Should be interesting. They did add a ton of talent on defense. On paper the Eagles defense should dominate KC’s offense. In reality that most likely won’t happen. This offense and Mahomes shreds top tier defenses and with two weeks to heal and game plan it’s going to be fun. Not guaranteeing a win, just expecting KC to do well.

Everyone on the line were backups and street free agents, and the psychological aspect was the whole team was dealing with the Britt Reid car crash incident. Then there's the fact that Patrick was playing with a turf toe injury

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Big Jody will catch a HUNGRY SNOWGLOBE TD, you heard it here first...

And Mahomes was playing with turf toe which limited his mobility.

And now the Chiefs entire offensive line, TE and RB positions are all healthy and available for this game… the Chiefs will have no limitations in their ability to protect Mahomes.

<img src="https://www.crossingbroad.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/photo-via-twitter-long-cox.jpg" alt="Long Cox Hurts - Crossing Broad"/>

Sounds like they’re ready for Jalen to experience some Chris Jones-induced pain

I have no nerves thing about this game.

The Chiefs under Mahomes have delivered so much for me, everything else are extra scoops of ice cream for me!

I think you are nuts. This is going to be a close game. If KC pulls it out the hook will get you. How much did you bet?

And then Watson looks like he's 35.

It was also a home game for the Bucs which should never happen and the worst officiated SB ever.

You have a lot of respect for the chiefs yet you think your eagles may be blowing us out by halftime? 4321

Sounds like Trent Dilfer predicting the Chiefs would get blown out by the 49ers in 2020.

Right?

I mentioned this in another thread but this game reminds me of that game 3 years ago. 9ers were some super defense that was just dominating everyone. That DLine, as I recall, had 4 first round picks. And, well, we all know how that turned out.

How many Super Bowls have we seen in our lives where some team with a great defense and average QB comes in and gets destroyed by generational QB?


I mean kudos for the Eagles getting this far. But QBs win SBs

Yeah, I was really asking about schematic changes defensively more than just personnel changes, but thanks anyway.

Here's the thing: Just as I'm sure your defense has improved because they upgraded their personnel since last season, I'm positive that if they didn't make any schematic adjustments since week 4 2021, Mahomes will torch your defense anyway. There's no single scheme that stops Mahomes, you have to slow him down mentally by showing him things he hasn't seen before, make him pause, or he'll just shred your defense, but he'll he do it faster this time.

So I was just curious what changes PHI has made schematically since last season.

Chiefs 34 eagles 17 It won’t be competitive

Seems like a lot of people convinced themselves last week's game wouldn't be close, and it's happening with this game, too.

I think my floor for the Eagles is being yet another paper champion that gets exposed... but, my ceiling is another game like the 49ers SB that's tougher than it appears.

I think the only outcome I'd be surprised by is the Chiefs being dominated on the scoreboard (unless the offense gets decimated).

This is where I'm at.

People having literally (not literally literally) retired by betting KC ATS. We just play close games.

Thought this was interesting. Kelce is a master at finding the opening in a defense.
Sry, don't know how to embed from my phone.

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Found it kind of interesting that Aiyuk felt the Eagles pass defense was set to be exposed if Purdy hadn't gotten hurt.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-partner="tweetdeck"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">49ers WR Brandon Aiyuk believes Chiefs passing game will expose Eagles&#39; defense. <a href="https://t.co/IL5srLIprI">https://t.co/IL5srLIprI</a></p>&mdash; ProFootballTalk (@ProFootballTalk) <a href="https://twitter.com/ProFootballTalk/status/1622272701397176321?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 5, 2023</a></blockquote>
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I didn't watch but a few eagles games. It's hard to judge them because they really haven't been tested with their schedule. Their defensive stats are likely inflated because they played bad QB's and bad offenses. Their offensive stats are probably inflated a little, especially their rushing numbers, because they get ahead because of the bad offenses.

Coming into this year, there was talk that this was likely a make-it-or-break-it year for Hurts. He was on the hot seat. He is a poor man's Lamar Jackson with better weapons IMO and this team has done very well against Baltimore.

I think they are a good team and maybe the best in the NFC (I think a healthy 49er QB beats them), but I'm not sure if they would have finished better than the 4th seed if they were in the AFC. If Mahomes and company are healthy, the Chiefs are a matchup nightmare for the Philly defense and I don't think the Philly offense is good enough, especially if they have to play from behind, to overcome that.

The Chiefs tend to dominate #1 ranked defenses.

I’m just not nervous about this.

We saw Brady (and other HOF QBs) go against QBs having career years in the Super Bowl constantly. The HOF QB wins and we all say “well of course THAT QB won”.

