Crossing Broad
On one hand, revisiting Super Bowl 57 brings pain and torment. The Jalen Hurts fumble, the abomination of a grass surface, and Andy Reid’s corn dog play. Brutal.
But they say if you don’t learn from the past, you are doomed to repeat the same mistakes, or something like that.
So let’s kick off Super Bowl 59 week with a brief look at the last Eagles/Chiefs Super Bowl and identify some sticking points that will help our evaluation of the coming rematch.
1) The New Orleans’ Superdome features synthetic turf and will play consistently, with no variables. We all know how bad the surface was in Arizona two years ago.
As you know, in Arizona, the Eagles did not sack Patrick Mahomes once, despite leading the NFL in sacks during the regular season. The Chiefs, known for their strength on the interior of the defensive line, seemed to have a little less trouble with the surface compared to the Eagles, who applied most of their pressure from the edge. Ironically, that’s now the strength of this Birds team, with Jalen Carter wrecking shop at tackle and Haason Reddick on the golf course.
Earlier this year, when the Eagles won 15-12 on this same field, they sacked Derek Carr once, hit him four times, batted eight passes, and accumulated six tackles for loss. No, they weren’t played the Chiefs, but put in a strong defensive performance and they seemed to handle that field and atmosphere well. And on the offensive side, Saquon Barkley ripped off one of his patented big runs. There shouldn’t be any issue with footing down there.
2) The Eagles’ defense didn’t make one big play in the entirety of SB57. It was basically Super Bowl 52, but without the strip sack. The box score shows one PBU for T.J. Edwards and only 3 QB hits from the EDGE group. Kansas City was 4-8 on third down, and one of those Eagles stops came on a play where James Bradberry was grabbing JuJu Smith-Schuster from behind. Beyond that, the Chiefs didn’t turn the ball over and went 4-5 in the Red Zone in a three-point win. All the Birds had to do was make one play, just one stupid play and they would have won that game.
3) KC missed a 42-yard field goal on their second drive. Harrison Butker hasn’t missed in this postseason (3-3) and only missed four times this regular season, three of which were from 50+.
4) Spags did a good job shutting down read runs in the Super Bowl. Most of what was working for the Eagles was designed QB runs, not the pull-type with options.
5) Lots of talk about Patrick Mahomes making plays with his feet. He ran it six times for 44 yards in SB57 (on the bum ankle, allegedly) and Isiah Pacheco finished with a 5.1 YPC number. This Eagles’ run defense has been much better against the run this season. Remember, 2022 was when they had to go...
