The Athletic Football Show: A show about the NFL - Chiefs win thriller over Eagles in Super Bowl LVII for second title in four years

Episode Date: February 13, 2023

Super Bowl LVII was an absolute showstopper of a game that ended with a familiar sight: the Chiefs on top of the NFL world. Robert Mays and Nate Tice recap the Chiefs' 38-35 win over the Eagles in Super Bowl LVII on this episode of The Athletic Football Show.Follow Robert on Twitter: @robertmaysFollow Nate on Twitter: @Nate_TiceSubscribe to The Athletic Football Show...AppleSpotifyYouTubeToday's show is brought to you by...Atlassian: For projects impossible alone, visit www.atlassian.comRoman: Visit ro.co/athletic to get 20% off your first Roman order today!LinkedIn: LinkedIn Jobs helps you find the qualified candidates you want to talk to, faster. Post your job for free at LinkedIn.com/maysPhilo: Sign up today at philo.tv and use promo code MAYS to get 50% off your first monthMorgan & Morgan: For more information on Morgan & Morgan services, go to forthepeople.com/mays or dial 1-(800) POUND-LAW from your cell phone2:00 Mahomes and the Chiefs do it again6:00 Patrick Mahomes building an unbelievable legacy14:23 What a game from Jalen Hurts21:56 A masterful performance by Andy Reid42:20 What's next for the Eagles?50:41 What's next for the Chiefs Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This is the athletic football show. Welcome to the athletic football show. I'm Robert Mays. Join me tonight. It's my good friend Nate Tyson. How you doing, buddy? I'm doing well. I think the last time I was this close to you is when we were at the 2020 draft or 2021 draft

and we were snuck in that hotel room doing a live stream. So here we are. We're separate chairs this time at least. A couple steps forward, a couple steps back. This is really the only option. We're recording this live from the Super Bowl. We are in a makeshift. little party lounge area next to the stands.

I don't really know how to describe it, but this is what we got for you guys if we're going to bring it to you live from the game. And we really, really wanted to bring it to you live from the game because it's fantastic to be here, especially when you get a game like that. It was amazing. I mean, I'm glad you.

It's your first one. It's my first one. And we knew it would be a good one. So that's why it was, it lived up to the hype. There was ebbs and flows with the game. There's great play from both quarterbacks and the other, other players stepping up,

which is what we wanted. And that's what we were hoping for in the preview show. That's why we spent all that time hoping like, this guy might be the X Factor. This guy might break out. And it kind of happened. And also the kind of stars were starry in this game. But no, I'm so glad it was this one I went to. Maybe not the tail end of the game.

But for the first 58 minutes, it was, I mean, a memorable game. You quoted me. That was a legit quote for anyone that saw Robert's tweet that said, I freaking love football. I love this game. This is awesome. You said to me straight out, just I can't remember what, I think it was after the chief scored to go up 28. 27 and you looked at me and you said this is fucking awesome

I love football that's that's straight face and it wasn't even trying to be funny or anything I just said straight face it was I think it was Tony's touchdown it was God you could just feel the absupposed of this game especially when it's like a neutral sight like this so you hear both crowds a little more Eagles fans it was a good crowd though yes it was a good

crowd there was a reaction to everything that happened it was a very fan heavy crowd there are more Eagles fans but there were more chiefs fans here than I thought they were going to be The right side that we were facing, we were in the south end zone, the right side, a decent amount of Chiefs fans. So I was pretty happy with how the crowd was. This is where I saw my first Super Bowl, which is now eight years ago.

And we were also sitting in the end zone. Some of the craziest plays in NFL history happened in that end zone, Malcolm Butler Interception. We got another classic and an absolute classic that unfortunately, in my opinion, was dampened at the end. And I want to be clear about what I mean by that. I'm not saying that the chiefs. or got the game handed to them

or the refs gave the game to the chiefs or it's not justified. The game is 80 plays long. There's so many different moments to put yourself in a position to win or lose. It's just unfortunate that a game like that turned on a game deciding penalty that came in that moment where you heard me say it out loud.

I was looking at you. I was like, there's going to take two knees and end this. It's just such a deflating way for an potentially all-time great game to have. If that's an incomplete pass, they kick a field goal. We get to see Jalen Hertz have to drive down the field and give the Eagles a chance to win. That's all I wanted from that moment. And that was taken from us.

And that's why it's a bummer to me. Especially right before we had the Mahomes scramble. So it's like, oh, he had his hero moment. And that's what you want. They change the playoff rules and the overtime rules for this moment. Because you want both teams to get a chance, especially when quarterbacks are playing like this to get both get chances. And that's what it is. Hertz played so amazing tonight.

He played so well that you want to just see him get a fair shot, just a fair shot. And that's, I totally agree. I tweeted that was the first 58 minutes was the first few seasons of Game of Thrones. And then season eight was the last two minutes or the last Sopranos episode. Yeah, that was the brand game. Yeah. That's how it felt. That's the brand.

Harrison Butker didn't have the best story. So he did not deserve to be the winner of the Game of Thrones in my opinion based on how that went. That's exactly it. He was not meant to be the king of the king in the land. That game, the way that game is played, it is not supposed to end on two knees and a field goal when you jerk McKinnon slides at the one yard line to run the time out. It's just not supposed to end that way. And that McKinnon play happened right in front of us. I actually for a split second thought he was about to score.

I was really hoping he was going to. And I was like, go down. You can see the entire chief sideline walk onto the field goal. I'm like, no. And then he went down. I think he looked at everybody like, I got it, guys. Like, yeah, no, I knew what to do there. I'm a pretty smart guy.

But no, and that also happens. So many plays happened towards us, which is a lot of fun too. Yeah, the AJ Brown touchdown was in our end zone. Another deep shot to AJ Brown was in our end zone. I feel like every jailmer's deep ball except for the Devante Smith one or towards us. Well, the Devanti Smith one that went incomplete was to our sideline. I called that immediately that it was incomplete, by the way. I was immediately that's definitely incomplete.