I have a feeling this game will be the same. Super Bowl winners are many times really predictable in hindsight.

If Mahomes and Kelce are fully healthy and we get back the majority of the guys injured in the AFCCG, I feel very good about our chances. Imagine if Mahomes goes nuclear in the Super Bowl.

Bro, I was so caught up watching the game that I don’t think I fully got the feel of it. Just watched this, and almost had tears in my eyes. What an incredible game, and that whole episode was just goosebumps inducing! This is the best timeline in Chiefs history!

I'm barely worried at all. The only thing that bothers me is Carl Cheffers (referee), Eugene Hall (side judge), and Dino Paganelli (back judge) were all officiating our last SB and that was maybe one of worst officiated games I've ever watched.

I thought the crews were random.

The first half of the 2021 SB was one of the biggest screwjobs in NFL history and the same referee is doing this game, so you better believe I'm worried about next week.

At least Brady isn't on the other side this time.

He made sure the Chiefs had no chance.

If the game is at hand in the waning minutes, and we have the ball. I’d love to see an errant Mahomes pass hit Cheffers in his gigantic man pussy.

You don’t have a clue where a referee positions himself during a game do you?

I want Bearcat to call the game. “Oops holding by the Eagles, ON EVERY PLAY.”

You ARE correct! :thumb:

LOVE EVERY MINUTE OF IT! Geaux CHIEFS!

This is the only thing that truly concerns me :mad:

So Chiefs need to play a clean game and for GODS sake, STOP THE RUN! PRESSURE HURTS and force him to throw the ball and we will be ok! :thumb:

ALA The Longest Yard! ROFL

Clean doesn't matter when they throw imaginary flags like against the Bucs while they mugged our WRs the entire game. The biggest crock of shit game I've seen since that NBA ref rigged the Kings Lakers

The PI on Breeland for getting kicked in the shoulder pad and the PI in the end zone when Brady launched the ball into the third row were particularly bad.

Yep, you can’t overcome it if they don’t want you to, but I guess I’m just being a pussy.

Per the Ringer, Eagles have only seen 13 personnel on 36 snaps this season.

FortSZN and Gray could have big games.

Also, Eagles are 24th in DVOA against pass catching backs.

Jet and Pac are gonna feast.

Heavy screen game needs to be the plan of attack. Mitigate the pass rush entirely.

this is one of those games where the opponent's lack of familiarity with us is going to pay off big time

the film from the win in philly last year is useless

I feel good about Spagnuolo vs. what is still a relatively inexperienced QB.

I feel good about our RB's and the possibility that between the passing game and running game we can attack this defenses' apparent weaknesses with them.

I am very concerned about their pass rush.

I am very concerned about our pass rush relative to their offensive line, which is very, very good.

I am very concerned about the relative health and effectiveness of our preferred WR's.

I feel good about Watson returning so at least we have the size and speed rather than Marcus Kemp out there if Juju and Toney can't go.

I was concerned with their pass rush, but I don’t think it’s all that much different from the other top pass rushes in the league. Sacks are the only metric that they blow away the rest of the league. All of the percentages for pressures, hurries, knockdowns, etc show that they’re still good, but not head and shoulder above everyone else. The sacks are the outlier, which is probably reflective of the QBs they played.

Also, we’ll get sacks of our own. Whether it’s Hurts or their pass protection, one of the two allowed 44 sacks this season. That was 12th most in the league, despite attempt the 10th fewest passes in the league this year.

You need Toney to be healthy and play. And be effective.

If you can get the WR core up and going, I'm fine with the offense. I'm expecting the screen game to really play a big part in this.

The Chiefs are #2 at 55 sacks, with a lot tougher schedule

Doesn't that depend on whether Philly blitzes? Screen passes are most effective when the other team has committed many players to pass rush.

The run game is the best way to stop a great pass rush. The OL has to man up for this game.

Good news for us is that the Eagles aren’t great against the run. We’ve ran really effectively against teams who have similar run defenses to the Eagles.

Dude, I've been seeing your posts on this game and you sound straight up scared.

I think you're overrating the Eagles a bit, and ignoring that they've played absolutely nobody.

Hard to screen pass against a zone team, though. At least with traditional zones.

The Eagles do like to send 5 a lot. It will be interesting to see if their DC switches that up while facing Mahomes. It's hard to imagine he will considering they have had so much success

Hey at least he wasn't blaming the refs 6 days before the actual game...

Our visiting Eagles fans did say that their DC doesn't like the change things up much.

