I think you're right, and I'm not terrified of that matchup.

With Brandon Williams rotating in, the Chiefs have a stout DL that does its job and also has playmakers. The Chiefs' LB are also most effective coming downhill against the run.

They have been iffy finding their run fits at times against 2x personnel groupings, but looking at personnel groupings, the Eagles have run just 17 plays from 2x, so I wouldn't expect much of that.

The Chiefs D wants to be in traditional 43 against 12 and nickel against 11. Looks like the Eagles would need to break tendencies to get the Chiefs out of the groupings they have built this defense to be in.

I know it was last season but the Eagles offense is the same (minus AJ) and we held them to 103 yds rushing with a much healthier Hurts and overall much weaker defense than this year.

That would be a terrible strategy (assuming the Chiefs are fairly healthy after a completely banged up offense that just threw for 325 yards and 2 TDs) and has been debunked time and time again. The 49ers in the SB a few years ago tried it and had success for ~3 quarters, but found out a 10 point lead in the 4th quarter wasn't enough. The Jags a couple weeks ago tried to shorten the game after Mahomes got hurt, just to shut themselves out in the 3rd quarter, before getting back in the game by airing it out a bit.

Come out running and they risk being down 14-3 after the first quarter, or at best "shortening the game" when the Eagles actually need to keep scoring and targeting 30+ points.

And for the love of god can we stop talking about regular season results. LMAO Go look at 2020 Bills or 2020 Browns for a couple of examples of how ****ing pointless it is to talk about a bunch of non-playoff teams in non-playoff games. :facepalm:

If the Chiefs had played that schedule, everybody would be talking about how dominant KC’s defense is.

The Chiefs did not play or lose to the Bears. Colts, Bills, Bengals.

The Chiefs' schedule strength is damaged by how bad the teams at the bottom were (they had 9 games against teams in the bottom 7 of the NFL standings). It was all-or-nothing. Either a terrible squad or a playoff team/contender.

Bengals x2
Bills
Chargers x2
Jaguars x2
49ers
Tampa
Tennessee
Seattle

Chiefs are 9-2 against that lineup, with two losses by a total of 7 points, and an average margin of victory of a TD.

Yeah…last year’s D ended up improving dramatically, but at that point in the year they were historically bad.

We also had glaring weaknesses, from a personnel perspective. Hitchens, Niemann, and especially Sorenson were just awful. Teams could literally gameplan for each to guarantee a matchup in their favor.

That's how they play, I don't think Hurts would be remotely as good without the run game threat. They're gonna run it a bunch, it's what they've done all year.

The Eagles DL is going to be the key to the game. How do the Chiefs navigate it.

I assume the Chiefs are going to plaster their WRs, and their WRs do not have the elite ball skills that the Bengals WRs do. But Hurts can do damage on the ground, and the Chiefs will struggle to contain the multitudes he brings every snap. I envision at least a couple 12-snap drives that end with points.

The Eagles defense is not built for Mahomes, though. Mahomes, Reid and Bienemy will scheme the hell out of that static zone and pick it apart... unless the Eagles passrush breaks the offense. But Reid always has good gameplans against fantastic passrushes.

Can the OL, and the gameplanning by Reid/Bienemy, and creativity/toughness by Mahomes, hold up against the Eagles front line?

If so, the Eagles do not have enough to stop the Chiefs.

My feel is that this is a 60/40 game in favor of the Chiefs. The Eagles offense is going to be a lot tougher than we give it credit for, because all five of their OL are very good and Hurts is a fantastic athlete. Spags can take away a couple things Hurts likes to do, and we'll see if Hurts has more tools in his toolbelt. He's a young player, though. Mahomes, Reid, and Bienemy are built for breaking this Eagles defense so long as the DL doesn't go nuclear.

Here was our starters that game lol

Michael Danna
Chris Jones
Derrick Nnadi
Jarran Reed
Anthony Hitchens
Nick Bolton
Mike Hughes
L'Jarius Sneed
Deandre Baker
Tyrann Mathieu
Daniel Sorensen

No doubt Mahomes is an awesome QB. But the Niners secondary is below average, which worked right into Mahome's and Reid's tendencies. Which is why Mahomes passed for over 400 yards in that game. Eagles have the top ranked secondary.

However, I will agree that the Eagles have not faced much in way of elite QB play. They have the roster to defend it, but Gannon (their DC) believes in a bend-don't-break philosophy of zone and soft coverages against the better QBs, which IMO doesn't put his best players in the best position. So in the past two years they have struggled more with the great QBs. But to be fair, who doesn't?

Brown and Smith were 4th and 9th respectively in yards this year. Chase and Higgins were 17th and 20th. And that was with missing Hurts for two games. Chase and Higgins are great receivers, but I think you might be underestimating Brown and Smith.

I think that's fair.

Higgins and Chase were plastered all game and still put up yards because they're phenomenal in the air.

Brown and Smith are different animals than that.

This is a challenge. I think Spags is going to make Hurts beat us with his arm. We are going to have to score points to win...their Offense is going to score some.