The Dallas got her whole shot, which we'll get into. All that stuff was coming at us. So we got a lot of action headed our way. So first thing I want to talk about here, obviously. the way that it happens isn't ideal at the end, but it's still an incredible performance, an incredible game. Patrick Mahomes just won his second Super Bowl in four years.

He is 27 years old, and this is what happens when you continuously put yourself in that position. Sometimes the brakes aren't going to go your way. Sometimes the breaks are going to go your way. And in that moment, the break went his way, and he was phenomenal tonight. If you look at the stats, the Chiefs average 6.4 yards per play

against a team that finished number one in the NFL in EPA, believe number one in passing. Yes, one or two. Right there in the top two. Top three in every metric. Chiefs average 6.4 yards per play. That was better than what they did in a regular season when they led the league. And the Eagles averaged 5.8 yards per play, which is what they averaged in the regular season.

So these two teams that were the best teams in the league, we got to see that version of them. And that included the guy who is going to win the MVP and is the best quarterback alive. Yes. And just another check onto his resume, another addition. This is better than an internship, though, on his resume. This is a CEO type of a line in his resume. Also, he had, Mahomes was 67% past success rate tonight, which is one of the highest, his second highest of the season.

The only game that was better was that Cardinals game in week one when they just were playing on air, throughout routes on air, not the Super Bowl. 20 of those 30 drawbacks were successful plays. No sacks for Mahomes. And, I mean, there's so many times you could tell how. What do you think was, just watching that game in real time? Yeah.

What do you think led to their ability? to mitigate the pressure. Yeah, under center play action stuff to create some space. I also thought Mahomes was very cognizant. He knew he was going against. He averaged 2.69-year time to throw in the game, but I think that there were some extended dropbacks.

So if you look at, I'm sure that half of them were under 2.5 seconds. I agree. Also, pretty intentionally in the first half, I'm pretty sure they started two drives with screens. Yeah. And so I think that they were trying to slow it down a little bit. And then in the second half,

I think one of the ways they slowed it down is how well they ran ball. I don't want to get too far ahead of ourselves, but I think they did do a good job of being like, all right, how can we slow this thing down, give ourselves a little bit more time? Because we talked about it in the preview. If the Eagles pass rush didn't dominate the game, would the chiefs be able to throw the ball consistently? And the answer was yes. Yes. And it kind of saw the peppering and anyone that was in our gambling show with Beller. That was kind of my narrative for his overcompletions. He didn't hit it, but he was still just, you know, knife in the defense in different ways, RPO's, the play actions, straight dropbacks, kind of and hitting every type of throw, which was really cool.

always fun to see a quarterback do. You see the dig, especially in person. That's, that's another thing. I forget sometimes when I watch these guys in a person in the game.

I get a new appreciation for some guys. AJ Brown, number one guy I got a new appreciation for. I love the guy. And I'm like, he's incredible to watch in person. But yes,

he was very, it was a game plan. Yeah. He, one, two, three, ball out. One, two, three, ball out. There wasn't a lot of,

my home scanning, which, you know, he can do it once in a while. It was ball out or you went to creation mode. And, man, he avoided a lot of sacks. I was kind of bummed when the ankle, what he got hit twice in a row.

It was a scary moment. I mean, you really hope that doesn't torpedo the game and it was shaping up to be an amazing game. Yes. And so it just was. It was a great game plan. Really, there's only a couple times.

And I can't wait to rewatch this game on film, of course. I mean, it's much better than Week 16 or Week 18, uh, uh, uh, uh,

uh, Bucks Falcons like I did last time or Buck's Cardinals. Um, but it's, I want to see how they pass off the games with the defense aligned because I thought the offensive line did a nice job. other than the one with the Reddick out around or loop but there was a third and eight in the first half i believe it was the only real three and out kind of sputtered moment that the chiefs had in the first half they missed the field goal obviously but i believe it was third and eight and they ran out that five man the five down front where they line up reddick as a defense of tackle yes and then he loops all the center you did every time out of that every time out of that every time they're in that five down look where he's inside they do it they got two set i literally watched every eagle sack this from this season they got two of them on that exact sort of design yeah and that was that was really the only time that they use any sort of games or any sort of trickery to get immediate

pressure. Yeah. I mean, the Chiefs of Line kind of knew what they were going against. And it was a, again, it was a great gameplay. This is Andy Reid. He's very good at this. They, a lot of ton of tight ends. I mean, they bear, I think they're in 11 personnel, less than 50% of the game, which, you know, we've talked about going into this year that their numbers have gone down, going to this game, a lot more 12 and 13 personnel. We saw pony personnel. So they, they played off a lot of season tendencies. This is what happens when you have a head coach that just gets to do this, knowing that you're kind of going to win 10 games and make the playoffs every year. You can kind of play off season tendencies,

and that's what they did, doing the pony personnel using McKinnon on run plays on third and one. You're going to head. I'm getting ahead. I'm getting excited. I'm getting excited. So just zooming back a second here. I'm looking at the Jumbotron right now. And there is the Lombardi Trophy next to Patrick Mahomes, Frank Clark, Chris Jones,

this entire group. To win to this early in your country, career again we've talked about this in the previous show when you are the centerpiece of your team when you are the driving force and brady got very important pretty quickly year three or four when they were when they were going back but in oh one he was a cog in the machine that existed they were 14 point underdogs when they won that super bowl right what mohomes is done and the prominence that he has had in the league on the chiefs within their success we've really never seen anything like it.

Nope. You know, the one guy that got brought up this week, I can't remember who it was in terms of individual success very early on. Farve was really good. Farb was like MVP candidate pretty early in his career after getting to Green Bay. Yep. But they didn't win a Super Bowl until year six for him, right? Wasn't it the 96 season?

95 season. Yeah, yeah. 95 season. Yeah, so but year four, I think. No, 96. 96 season, 97, 98 were the Broncos. They beat the Patriots in 96. Yeah.

