Sunday, Feb. 12 will see the 57th annual instantiation of the NFL’s premier game take place, and the closing of another great season of professional football. The Philadelphia Eagles will meet the Kansas City Chiefs in Glendale, Ariz. to see who will come out on top. In preparation for the big game, this week I’ll take a closer look at what seems to be the prevailing
The 2022-23 Philadelphia Eagles present a curious case for analysis. On the one hand, they finished the 2022 regular season with the best record of any team. On the other, they play in the far weaker NFC as opposed to the AFC, and their rather convincing route to the Super Bowl can be considered rather fluky, with a bye week followed by wins over the overhyped Cowboys and the 49ers injured third-string QB. Therefore, it would seem Philadelphia may be as likely to be blown out as to blow out their opponents. Situations like this one are when we must turn to the much slandered “eye test” to decide if a team is a legitimate contender in a major game like the Super Bowl. And the Eagles pass this test with flying colors. The NFC Championship game is the perfect example of why. It has been used as an example to the contrary that 49ers quarterback Brock Purdy was both a third- stringer and got injured early on in the game, but this is simple narrative pandering. First, Purdy had been playing like one of the best in the league before his injury and second, the Eagles did not simply get lucky that Purdy was injured: Sirianni’s game plan simply worked. They threw tons of pressure at Purdy, which both disrupted his flow during the early portion of the game, and then eventually culminated in the tackle that injured Purdy’s elbow. A good game plan created a lucky break. The defense is very clearly more than up to the task of getting after Patrick Mahomes.
The other portion of this debate is the Eagles’ offense. Many have questioned Hurts’ ability to lead a successful NFL team in the past, beginning when he became the starter last season. Since entering the NFL, Hurts has always seemed to be a dual-threat quarterback, but his passing arm has been questioned. Admittedly, there are only a handful of quarterbacks in history that have been able to throw like Peyton, but Hurts is coming close this season. The stats don’t do him justice; 3,701 passing yards on a 66% completion percentage sounds like a run-of-the-mill, 8-9 team’s starter. But Hurts is one of those who pass the eye test with flying colors despite the stats. There is a big factor at play here: Hurts’ ability to run as well as pass means that he accounts for more of his yards on the ground than most. With 760 rushing yards, all of a sudden he accounts for over 4,400 yards on the ground to match his impressive lack of interceptions (6 through the regular season and post season). This man is a weapon that Kansas City must deal with.
Another year, another Chiefs Super Bowl appearance. It seems like they’ve been here every year for the last decade. At this point in time, Patrick Mahomes and Andy Reid would seem to be the new Tom Brady and Bill Belichick, as they have each appeared in five straight AFC title games, while Sunday will be their third Super Bowl appearance in that time. Even with fewer weapons this year than in the past, Mahomes has still put up one of the best statistical seasons in NFL history, as he has passed for 5,250 yards and run for another 358, putting himself firmly atop the end- of- season MVP race. In the offseason, the Chiefs lost top receiver Tyreek Hill to Miami, which many predicted would put a dent in their title hopes. But apparently, they’ve only improved as a unit despite also having a very young running game. Juju Smith-Schuster, Hill’s replacement in a sense, has gone on to have one of the best seasons of his career, while another offseason addition in the form of Marquez Valdez-Scantling produced the performance of his career against the Bengals in the AFC title game, with 118 yards on 6 catches. Isiah Pacheco has also broken out this season to much fanfare, as he has rushed for a total of 951 yards, meaning he will all but certainly break the 1,000 yard mark as a rookie in the Super Bowl. Andy Reid deserves as much credit as he can be given for developing this team into the next NFL juggernaut with talent that would have fallen through the cracks at most NFL organizations. Meanwhile, another Super Bowl win would be Mahomes’ third since 2017, and should most definitely put him into the GOAT conversation.