The Eagles won the Super Bowl rematch! A super match was held in the NFL on Monday...

21.11.2023

The Eagles won the Super Bowl rematch!

A super match was held in the NFL on Monday night, as the Philadelphia Eagles visited the Kansas City Chiefs, so the Super Bowl pairing was repeated. In February, the Chiefs were able to turn around a 10+ point halftime deficit, but now the opposite happened, the Eagles rallied from a 10+ point deficit. Although this win does not make up for that particular winter night, Philly still won a very important victory. What happened? In the rainy weather, the sides opened with two quick punts, but then the Chiefs were able to go all the way down the field with a lot of runs, and then they took the lead with a brilliant jumping touchdown by Mahomes. However, the Eagles immediately responded to this, also operating with many runs, finally equalizing with D'Andre Swift's run. After a Chiefs punt, things heated up again. First, Jalen Hurts threw an interception, where AJ Brown really beat L'Jarius Sneed and went deep instead of the original inside cutting route, but Hurts was quickly pressured, so he threw the originally agreed route, which Sneed picked up. After that, anyway, AJ Brown forced a fumble, but as it turned out, their feet just touched on the ground, so the Chiefs could keep the ball. However, Mahomes gave it back to the Eagles not long after, he didn't lead his receiver enough, so Kevin Byard, who was acquired in a trade a few weeks ago, was able to get back in his own end zone and catch his first interception for the Eagles (this was his first touch of the ball this year anyway, he didn't have an interception either) , nor did he hit a ball in the season). The Eagles couldn't take advantage of the opportunity, Chris Jones sacked Hurts twice in quick succession, so they had to punt. The Chiefs took advantage of this and took the lead again through Travis Kelce. After that, the streak of the Philadelphia offensive line continued, now a well-timed blitz by Trent McDuffie managed to knock the ball out of Hurts' hands, who collected it, but another punt could have come. And before the end of the half, the Chiefs made one more field goal, so the home team could go to the break with a 17-7 advantage.

The second half started with four punts, and then the Eagles managed to start the engines. After a big Swift jet sweep play, Jalen Hurts ran into the end zone, so the visitors caught up. The Chiefs would have answered immediately, but they made a mistake in the red zone, Bradley Roby knocked the ball out of Kelce's hands! The Eagles haven't capitalized on this yet, but they have on the next Chiefs mistake. Now this did not come from a player, but from a coach. Andy Reid missed fourth-and-four on the opponent's 39-yarder, the punt rolled into the end zone, so KC only gained 19 yards of field position, which the Eagles brought back in two plays. A few plays later, the actual penalty came, Devonta Smith caught a long pass, and then the "brother nyiminyomi" worked as usual, so Philly took the lead with 6 minutes to go. The Chiefs then had just one three-and-out, their fourth of the game, while they had 10 all year. The Eagles also quickly kicked the ball back, so Mahomes had 3 minutes left to turn it over. They had their chance, Mahomes threw a perfect long pass, but Marquez Valdes-Scantling dropped the ball. The Chiefs would have won with that, but then Josh Sweat ended the game with a rush, which ended up being an intentional grounding instead of a sack, and Mahomes couldn't solve the fourth and 25 either. So the Eagles won 21-17 on the road. Why and how did it happen? We saw two quite contrasting halves in terms of the image of the game. In the first, the Eagles' run defense failed, as they have not allowed more than 107 yards in any game this year, compared to the Chiefs' 121 rushing yards in 30 minutes. The pass defense, on the other hand, was good in the mud from the beginning, at least they did everything they could. Although 7 of Mahomes' first 8 passes were successful, most of them went into close custody, so the Chiefs solved things with strength in the air. The Chiefs were able to prevail on the other side of the ball as well, and it was more noticeable here. Hurts was sacked five times in the first half. On the one hand, this was due to the fact that Chris Jones was able to prevail in the battle of the walls (in the last two years, I don't need one hand to count how many times the Eagles lost the battle of the walls on both sides), and on the other hand, Steve Spagnuolo confused both the controller and the offensive wall extremely well. He called very creative pressures, blitzed a lot, so there were mental mistakes in the OL, and Hurts was completely confused, he could not extend the play and create, he was completely confused by Spagnuolo.

Dallas Goeder, who also plays a big role in run blocking and is a good safety target for Hurts in such situations, was visibly missing. Now he could not use the middle of the field at all and the only option was to run away and throw to the wind, but that was not successful at all. Can't praise Spagnuolo and the Chiefs defense enough for this half. However, a lot changed in the second half. The plain dropback passing game still didn't work for the Eagles, so they tried to avoid it as much as possible with runs, screens, and easier plays, and it worked better. Although AJ Brown was well taken out of the game by the Chiefs, as was to be expected (although perhaps not so much was expected, the star receiver gained only 8 yards), but that is why the team has an excellent number two receiver. Devonta Smith had a big play, going for 99 yards, his long catch was beautiful - nice pass, even nicer ball tracking and catch. With all that said, the Eagles offense wasn't very good in the second half either, but they were able to do a little more, which was just enough, as the Chiefs offense begged them to win the game. Here are their second half drives: four-and-out three-and-out fumble in the red zone punt from the opponent's 39-yard line three-and-out turnover on downs, game over. That's why it's hard to win a game, even with a 10-point lead. Anyway, the Chiefs scored the third fewest points in second halves so far, and this 0-point performance didn't improve that either. They haven't been able to score points in the second half for three games in a row, which can be quite a cause for concern. The contrast is especially great compared to the Super Bowl, where they were able to score points from every second half offense (three TDs and the game-winning FG). If we want to look at advanced statistics, then of the 104 games in which Mahomes played for the Chiefs, it was the 6th worst performance according to EPA/drive indicator. At the same time, let's praise the Eagles' defense, as Sean Desai is doing a pretty good job with the unit for the big games, as the defense managed to limit both the Dolphins and the Chiefs very well. It's also an interesting contrast to last year, where Jonathan Gannon's unit dominated every weak and mediocre offensive line, but failed miserably in big games. On the one hand, Kelce was guarded by Kevin Byard in man-up, and he was doubled almost the entire time in zoning, so the excellent tight end only got 44 yards. Catchers are nothing to be afraid of, as the Chiefs have proven on several occasions. Justin Watson had a good game with 53 yards and a TD, but it's not sweet - and then there's the MVS drop at the end that could have given KC the win. Isiah Pacheco can be singled out for his 89 rushing yards, but the entire Chiefs gained just 47 yards on the ground in the second half, so that's just the first half. With this loss, the Chiefs currently slipped back to second place (the Ravens lead the AFC), while the Eagles continue to consolidate their first place in the NFC, although the Lions are very clingy, and Philly now has the Bills, both the 49ers and Cowboys in the next three rounds.

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