And in 97, they lost to the Broncos. So, yeah, yes. So it's guys remembering dudes right now. What we're watching, I have never watched. No. And it's important sometimes, in my opinion, to kind of step back and remember that. And just because when you have this team, you have these sorts of teams, and the only real comparison for me is what the Patriots were over two decades.

It's so easy to just kind of take it as a given and start taking it as a given. And we shouldn't do that. We should step back and recognize the fact that what they've accomplished is unbelievably special. The type of player he is is unbelievably special. Travis Kelsey is a part of that. Andy Reid is a part of that. Everything about what this organization has been, I think it's worth kind of sitting in it for a moment

because we don't see this very often. Or ever. Or ever. We did the discussion last week, and I brought up Marino because he went to instant success. They had successful as a team early in his career, but then they kind of never went back.

Throughout his career, you know, some playoff runs and all that. But this feels just automatic with Mahomes. And now we've talked about this. What's really cool about teams that sustain. and success is the ever-changing supporting characters. Sometimes it's usually, oh, it's just the coach and the quarterback, the ones that stay, you know, the Sean Payton, the Drew Burris, the Belichick, and the Brady's. But you hear those names that I'm bringing up right now?

Burris, Brady, Mahomes, and Mahomes is winning. And again, that's the thing. It's not just the numbers test. It's not just the team success. It's not one or the other. Again, that was always the Brady and the Manning arguments. Now he's doing all of it. I mean, he's got all pros.

He's got Pro Bowls. He's winning another MVP. it's just he's just racking it up and he hasn't even hit 30 years old yet or even coming close it's it's truly unprecedented I mean a lot of sports like Gretzky might be one

who had like this kind of like sustains his sex early and that's I'm just going to yeah I know I'm going to other sports you go to this football is 22 players on the field you don't see players dominate in football like this like just over and over in the biggest moments too that scramble is going to stick out in my brain the rest of my life because I have one foot again is he'd be

He'd barely get on the field of him playing the game. But that was him right then and there. It's just that in those big moments, he makes the place. He puts the team on his back. How many times have we seen him do that? Two minutes. He had a great one against the Chargers this season. You could tell he was like, I got this.

Anyone would look to scramble. And then he's just peppering balls all over the yard. He's hitting different receivers. Juju Smith-Schuster has become a huge player throughout the game. It's not just Kelsey. You always see him figure out what the defense is doing to him. And it's really cool to see a guy always find the answers. And it's amazing.

I mean, he's incredible. He's the best player I've ever seen. Before we move on to kind of the nitty gritty of the game, I do want to take a second to step back and appreciate the quarterback on the other side. Yes. And what he was today. What did you say to me when we were sitting up there

near the end of the game about Jaylon Hurts? I said more than one thing can be true. Did he have help from some of his teammates? Yeah, a lot of good players do. But did he carry the team for stretches for chunks of this game? Yeah. He truly did. He truly was the best player on the field for a long stretch of this game

on his side of the ball. But I mean, you watch it. Deonti Lee brought a great point. He goes, it's almost like a college offense. He doesn't mean that in a bad way, but in the sense that we're the quarterback's the best player. Yeah. So it's having to touch the ball a hundred times.

And just go, go, go, run the ball, throw the ball. That's what it feels like. Record record for quarterback rushes in a Super Bowl, quarterback rushing yards in a Super Bowl. Not a ton of quarterbacks that are built like him. No, no, no. He could do that. But it's still, what he was in this game,

we've never really seen a quarterback do that. There's a couple of, like, no, no, no, yes throws. but then there was a couple, I mean, real throws are brilliant. He had a couple movement throws even that were incomplete. He had one of his scramble to his left. He misses Devante Smith barely. For a split second, from my R angle, I was like, that's going to be a complete. That's unbelievable.

But he did that over and over, truly, truly carrying this team for stretches because he, at times, wasn't getting help from either other parts of the offense. In the first half, I mean, a huge part of their game plan was just getting an empty and letting him go to work as a runner. Right. And the first drive, they were an empty on a second down. The chiefs are playing man. He scrambles for a first down. They were really going to it a lot in third, fourth down situations running either design, draw RPO's, design runs.

That touchdown where Kelsey pulled was a design quarterback run. And then the two-play stretch, the two plays they're going to jump out to me when I think about J-1 Hertz in this game. It was one drive in the second half. It was a third down where he hits Dallas-Goddert on the big overrout in like third and eight and just puts. it pinpoint really good coverage. I think it was by Justin Reed. And it was a beautiful throw. And on that same drive, third and 14,

he hits the whole shot to Dallas Goddard down the sideline. He makes that throw. You and I were looking at each other. I was like, holy shit. Like that is a ballsy throw. It was a sinking corner against cover two. It was a, yeah. It was a, that was the no-no.

But then at first I was like, oh, he got away with it. But then you watch it's like, no, that's just amazing ball plays. It's a really, really good throw. And it's going to the right. Dave Brown when he got away with. Yes. But you get you guys the chance. The AJ Brown touchdown because we had a great angle at it.

It's a heavy play action shot. But on that play, I watched it on full. He's not throwing it to AJ Brown. And I saw him tilt that shoulder up. Here it comes. That's going to get picked. And AJ Brown makes a great play as well. McDuffie misplained it.

But AJ Brown made a great play to respond and somehow adjust to that ball in midair. It makes sense that AJ Brown was a fantastic baseball player. Yeah. How well he tracks the ball. Only second player other Kyler. That's such a new skill set that we've never seen him do before. Even that play. it happened. I was like, God damn, AJ Brown is just a different sort of player than we all thought

he was coming into the season. When we say this, there's several times today where you see AJ Brown catching under routes or slants and just carrying it and carrying a guy. They're bouncing off him. That's AJ Brown that in my head, that's what he is. And so seeing him this season, this way we keep reiterating, him as a ball tracker and as a deep ball threat has been a revelation. It's been so much fun to watch this here because he's incredible. He's so explosive. When you see him in person, he feels different. The other guy, the receiver I always talk about when you see him play in person or when you watch him in practice, whatever's Julio. Like, Julio's physicality.

