Philadelphia Steals an Ugly One in Kansas City

In Super Bowl LVII, the Kansas City Chiefs erased a 10 point deficit to win their second championship in four years. This time, the Philadelphia Eagles came back down 10 in an ugly win at Arrowhead.

Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs’ stingy defense did everything they could to win this game for Kansas City, but the offense surrounding the reigning MVP entered Monday Night Football with 18 drops and 5.9 2nd half points per game. Both are worst in the league.

Andy Reid’s offense couldn't buck those trends, giving the game to Philadelphia. They scored 0 points in the second half and had eight drops, none worse than Marquez Valdes-Scantling’s miscue on a perfect pass that should have been an easy touchdown with under two minutes to play.

On the next play facing a 4th and 25 to extend the game, Mahomes rifled a pass to Justin Watson. It was dropped as well.

Two red zone turnovers will further piss off Reid when the Chiefs watch this game’s tape. Mahomes telegraphed an easy interception which was picked by Kevin Byard, his first as an Eagle. Even more costly, Bradley Roby punched the ball out from Travis Kelce in the 4th quarter, fumbling on the Eagles 10 yard line.

Despite the offensive struggles, Kansas City’s defense was phenomenal, pressuring the vaunted Eagles offensive line to get Jalen Hurts off his game. He had a poor performance of 150 yards with an interception, no passing touchdowns and five sacks. The Chiefs were relentless defensively, letting Philadelphia convert only 3-11 third downs.

If I were to tell you that Hurts would only complete two big throws all night and the offense would only convert third downs at a 27% clip, you’d hurl insulting names at me, discrediting my intelligence. But it happened.

Those two big throws came in the 4th quarter, where Hurts threw a 13-yard dart to DeVonta Smith for their third and final conversion. His next throw was a 41-yard dime to Smith again ending at the 1-yard-line. Smith finished with 99 receiving yards and the Eagles offense executed the drive on the next play with the inevitable Brotherly Shove. That would serve as the winning score and the only blemishes to the Chiefs defense.

Both Kansas City and Philadelphia showed why they are Super Bowl contenders, but also why they are both incredibly beatable. The Chiefs have the best quarterback in the world who already has two rings supported by the best defense he's ever had, but the drops and inability to score in the second half allows teams to hang around long enough to steal wins. The Eagles will go as far as the banged up Hurts will take them; which is either to a title backed by stellar play, or to a disappointing loss due to shaky plays turning the ball over more than scoring, like how he played for the majority of this game.

Both Kansas City and Philadelphia showed why they are Super Bowl contenders, but also why they are both incredibly beatable. The Chiefs have the best quarterback in the world who already has two rings supported by the best defense he's ever had, but the drops and inability to score in the second half allow teams to hang around and steal wins. The Eagles will go as far as the banged up Hurts will take them; which is either to a title backed by stellar play, or shaky plays with more turnovers than touchdowns that he showed for the majority of this game.

Both teams are firmly in the race for a championship, but it wouldn't surprise me either if either team was knocked out before the Super Bowl.

With the loss, Kansas City falls half a game back in the AFC behind the Baltimore Ravens, dropping to 7-3. The Chiefs will travel to Las Vegas to take on the Raiders in Week 12. Philadelphia improves their NFL best record to 9-1, two games ahead of the Detroit Lions for best in the NFC. They will host the Buffalo Bills in their next game.