February 14, 2023
Matt Kartozian/USA TODAY Sports
Did the Eagles' defensive line get tired in the second half?
In their Super Bowl loss to the Kansas City Chiefs, the Philadelphia Eagles played 75 snaps on offense, and only 55 on defense. Let's just get right to the snap counts, and some notes.
• 75 snaps: Jalen Hurts
Analysis: Hurts had the one massive mistake when he dropped a football that was returned for a touchdown, but there's a good argument that he otherwise outplayed Patrick Mahomes, consistentcy making outstanding throws into small windows and making plays with his legs. The silver lining from this Eagles Super Bowl loss is that they have a winner at quarterback.
• 38 snaps: Kenny Gainwell
• 26 snaps: Miles Sanders
• 13 snaps: Boston Scott
Analysis: Sanders had a rough Super Bowl. He fumbled on the opening play of the game, and was lucky the ball harmlessly fell out of bounds.
First play… Miles Sanders fumbles but the ball goes out of bounds pic.twitter.com/jL2juSFp0Z
— DIE-HARD 🦅 Fans (@Eaglesfans9) February 12, 2023
And then later he was lucky that a fumble that led to a Chiefs defensive touchdown was overturned on review. Otherwise, he left a lot of meat on the bone on his runs, gaining only 16 yards on 7 carries. I think he lost money on Sunday.
• 74 snaps: DeVonta Smith
• 66 snaps: A.J. Brown
• 42 snaps: Quez Watkins
• 21 snaps: Zach Pascal
Analysis: Smith and Brown were stellar as always. Smith led all receivers with 7 catches for 100 yards, and Brown had a highlight reel TD.
Watkins had a shot play dialed up for him, and Hurts made a hell of a throw that was on the money, but Watkins couldn't finish. During the back end of the season Watkins was responsible for a couple of interceptions as a result of some bad route running. The Eagles could not trust him on precision or timing routes, and they stopped asking him to run them. But then even on a deep shot down the field where Watkins could use his speed he was unable to make a play.
The Eagles should be shopping for a more reliable slot receiver this offseason.
• 71 snaps: Dallas Goedert
• 23 snaps: Jack Stoll
• 1 snap: Grant Calcaterra
Analysis: Goedert caught 6 of his 7 targets for 60 yards, two of which were impressive plays.
• 75 snaps each: Jordan Mailata, Landon Dickerson, Jason Kelce, Isaac Seumalo, and Lane Johnson
Analysis: The offensive line did a great job in pass protection, neutralizing star DT Chris Jones, and they seemed to open up a few holes in the running game that the running backs were unable to take advantage of.
• 46 snaps: Haason Reddick
• 45 snaps each: Josh Sweat and Fletcher Cox
• 42 snaps: Javon Hargrave
• 18 snaps: Brandon Graham
• 12 snaps: Milton Williams
• 11 snaps: Ndamukong Suh
• 10 snaps: Jordan Davis and Linval Joseph
• 2 snaps: Robert Quinn
Analysis: This was the most disappointing unit on the team, in my opinion. On rare occasions in which the Eagles were able to get the Chiefs into long downs/distance, the pass rush created pressure, but those opportunities were few and far between, and the defensive line did not make enough plays otherwise. I do think the awful field conditions slowed this unit down some, but that excuse can only go so far. Cox, Sweat, and Reddick all played a lot of snaps and combined for just 3 tackles.
The Eagles seemed to get away from their heavy rotation of players in and out of the lineup. The players would never admit it, but I wonder if they wore down some in the second half after the Chiefs strung together four straight scoring drives.
• 55 snaps: T.J. Edwards
• 41 snaps: Kyzir White
Analysis: The Chiefs were able to successfully attack the middle of the field, but I don't know how many linebackers would have been effective against the Chiefs' scheme on Sunday.
• 55 snaps each: Darius Slay, James Bradberry, Chauncey Gardner-Johnson, and Marcus Epps
• 47 snaps: Avonte Maddox
• 1 snap: Reed Blankenship
Analysis: The Chiefs' receivers really didn't do that much damage against the Eagles' corners in between the 20s. I felt that Andy Reid's scheming in the red zone was more a win vs. Jonathan Gannon than it was the Chiefs' receivers vs. Slay, Bradberry, CJGJ, and Epps, and Maddox.
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