It's just like the ground shook when you watched Julio Jones in person. A blaze out by Julio was like a eighth wonder of the world. I mean, I was at that NFC championship game in 2016 where he just, I was like, oh my God. This is like, I literally says like watching a centaur play football. It's unbelievable. And AJ Brown was kind of in that, but I also have a different appreciation watching Jalen Hurts play. I agree.

I've never seen him play alive. It's the first time. And I was like, man, I'm really excited for what he could potentially be, what this Eagles team is going to be. It's a young team. We'll get into this, all of this. But I think as an Eagles fan, as devastating as that ending is, and as much as you could have won this game,

it's just sitting right there. You can reach out and touch it. I still think you have to be so proud of the team you had this season and what your core looks like. You're moving forward. Yes, even some guys getting a little older, but that's this. They've really restocked the cover with this team.

And with Hertz, I agree with that with watching him in person. There are several times he ran. I would always say Hertz is a very good runner in a sense, but he's different than how Lamar runs and everything. thing. It runs almost like Cole Pepper in a way, but he's better than Cole Pepper running the ball because he, the big run after he had the fumble on the same, they came back to the same draw play that you're talking about. He set up the block. And he's cutting. And his vision is a lot better than I have given it credit for. I knew it was good, but it's even better than I gave it credit

for. And it's cool to watch that in person because he's creating yards. Those are the hidden yards that good players create. And that's what Jaylon Hertz did this game. It's time and time again. And at the end, he gets a sneak touchdown. And then they run the QB sweep with him. He runs through three tackles. The power on that place. I mean, those are real Carl Office was one of the guys. Carl Offis was big and strong, 260 and the thick guy.

And he ran right through him and scores. And that's true, true grown man strength, true vision. And on top of he threw half dozen balls, eight balls today. There were exceptional throws. All right. We're going to take our first quick break. And when we get back, we are going to talk about a masterful performance. from Andy Reid.

All right, it's time now for the Visa game-changing moment presented by Visa, proud sponsor of Super Bowl 57. The game changer today was Andy Reid, in my opinion. I mean, just so many little wrinkles, levers that made this thing easier on his quarterback, on his offense. And where do you even want to start with some of the things of the chiefs throughout there today? It's kind of nice because the chiefs didn't actually run that many plays. So since the chiefs didn't run that many plays,

You kind of remember some of the good ones. The second half, when they came out, the diversity of the run game from the Chiefs in the second half, was like, oh, man, this guy is, they're feeling it. They know exactly what they're going to. In the second half, how they attack the Eagles defense, sorry, there's somebody behind us everybody. But in the first half,

but in the first half, seeing all the jet motion and the short motion, me right away, it was so apparent that the Chiefs were, they're poking at stuff. They were testing the cage, the Veloceraptor cage. They were testing this. jet motion, the short motions, and then the plays off of that that came in later in the game. And I mean, the epitome of that is the Tony touchdown in the Skymore touchdown. Yeah.

Because that was set up throughout the entire game. And then they got it in the perfect opportunities right there in a low red zone. It was Kelsey early. Yeah. So they were setting things up for Kelsey early. And I'm looking at this without a ton of notes because we have one computer here. It's a little different than our normal sign up. I've handwritten notes.

So the way that I remember it is there was the play early in the first half where they were in a, I believe, a two by two formation, they ran a jet motion, and then Kelsey ran a crosser, just like a big crosser and the Eagles lost it. It was a big completion on a crosser. Then on the same drive, they motion into a short motion into a stack, and that was the Kelsey touchdown. It was a little out and up sort of wheel. They put him in a stack, Epps had to play off of him.

Kelsey chews up that space, leaves him one-on-one touchdown. Later in the first half, another play where jet motion from a two-by-two form, and he was a they lead Kelsey as a single receiver on the left side. He fakes the big over and then takes it back across and T.J. Edwards is just lost. So consistently, they're using either jet motion to change whether it's two by two, three by one or a lot of short motion consistently in that game where they're motioning into stacks. They're changing who's the number one receiver, who's the number two receiver very quickly

before the play. And just, again, almost every single play it felt like using either a. right kind of big grand motion to get something done or something subtler to just kind of play with the rules of that eagle's defense which they clearly were very in tune with yes very in tune they had every you should watch in this game anyone who watches the back or sees on NFL network in two or three years when you rewatch it you'll see how many times my home is killing plays and going we're good we're good which they always do but there was a whole lot of it in this game because they were going,

are you a man, you're in zone? Okay, we're doing this to beat that play or beat that coverage. Then it did it time and time again. The jet motions on top of it, they were doing split zone, which is where it tied in crosses the formation to kick out the D-N. All this, we I think everybody and their mother

knows what the weakness is the one kind of sort of weakness of this eagle's defense is the linebackers. And how do you influence them? All right, let's cross their face. Make them communicate. Make them pass stuff off. Oh, wow. When, when formations change formation formation strength change some defenses have a check if it's a trips call or if it's a two by two call if it's a pro formation call so when you're doing it all those jet motions all those

kelsey motions that's what they're doing they're making them communicate and i saw the chiefs were breaking the huddle very early like 26 seconds 27 because they wanted to get in see what the eagles were yep and then get to the play that they wanted to want to do but the run game was amazing uh that first drive at the second half i think they ran five different run concepts And we've talked about how the Eagles will spam just one concept. So it's pretty cool to watch a run game. Without using the quarterback in the design rushes, they're running trapped. They're running wineback.

They're using the pony personnel on the touchdown to Pacheco. Just really, really good stuff. All kind of playing off stuff they've shown before, stuff that's are bread and butter, but then the changeups off of it. So you mentioned the split zone, the jet motion with the split zone. That chunk run for Pacheco. Yeah. And the first chiefs drive, that's what that was.

