February 13, 2023
The 2022 Philadelphia Eagles had an incredible season, but it ended with a frustrating loss in Arizona to the Kansas City Chiefs. As always, win, lose, or tie, we hand out 10 awards.
The Eagles faced the best quarterback in the world, and he did "best quarterback in the world" things in the Super Bowl.
On the night, Mahomes was 21-for-27 for a relatively modest 182 yards, 3 TDs, and 0 INTs for a 131.8 quarterback rating. He made a number of big plays (some with his legs), and did not make any big mistakes.
As a reminder, the Eagles faced the following quarterbacks in 2022: Jared Goff, Kirk Cousins, Carson Wentz, Trevor Lawrence, Kyler Murray, Cooper Rush, Kenny Pickett, Davis Mills, Taylor Heinicke, Matt Ryan, Aaron Rodgers, Ryan Tannehill, Daniel Jones, Justin Fields, Dak Prescott, Andy Dalton, Davis Webb, Daniel Jones again, and Brock Purdy.
A handful of those quarterbacks are good, but none are anywhere near Mahomes' level. Heading into this matchup, it was an unknown whether the Eagles would be able to slow Mahomes down. The answer, at least in the second half, was a resounding no. In the second half the Chiefs had four possessions:
The Eagles' defense had no answers, but Mahomes' brilliance was probably the main reason why.
Meanwhile, Reid is perhaps the NFL's 🐐 play designer, as well as one of the best game planners in NFL history. He schemed up plays that had receivers wide open, most notably in the red zone for easy scores, like this one to Skyy Moore:
SKYY MOORE FOR THE SCORE!
— SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) February 13, 2023
THE CHIEFS HAVE TURNED IT ON IN THE SECOND HALF 🔥 #SBVLII
(via @Chiefs)pic.twitter.com/7t48TiIBDS
Reid and Mahomes outclassed Jonathan Gannon and the Eagles' defense.
One of the flaws of this Eagles team earlier in the season was their run defense. Those issues popped up again in the Super Bowl, as the Chiefs rushed 26 times for 158 yards (6.1 YPC), and they stayed out of long downs/distances. The Chiefs' attack was reminiscent in many ways of what the Washington Commanders and Houston Texans were able to do against the Eagles, running effectively on early downs and converting short third downs.
Of course, the Chiefs also happen to employ Mahomes and Reid, as opposed to Taylor Heinicke and Ron Rivera or Davis Mills and Lovie Smith, and were able to execute that plan at a level that the Eagles simply could not stop.
The Eagles' special teams seemed to have one really bad miscue every week for a while during the regular season, but they cleaned that up a bit down the stretch. In the Super Bowl, again, an old flaw reemerged and stung them.
In the fourth quarter, Kadarius Toney returned a punt 65 yards to the Eagles' 5 yard line.
KADARIUS TONEY TAKES IT DOWN TO THE 5 YARD LINE.
— NFL (@NFL) February 13, 2023
THIS GAME. 🔥🔥🔥
📺: #SBLVII on FOX
📱: Stream on NFL+ https://t.co/d8gBDzRt2m pic.twitter.com/bFMl6VQPUA
Ugh.
CHIEFS TIE IT BACK UP WITH A SCOOP AND SCORE
— NFL (@NFL) February 13, 2023
📺: #SBLVII on FOX
📱: Stream on NFL+ https://t.co/d8gBDzRt2m pic.twitter.com/3uHVnyCwfW
Keeping the Chiefs off the scoreboard is hard enough. Giving them seven free points on a flukey play just makes them all the more difficult to beat.
One of the key matchups in this game was thought to be the Eagles' pass rush against the Chiefs' offensive line. 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.
It appears that a lot of people are very angry about the holding call in a crucial moment on James Bradberry, shown here:
— not highlight heaven (@ABsneurosurgeon) February 13, 2023
Bradberry took accountability for the play after the game, saying that he pulled on the receiver’s jersey, that he can’t disagree with the call, and that he has to live with it.
But that was a legitimately correct call, in my view. Should the officiating crew have made that call in that moment? There are times when discretion can be exercised in a situation where a call might decide a game, but the bottom line is that Bradberry absolutely restricted Smith-Schuster from releasing to the outside, as Cheffers said.
Watkins doesn't get many opportunities in each game because the Eagles have star players in A.J. Brown, DeVonta Smith, and Dallas Goedert. But when a shot play is dialed up for him and the quarterback puts the ball on the money, you have to make the play.
blitzer right in his face and Jalen Hurts still unleashed a 40+ yard dart that his Quez Watkins in the hands pic.twitter.com/YbW4GwArI8
— Christian D'Andrea (@TrainIsland) February 13, 2023
Players for both teams were slipping and falling throughout the game as a result of an embarrassingly bad playing surface.
Jordan Mailata said the field was “terrible.” He was sure to point out it was terrible for both teams, and that Eagles and Chiefs players were talking with each other during TV timeouts about how bad it was. He said, “It was like playing on a water park.”
Evidently the sod for the field was groomed for two years, lol.
The NFL has spent two years preparing the grass for tonight's field at the Super Bowl.
— Joe Pompliano (@JoePompliano) February 12, 2023
The grass was grown at a local sod farm in Phoenix.
It was installed two weeks ago, and the field has been rolled out each morning for daily sunshine.
Total cost = $800,000 pic.twitter.com/Um8zZala2O
The Eagles have a looooong list of players scheduled to be unrestricted free agents this offseason, and they are not going to be able to retain them all. Good players from the 2022 Eagles are going to be playing for new teams in 2023.
The 2022 Eagles were a very likeable, cohesive group made up of veteran leaders and young players on the rise, with varying fun personalities, and whole lot of talent.
The 2023 Eagles are going to look different, and it will be interesting to see the front office's succession plan.
They could also lose both Shane Steichen and Jonathan Gannon to head coaching jobs around the league.
Steichen is rumored to be the most likely candidate for the Indianapolis Colts' head coaching job, and Gannon may very well be the next head coach of the Arizona Cardinals. If so, the Eagles will have yet another new search to conduct to replace them.
Hurts was a star in the Super Bowl. He was 27-for-38 for 304 yards, 1 TD, 0 INTs, and a passer rating of 103.4. He also ran 15 times for 70 yards and 3 TDs.
"This is the biggest stage there is, and the kid played really, really well," said Jason Kelce. "So, it's going to be interesting to see what happens with the team. Obviously the team is going to look different next year, but I think the future is very bright for Jalen."
Hurts battled opposite the best football player in the world, and the game very much felt like the last team that had the ball would win. Going forward, if Hurts can consistently play the way he did in 2022, the Eagles are going to be Super Bowl contenders every year for the foreseeable future.
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