Well yea, those guys are just cowards, Meck isn't.

Mahomes isn’t going three Super Bowls without a complete great game. Mahomes going at least 350 and 4 TDs. Don’t think Eagles keep up with that.

The Eagles are 18th in blitzing percentage. That's not how they get pressure. They more often only rush 4 and still get home. No doubt Mahomes is the best QB they've faced all year, and he'll get his, but the Philly defense's goal is to just make the windows to throw into as small as possible. We'll see if that works out this game. If the front 4 can't get to Mahomes often enough, he'll have a big day against the zone coverages and Kelce with have 120 and 2 TDs. But if the Dline can do what they've done all year and force mistakes and turnovers, the Eagles will have a chance.

I would give the Eagles major props if they switch up the approach they've had so much success with, proactively.

That would be hard to move away from.

Took a quick peek at what seems to be the leading Eagles board.

Lot of confidence there, and I understand it. I don't think they're crediting how much of their sack totals were driven by below-average QBs with bad awareness holding the ball.

Lot of references to handling Daniel Jones. LOL. Which I think says a lot about the QBs they've faced this season.

Their boards seem weak, which one is the prevalent message board?

Eaglesmessageboard.com seems to be their most highly trafficked one.

Let’s face it. Every NFL board is weak compared to this one.

If they play zone, Kelce's going to get open. If they play man and send five, we're going to carve them up with screen passes to wide receivers and running backs. I also think we'll run the ball much better than we did against the Bengals. I just don't see our offense struggling here, at least to move the ball.

The question for me is still how we match-up defensively. I think we'll blitz because Spgas always does until the QB proves he can beat it consistently. Our defensive ends will have to play smart on the read option run game. And our linebackers/slot DBs will have to take away the easy RPO throws without cheating too much against the run. How you do all of that without giving up big plays to Brown/Smith is a challenge.

Matt Verderame talked about this a bit. Says their DC is the opposite of Spags. Doesn’t like to blitz and loves to play zone.

Unless our tackles massively struggle, we’re going to kill them

Daniel Jones has no peripheral vision.

This was known coming out which is why he needs really good tackles.

You watch that sack highlight video, and it makes you wonder if that's the case with a lot of guys.

33 of their sacks came in these games:

Giants x2
Commanders x2
Colts x1
Texans x1
Saints x1

It's precisely why every other team's message board has pegged our level of discourse as the lowest of the low.

Pure jealousy on all sides. We're here spittin' Shakespeare and they're all wanting to read a Cocomelon comic book.

The fact that they have 27% more sacks than the second highest total (70 vs 55) yet they’re just around the top in practically all of the other pass rush metrics tells the whole story to me.

The sack total is a clear outlier, which makes me think the level of QB play (also an outlier) is the cause.

And that would be a huge mistake as KC's offense is different from any they faced this year. You can guarantee that Andy is game planning for their defense. To not even adjust is foolish and solely dependent on them lining up and just beating their guy straight up.

I stand corrected. It seemed like they did it a lot more than they apparently did.

One thing I noticed in watching the "sack" video and some of their games and clips is that it looks like they routinely rush their edge defenders HARD to beat the tackles to the top of the arc which puts a lot of pressure on their DTs to win their matchups. Obviously, Cox and Hargrave win a lot but it brings me back to using screens, draws, and quick passes to the flats and on slants because the Eagles are leaving GAPING holes to take advantage of and are rushing too hard to stop it.

I saw many instances where a back was able to slip through that line with ease (no chips, tugs, etc) and present himself in the shallow middle or flats. It also looked like the LBs were just barely keeping up with very mediocre receiving options crossing the intermediate zone. The QBs weren't hitting either option because most of them are taking too long to process the play and/or not trusting their receivers to win their matchup. I have to fathom Mahomes will trust Kelce and Smith-Schuster to win against those guys, and they should.

If Philly's focus is going to continue to be that hard rush to beat our tackles to the top, and they undoubtedly will because Brown and Wylie don't have the footspeed to keep up, then they can take advantage of that by exposing the flats with quick outs with McKinnon and Pacheco and quick slants to Toney and Co.

The Chiefs can also make them slow that rush down a little with screens and running the football and then they can get into the RPO game they love to keep the rush focused on both facets and not pinning their ears back.

The Chiefs aren't going to use duo blocks on Cox and Hargrave to try to win in the run or passing game. We aren't the Giants. Thuney and Humphrey are both 2nd Team All-Pros this year. Thuney matches any athleticism Philly has up front. He can handle Hargrave, Cox, or anyone else one-on-one. Smith probably should be an All-Pro or very near it, but he got dinged a bit. He's a tough out and I feel he's a one-on-one matchup most of the time with Cox. Any of those three can handle being passed those DTs and any can move to the 2nd level and get on linebackers.