Yes. And then you mentioned just all of the different designs. that they were using in the second half. Look at the numbers. The Chiefs average 0.24 EPA per rush on running back runs in this game. 19 carries for 110 yards, 52.6% success rate,

2.5 yard yards before contact per rush. I mean, that's... It's a real good day of the ground. I think the Eagles on the season average 0.12 EPA per rush. So that's twice what the Eagles did and they were the most efficient running team in the NFL. That's what the Chiefs run team.

It was a success rate. It was 57%, 50%. 50. 52.6%. Yeah. Eagles hovered around 50% this year. We've mentioned a million times. They were one of the best run to offenses in the last 20 years.

And the use of personnel, we kind of figured that was kind of one of the things I figured that Andy Reid would get to because getting into heavier personnel groups on offense using two or three tight ends kind of can make the Eagles defense a little more basic. Also, you can kind of make them more predictable. And you can see that's just playing to Andy Reed's wheelhouse. the third and one big run to Pacheco at the end. This is one that you had to come me off. You had to slow me down on. So the third and one at the end. So Pacheco gets it.

The fullback's name, Bolton. Fullback's name. Burton. Burton. So Burton, the chiefs do us all the time. You'll see Burton get one carry like every two or three weeks. And it's always in a short yard situation where they have them as an upback. They do some window dressing in the back.

And then they hand it off on a little dive play on the inside. So they looked like that. You can see all the Eagles players getting tight. And they're like, oh, this is it. We know what's coming here. They've already used their changeups and their funky stuff. Instead, they had Burton seal the edge. And then they kicked it outside.

And that's why Pacheco was able to just gash him on the outside. There's nobody out there for them. It's essentially what the Eagles do on their sneak plays when they do the little pitch off of it. That's basically what they did. It's a chief version of that. But that's the run game. Andy Reid's known as like the passing game, college concept wizard. But that was the difference with this team.

Yes. That was the story of the chief season. What are the key tweaks with this chief's team? It's Orlando Brown pulling. It's a Detroit Smith pulled on the touchdown when they were in pony personnel, which we can talk about in a second. It's all of those gap scheme runs that we thought they might incorporate last year. That we can bludgeon you with a hammer version of the Chiefs. It came a year later than we expected, but it came at the exact right time because it allows them to be this version of that team in this moment against a team built like the Eagles.

This felt like something we talked about so much last season where can you win in different worlds? Can you be a team that runs when you need to run? And the Chiefs couldn't really do that. It was all RPO's in that game against the Bengals. And you've talked about this a lot. When they're giving it to you, can you just hammer it over and over again? And that first drive of the second half was exactly that. But when you're talking about the Chiefs, you're still going to have the sexy shit

that makes us our brains pop a little bit. And both of those Red Zone touchdowns were the perfect example. That's awesome. So I want, I think there was a little bit of chatter like in our row. somebody's like, why is he so wide open? Explain why those two red zone touchdowns, the one to more and the one to Tony, are so wide open and what the chiefs are trying to accomplish on those plays. So typically in zone or in man coverage, depending on what the call is, when there's a jet motion,

if it's zoned, the Eagles would rock and roll their safeties, which is one safeties who's in the post comes screaming down to cover the jet guy and the guy that was on the corner of the safety that was on that side, it goes to the back. But in man coverage, which the Eagles were in down there in the low red zone, they have to pass it off. Somebody has to run with the jet suite. Somebody. How the Eagles go about it is either the first one, the Cadarius Tony touchdown, Avanti Max would be running with the Jet Guy. And someone would be on Travis Kelsey, I believe was on that side as well.

So they're faking that they're running across. And Cadarius Tony is very, very athletic and very fast. So those guys have to haul a lot of ass. So that's what they're worried about. Oh, we don't want to get beat here. We got to go make this tackle and save a touchdown. and it ends up working against them because that would just pop right back. I just think it's just the mad genius of,

I'm going to use genius here, but the mad genius, mad scientist of Andy Reed is doing the exact same play with the exact same formation, but just flipping, flipping it, and then using a different guy, using Sky Moore on that one.

And I think Kelsey was on that side. So you're like, you're worried about, okay, is it now Kelsey's number one receiver and what does that mean? But on the other one, it's just juju and Sky Moore on that second touchdown. So what Reed, Bienami,

the entire offensive staff and just that little lab that they go into over these two weeks before this sort of game. I always love to see it. It's like what buttons do they know they can push? And those all kinds of those motions were exactly right. Both of these teams and I'll credit the Eagles to hear two, the second half, Devante Smith had that wide open touchdown. These are in the NFL, it's a game of split seconds and so that's what the NFL, game of inches is you try compound mistakes. And the Eagles do it. They use tempo. They get a first down. You're in dying personnel. Okay, we're on tempo. We run a simple play. Dichy, we gash you, it caused a coverage bust.

What the chiefs do is with the design stuff, they're playing off their rules. They're using the rules against them. And they're just creating this moment of tension. And it pops in a huge moment. It happened twice. But that's, it's a perfect. You're using the communication against them. Yes.

Because they have to do it so fast. Are good at passing that stuff off. But the Eagles are so to do it. We're live here, folks. We're alive here. The Eagles are so quick to do it. This is just me, talk with my hands. Yeah.

that it's oh oh he's going he's going i mean you can see the communication and you the andy reed took the eagle's defensive rules and snapped him yes yes and it was very very cool to watch even the one there was a little uh bubble pump to juju smiths her dad the way so so the play before uh sweat gets an offside so they called the play dead and it was a split back looks there's two backs on either side they motion juju to the flat or to the bubble and so they threw it to them yeah yeah and They threw it. They threw the ball, and it was called off sides. So they saw them throw the bubble on that play.

Yes. It's not like they lined up. They ran the play. Ran the play. He throws it everything. He was about to hand it off. And he was like, oh, shoot. And he throws the bubble, him being Mahomes.

And they call the, and when they come out, they break the huddle. And they come out the exact same formation. I even said, I go, are they really going to run the exact same play? Same motion. Everyone runs this. That's why it's kind of like, you can kind of tell what's about to happen. And they run a pump off of it, like a double move off of it. And they hit the wheel route to juju.

