriots win.
Keeping him from getting there is where the gnat comes in.
"The elite quarterbacks in the league, they have a real competitive spirit," Dareus said. "You can hit Brady, you can hit Brady, but hitting him isn't what's going to get to him. It's constantly being that gnat in his face. He just hates that gnat, always around, someone's always on his feet, O-linemen always in his face. Sacking him is not one thing that really gets to him. It's being that gnat.
"You sack him, he's going to get up and keep rolling. That competitive spirt, like, 'OK, you got me. Now I'm fixing to go throw this touchdown on the next play.' 40 yards. You're happy about that sack, but there you go. So that's just his mentality. It's cool. I like it. I love playing against the guy. He's phenomenal to watch."
There's some mystery surrounding Brady entering the AFC title game. Although New England has been as tight-lipped as usual about injuries, Brady apparently suffered a gash on his throwing hand during Wednesday's practice that required four stitches.
The Patriots' injury report lists Brady as questionable for the game and shows him as sidelined for the Thursday practice and as a limited participant in the Wednesday and Friday practices.
New England coach Bill Belichick deflected questions about Brady's health at his press appearances after the injury. Brady wore a red glove on each hand when he faced reporters on Friday, and when asked how his injured hand was feeling, he answered, "I'm not talking about that."
The Jaguars haven't even considered that Brady won't be ready.
"Tommy will play," Jacksonville coach Doug Marrone said. "We know that."
FOR MORE OF AL.COM'S COMPREHENSIVE COVERAGE OF THE NFL, GO TO OUR NFL PAGE
Sunday's game will be the second for Jacksonville against New England in the past five years, but Dareus played the Patriots twice a year during his first six NFL seasons with the Buffalo Bills. The Jaguars traded with the Bills to obtain Dareus five games into the 2017 season.
"It's just another good player on their defense," Belichick said about Dareus. "They have a lot of them. They have a lot of them up front, and Marcell is another great player. He has great size and quickness. He runs well. He can rush, is hard to block, hard to block in the running game and hard to block in the passing game."
The Jaguars and Patriots will kick off at 2:05 p.m. CST Sunday at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Massachusetts. CBS will televise the Super Bowl semifinal.
"You can't question God, man," Dareus said. "Continue to work hard and just do the best you can. It's no telling how things will end up. I'm just extremely excited about the opportunity."
Before entering the NFL as the third player picked in the 2011 NFL Draft, Dareus was a prep standout at Huffman and the Defensive MVP of Alabama's 37-21 victory over Texas in the BCS national-championship game on Jan. 7, 2010.
Mark Inabinett is a sports reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter @AMarkG1.