Arrowhead Pride
Seven months after the Kansas City Chiefs suffered a heartbreaking loss to the Philadelphia Eagles in February’s Super Bowl LIX, the two teams will match up again on Sunday on GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium. After facing off on the NFL’s biggest stage in two of the last three seasons, the contest clearly has more meaning than your typical interconference pairing in Week 2.
“I think we know them, and they know us,” head coach Andy Reid said of the Eagles on Wednesday. “There are going to be wrinkles in there [for] both teams, but [we’re] pretty familiar with each other. They have a lot of guys coming back — and we have a lot of guys coming back. So, you have that part of it.”
When the teams met in February, the Chiefs were shut out until the third quarter. After failing to put points on the board during the first quarter of last week’s 27-21 loss to the Los Angeles Chargers in Brazil — and with crafty Eagles defensive coordinator Vic Fangio looming — getting a faster start on offense is a priority.
“[We must start fast] from the very first play,” declared offensive coordinator Matt Nagy on Thursday. “The energy [and] the execution is very, very simple. The energy is organic. It can’t be fake energy — and it’s not going to need to be in this game.
“Coach Fangio? We all have a ton of respect for what he does. He does what he does, and he’s going to have some curveballs and changeups that he throws at you. In the end, it’s about playing football fast — and whoever does that better.
“I think [with] a fast start — playing fast, being able to be aggressive and mixing all that together — you’ll have good results. So we’re really looking forward to the challenge.”
On defense, a week after Chargers quarterback Justin Herbert sealed the upset win with his legs, defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo must have a solution for an even more mobile passer: Philadelphia’s Jalen Hurts.
“It seems like we play one of these quarterbacks every week,” Spagnuolo observed on Thursday. “The guy we just got done playing? He’s a really good athlete. I give him a lot of credit for what he did with his legs. The guy we are getting ready to play this week is elite at that. We’ll talk till we’re blue in the face about pass rush lanes and containing — and we’ll have some things that we hope will take that away.”
After watching Herbert run uncontested down the sideline late in Week 1’s game, moving the chains on a third-and-14 to ensure the Los Angeles victory — many have called for Spagnuolo to keep a spy on Hurts. But the longtime defensive coach believes it is rarely that simple.
“With the spy, or whatever you want to call it,” he explained, “you’ve got to get them in those situations when you’re in first and second down. You...