So what they did is they still ran the screen, but Juju is running down the left sideline, feigned blocking. We see the Eagles do this all the time. All the time. They run tons of fakes. I was waiting for them around tonight. And the fact that the chiefs did on the very next play is just so like, why, it's just Andy Reed bullshit. So we know that about the chiefs. Yes.

We were familiar with that version of the chiefs. Andy Reid, again, kind of snapping those rules and being able to manipulate the teams he's playing against. There were quieter, lesser known aspects of the chiefs that were hugely important tonight. And I think it starts with the run defense. The Chief's run defense gave up the Eagles average. Negative 0.26 EPA per play on running back runs, which is the most efficient running team in the league. Negative.26 for context is bad. Okay.

Those running backs, running back runs 35.3% rushing success rate on those plays, 2.65 yards per carry. Yeah. Okay. It was not good. No. The Chiefs up front were really, really good in this game. And I think I want to highlight both Nick Bolton and Willie Gay for playing some of the best football I've ever seen them play. Yes.

Yes. And man, they just had a, there was an RPO early on what the wrong game ties into this. Devante Smith had kind of like an extended play on the RPO. And why no, at first I was like, they're going to call it legal man. Whenever the quarterback doesn't throw it right away at RPL, you're like, you know the flag's coming. I was like, man, there's no penalty. They didn't call that. And it was because the defensive line in the linebackers did such a.

good job of like swalling up the double teams and doing everything. And the reason that he was open is because Gay was filling the run. And it was doing a great job. Again, like ad-libbing and taking advantage of actually really good ball from the defense. I mean, Bolton played phenomenal. Like, yes, he had a couple moments where they got him. But he did so many things today where he was just very astute on what the Eagles wanted to do.

He created a defensive touchdown. Fullwork coverage touchdown by himself. Yes. That just might be there. Yes. It's just going like, yeah, I know what you got. Oh, you're an empty. Oh, yeah.

We know what you're about to do. How many times did they run that crosser play, usually to Boston Scott, on those third and extra longs? And there was a defensive player, usually Bolton, that just blew it up. The thing that jumped out to me, beyond how sound their run defense was, they tackled so, so well. How many times did they run that screen? In the second half. In the second half. There was that one A.J. Brown long play.

And there's a couple of rounds in the first, and that was it. In the second half, they ran that slant to A.J. Brown where Goddard would run off from the number two spot and Brown would run the slant behind it. at least three or four times. Every single time, it's a game of five, it's a game of six. The Goddard corner catch was on that play. Yep, yep. They're so often these plays where you're really hoping to get some yak and the Eagles have Goddard, brown guys that really do a great job of creating it. That just wasn't available to them in the second half.

I thought the Chiefs tackled really, really well. There was a reason that the Chiefs had, or the Eagles had 18 third downs tonight. And that's because on first and second down. They made him do it all earn it on those four downs. as any other offense, the Eagles offense is so good. Again, watching them live. New appreciation for how fast and explosive this offense is, is there's 18, when you see 18 third downs, that means you're not getting first and out on first and second down.

And that was because the chiefs were limiting to a lot of two-yard gains, three-yard gains. You know, they would get some four and fives in there, but none of them were gashes. None of them were, oh, there weren't a lot of second and ones, it felt like. There was just a lot of second and-s. Very rarely. Very rarely. And even there were a lot of like second and seven. that would turn into third and twos

because they were those quick completions that were getting shut down immediately. They just add up. When they talk about the 1%, those things add up because it's cumulative over the game. Beyond the on-field impact today for Bolton and Gay, I think it's also important to acknowledge

what Bolton and Gay represent in the grander ecosystem of the Chiefs. So when you have Patrick Mahomes and now you have Patrick Mahomes making $35 million a year and you've got a couple other really expensive guys, in order to stay in a team like this, you need to get some hits. You need to make sure that those second round picks are contributors for you,

that they show up in these moments. And this team intentionally got very young on defense this year, very inexpensive. Holds on a rookie contract, William is on a rookie contract, Josh Williams is on a rookie contract, Jalen Watson's on a rookie contract, Carl Lofus on a rookie contract,

Charlie's on a rookie contract, and they came through. Like that it's it's great to have Patrick Mahomes It's great to have Andy Reid It's great to have the best offense in the league But there are the really good teams too Eagles are fucking good Yeah and you needed your defense to come through

In some of those moments today for you to win a Super Bowl Yeah And they did they did they absolutely did I know actually even though they gave up a lot of points And a lot of first downs and everything I actually thought the game plan for the Chiefs defense Was very good They started heating them up at the right times

There's a lot of clean free runners They were on top of their shit Like just anything that they wanted to get They had, it seemed like the Eagles really had to get work for those plays, as opposed to usually. We always say the Eagles just spam easy buttons. They made the easy buttons hard, which actually made me appreciate Jaylen hurts more because those easy buttons weren't so easy to get. Talk about that free runner. Yeah.

Turning point in the game. Willie Gay comes off the edge, untouched on a third and two. Yeah. Kurt has to bail out of the pocket. That's that crazy Devonty Smith. That almost happened that you're talking about. Kurt has to bail out of the pockets of the left in completion. punt from a backup punter

whose name I did not know before this game started backup punter 35-yard punt away from the punt coverage Cadarius Tony brings it all the way back to the five that's where the game changed. Yes, it did. It was funny because Cadarius Tony, I could see the wall of Chivskin built. Again, end zone view is really great when you're watching it live.

You can see the wall of Chipskin built to his right and he was going to the left. I'm like, what are you doing? Because the punt forced him over there. And then he just circled back. And it was just, you know, It was beautiful. Just a nice little wall down the sideline.

But that's it. It was those plays that up. I mean, the strip sack or the strip fumble touchdown because it came on a third and one full start. Yeah, that's right. It was going to be a sneak play. So it's a third and six.