If anyone is a master at exposing an aggressive pass rush, it's Reid. If the Chiefs win, I'm prepared to see the Eagles' death by 1,000 paper cuts and not too many deep shots.

I don't fault them for being confident. A roster analysis sure says they have a talented team.

But man, they're just awfully tough to get a read on because that schedule was just laughably shitty. And then they got a couple of pre-season caliber opponents to get to the championship. It's like that year KU made the Final 4 without playing anyone higher than a 9 seed.

But ultimately they'll get their chance to prove it.

I think at best they're like Cinci and a legit top 4 team. At worst they're like the Bills and weak spots will show when competing against other top teams.

I think they're solid from top to bottom. That said I think KC gets a 7 pt win. We're use to playing the big boys and after a feeling out period in the first half this KC team knows how to adjust, adapt, and overcome...

Two fan bases that absolutely have distorted views about the value of an elite QB: Ravens and Eagles.

Ravens won it all with Dilfer and Flacco. Eagles won it with Foles.

I don’t think those fan bases see QB the way we do. We’ve had it all expect the QB and repeatedly had our hearts ripped out by the elite QBs.

I don’t blame Eagles fans for maybe not valuing having the advantage at QB as much as we do, since they beat Brady with Foles.

It all comes back to the trenches.

Can our OL hold up long enough for Pat to operate the offense?

Can our DL both blunt their running attack and generate enough pressure to force Hurts into making mistakes?

The second issue is the crux, imo. That's two jobs the DL has to dominate long enough to have the effect we need to win. They have to first stop the PHI running attack well enough to make them pass the ball; basically get them to 3rd and long consistently.

And then they have to beat that OL in the passing game and generate enough pressure to force some mistakes.

If our DL can accomplish those two things, the Chiefs win. But that's a really tall task. Our DL is pretty good at stopping the run situationally, say for a series or two, or even for a quarter but they aren't a run-stopping defense by design. The defense is designed to prevent opposing teams from passing effectively down the stretch when the Chiefs are trying to hold into a lead.

And yeah, KC did very well vs. CIN, but their OL was 3/5ths backups or injured, which is not the situation facing them in the SB. That's the best OL in football and they're healthy. Going to need huge games from both CJ and FC, and probably at least one other DL, for 60 minutes.

But if they can do those two things, the Chiefs are more than capable of beating the Eagles. Hurts is like 25th when pressured. He was the 7th most sacked QB in 2022, so he's holding the ball too long on a regular basis. Probably isn't processing that quickly, and isn't the most situationally aware QB at this point of his career. These are issues that the Chiefs can take advantage of, if the DL can do both of those things stated above.

I'm not scared of Philly. For starters, I think that the only reason that they beat the 49ers was because Purdy got hurt. I know that their pass rush is fierce, but they haven't tried to get to Mahomes and we know how elusive he can be. Also, Hurts threw for 121 yards in that game. I'm sorry, but 121 yards isn't going to cut it against the Chiefs. If Cheffers doesn't screw us, they Chiefs should win by double digits.

Mark Brunnell and Blake Bortles took the Jaguars to a few AFCCGs

Meanwhile the only non Hall of fame quarterbacks to win a playoff game with the Chiefs were Alex Smith and Steve Deberg. Steve beat the Raiders 10-6 in the wildcard, on a touchdown reception that wouldn’t even count with todays rules. And Alex Smith game managed us to a win against Hoyers Texans in the wildcard.

I think we will see big days from Jones/Clark/Saunders and Danna against Philly. I think stopping their run game is gonna come down to how much Gay and Bolton can stay disciplined to the line and keep them from getting more than 3 YPC as well as getting good run support from the secondary

This is important. Hurts has not looked like himself since coming back from the shoulder injury. Now, he's had two weeks to heal, so maybe he's back to normal for the SB, in which case that's an even tougher task for the defense.

But if his shoulder is still bothering him as it has in his first two playoff games, it certainly levels the field for our defense significantly. I think Spags is going t test that shoulder early, which means he's probably going to have to sell out vs. the run in the first half, when he can. Probably going to have to roll the dice a couple times with some run blitzes (something he did in last season's week 4 meeting to good effect). But it's a gamble; call a run blitz at the wrong time, and PHI could score on that play. I'm going to be very interested to see how Spags calls things in the first half.

Blake Bortles - Jesus - remind me of the Steve DeBerg TD play that wouldn't count?