So now they can't just run the sneak. So they can't, you know, get it like a limited play. That's a great, great point. Those are the two turning points. They would say the part return and then the third. Salamalo gets dings for a fall start. And they may have busted on the next play.

Yeah. Yeah. And third and six. And that is a huge, huge turning point in the game. So I think both of those are absolutely worth pointing out. Yeah. All right. We're going to take one more quick break here and then kind of talk about what's next for these teams and then wrap up what was an amazing Super Bowl.

All right. Let's talk about what comes next here. You know, it's, again, when you lose a Super Bowl like this with a team like the Eagles have, it's heartbreaking because you know this team is never going to be back together in its current form. And if you're excited about the core and they should be excited about it. the court. So, Miles Sanders is a free agent. We'll see what happens with Jason Kelsey. It's kind of weird. You know, he's obviously deep into his 30s. There's a chance of Jason Kelsey retires. Brandon Graham could very likely be moving on. Jvonne Hargrave is a free agent. Fletcher Cox, James Bradbury, C.J. Gardner Johnson. Some of these finishing strokes that put this

roster over the top, they were short-term deals to get them to this moment. And now who knows what's going to happen. And that's why how he gets those draft picks going. That's right. That's That's why that kind of has. Let's be clear about this. Eagles in a very good position. Very good position. Very good position. Yeah, no, it's, I really have liked this kind of discussions we've had.

I talked about already on this show about like the moving pieces of like a sustained success team. And that's what was really cool, though, about this team. Because this will always remember this team with the sneaks, you know, just a very complete roster on both sides of the ball. Like this is one of the most complete rosters I've ever seen, really, in the NFL. It is. It is. I mean, you see sometimes offense. Oh, they have a loaded offense and one good defensive player.

But this was just littered with all pros, littered with pro bowlers, littered with tangibly good players. I mean, just look at the defensive line for the Eagles. So, again, I agree with you that it's kind of, it feels weird. It's like they're going to be fine, but also it's just kind of a little sadness, I think, because I was really starting to enjoy this Eagles team. Think about the core that they have coming back. Yeah. I want to sign long term.

Lane Dickerson's on a rookie contract. Wayne Johnson will still be here. A.J. Brown, long term move. Devante Smith, long term move. Dallas Goddard is assigned to an extension. Josh Sweed is signed to an extension. A Sonredic will be here. Dary Slay is still under contract.

I believe Marcus Epps might also be a free agent. He came on very strong this year, obviously. So they're going to have to get a couple moments tonight that are really, really smart plays. Somebody that absolutely was much better and much more important to this team than I thought he was going to. I agree. So they're going to have to figure out the secondary and to retool that a little bit.

And then beyond what this roster looks like, coaches. And by all accounts, it does sound like Shane Steichen is the, leader in the clubhouse or the guy expected to get the Colts job. Thank God, by the way. That's where they landed on and it wasn't Saturday. Oh, my know. I think that he, I'm excited to see what he does as the head coach. I agree.

Because I think that everything he's done, Shane Steichen's selling point when he was in these interviews for head coaching jobs, I could say with confidence. Your sell is, I'm going to create an offense and create a way of playing. that is built of the strengths of my players. Yeah. That is lip service for a lot of guys. Balance. Look at the Eagles over the last two years.

It is not just a thing to say. They've literally done that. They have shifted who they are offensively, what their identity is, what they lean on, depending on who their players are and what they do well. It's all you can want in an offensive coach

in this era, in my opinion. And he has shown a distinct ability to do that. And it shows an understanding. So especially if he takes, that step forward as a head coach. That's what you want to see because then he's going to oversee both sides of the ball and special teams as well. Special teams deserves a mention as well, especially for the impact it had tonight.

I can always count on you. I can always count on you to do that. I'm trying to be good about it. I'm trying to be good. I feel like special teams coaches are permanently grouchy because of that path, like how we talk about them. But no, it's everything you want to see. You want to see that creativity.

We both became really big fans of what the Eagles were doing on offense because of that adaptability. You know last year. That's what that's what I mean in 2020. My thought about them was they were really in a box last year. But what they did to get there and how thoughtful it was and how intentional it was and just the plan they had, it made me optimistic for what they could look like as they grew. Yes. As they got better players, as Jalen Hertz developed.

And I think that's kind of what I've come to learn about how to project teams moving forward is like, okay, well, if they were good at this and they were flexible in this, that they can keep going. You know, like even the Bears offense this year. Like what they built around Justin Fields is like, okay. Like I don't, when you actually get some receivers and you get some offices, the bones are good. Yes. The bones are good. And we knew the bones of the 2021 Eagles were good.

And then the quarterback gets a shitload better. And they get a lot of really good players because their GM is a very proactive man. It's like what Marvel does. They just take some low budget director and they're like, man, man, this guy's pretty good. They give him a big budget movie. That's what basically the Eagles do. I mean, he honestly. Because his background

shouldn't look like this, how this offense looks. The only play that from Norv Turner offense, as I mentioned this many times, that's what his true background is. I mean, he's done a lot of coaches worked under that touchdown to AJ Brown. That overrout with the corner route. That is a big play action.

Big, heavy seven-step concepts. The corner to Dallas got it. Those are the traditional types of plays. But he's sprinkling creativity. The run game is so creative. I know Jeff Stalwin has a big impact on that. but he has to be willing to call it and package plays together because they would go into it they get into empty one last scheme thing sorry guys but you get they get into empty they're killing plays they're packaging those runs and passes together because they're beating them they understand we talked about Andy Reid breaking rules understanding coverage is he's just as good I mean maybe not just as good but he's very very good at doing the exact same things and understanding what defense is trying to do and that just shows he knows ball that's the biggest compliment I can give him he really does so they're going to have to figure out what the offensive side of the ball looks like the nice part is you have an offensive minded head coach and he's who has called polls.

Yes. And then Brian Johnson, their quarterback's coach, is somebody that other teams were talking to. You have hopefully a natural replacement within the building if he gets elevated to that role. And again, the ecosystem that you've created on that side of the ball, even losing an offensive coordinator, this team is potentially set up to survive that in a way that other teams might not be.

Right. And then you look at, again, the underlying talent that they have and the resources that they have. This team has some financial flexibility next season, which I don't know how, but they have like $15 million in cap space with the team that they have. So we'll see if they can retain. Losing Heartgrave is the one I keep going back to.

His ability to dominate one-on-one. He made a couple big plays tonight. It's just like, that one is a little bit tough. So how can they maybe replace that? What does the defensive line rotation look like? Again, a lot of short-term bets. Live at all Joseph and Dominicu. So some retooling needs to happen.

But you have your offensive line and head coach back and you have a quarterback that it's hard not to be excited about who he was this season and what it means for that moving forward. What you mentioned you said all these guys that are under contract, the young guys, the Devante Smith, even AJ Browns, and Dallas Goddarts, all these guys are under deals, Jordan Milaata. What helps is, again, it's that rotating cast and that now they don't have to rely on, like, these certain guys, they have their building blocks. Literally, they're the building blocks of the team. So that kind of helps the transition period. If there is going to be one, it depends again, what they're going to do. The Hargrave call is a good one. You know, other guys are getting older, a couple of other offense alignment. But it really is, there's a lot of just good things with this team, like just as far as what they can rely on. playmakers.

Yeah. I mean, those guys are all back. They're all coming back. The big three for this offense are all coming back. And they can find another Zach Pascal. Like they don't need. There's no question about who's our second receiving option.

Don. Yeah. And the one is the arguably the best second receiving option in the entire league. Exactly. Between J. Waddle T. Higgins and this guy, a lot of good ones. Yes. We'll see what happens with the potential Jlin Hertz extension.

It's one more cheaper year, though. They got one more year where they're paying him pennies and they can wield that in the way that they have so far. I think that puts them in a good position. And also, this team has the 10th pick in the draft. Of course they do. Of course they do. I'll never get over when you said that they had the Saints second round of the next year or whatever it was.

Yeah, that was the one. You find $5 bills in your pocket. That's kind of how the Eagles team building process goes. Everything comes up, Howie. So, again, you never know. There's no guarantees. There's never guarantees. But if I was an Eagles fan, I'd be thrilled at how this season went.

I'd be so optimistic about Siriani and what he's built and just the feeling in that building, where the quarterback is right now and what has driven a lot of the success because I think you can rely on a lot of that. I think the big question on the other side with the other team is, I guess we just started to hear some of the retirement whispers with Andy Reed, which is...

Oh. Yeah. Started like trickling out a little bit today. I think it was Jay Glazer so that he might take some time to think about after this game. Andy Reid's in his mid-60s. He has two Super Bowls now. So this is potentially the last game

we saw Andy Reid coach. Oh, man. I mean, he's... Legend, man. Simply one of the greatest coaches of all time. And what a fucking note to go out on that this is it. Like, what an incredible game. What a perfectly coached game on offense against a really good defense.

I would be really sad to face an NFL without Andy Reid. But it's hard to do much better than he did if this is his final moment. And just also just universally beloved. Like not just people see the cheeseburger quotes and the jokes and the, you know, how about them chiefs and all that? But honestly, he really is. He's a great guy. He really is.

He kind of has been really fond to enjoy as a person. So it's, I didn't know that. So I'm kind of sad now because, I mean, I'm not ready for it. That's been my entire life. Is Andy Reid as a head coach basically? My NFL experience since the late 90s is Andy Reid as a head coach in some way, shape, or form. So, yeah, that's sad. But, man, you're talking about it.

You said we don't really see a lot of sustained success. And that's what's kind of nice. And the question marks is they still have number 15, though. They still have Patrick Mahomes. And I'd be fascinating about it. What they do is an in-house candidate. The enemy is looking at all these other jobs because he hasn't been able to get the opportunity. I have no idea what will happen on that side.

But they are set up because they have the best player in the league. And he's under deal. He was the centerpiece of their entire season. And he comes through and averages 0. I think 4-2 EPA per dropback, which is better than he did in the regular season as the MVP in the Super Bowl against really good defense. He made a top three past defense look like the Cardinals past defense in the Super Bowl. In the Super Bowl. Again.

What two weeks were, oh, my God, the field, by the way. Oh, the field. We should talk about the field. It's frustrating that it's slippery and all that. It's for both teams. Yeah, it is. Oh, no, yeah, yeah. That's kind of my thing is that there were how many points scored in this game?

What was the final score? They didn't really slow down anybody. Yeah, there was a 70 combined point score in the game. I feel okay about the way that the game looked, even the field was a little bit frustrating. But I think that's the kind of button I want to put on this. Coming into the season, you were so excited about the Chiefs. You were so optimistic to go out the Chiefs's offense. I had my questions.

no Tyree kill. What is the transition going to look like? Even if we're, we have a lot of faith in Indyrie. We have a lot of faith in Patrick Mahomes. What is this team? Week one, they come out and they just destroy the cards. And in that moment, it's like, all right, here we go. And guess what?

Wire to wire. Right? Wire to wire. The two best ones. They were. They started on this field. They ended on this field. And they were the best offense in football with the best quarterback in football with arguably

the best offensive coach play caller, one of the best ever. And that's what they were in the final moment. And that was enough for them to take home their second Super Bowl in four years. It was. I will see next year if I can predict the Super Bowl champ. But for once in my life, I did. I predicted the Super Bowl champ with the Chiefs. But that really was.

It was a bet on Patrick Mahones and bet on Andy Reed. That's what it was, as well as the offensive line. And a couple of those guys are coming back. Or good chunk. Who knows with Orlando Brown. Yep. But the interior is coming back. That's nice to have.

And they have some pieces. They have some resources. Young defense. We talk about all those guys around rookie contracts. Tons of young players. They can, depending on how Travis Kelsey is getting also another year older, but they had a great plan for him this year. So a few amount of staffs he's played since this first year starting.

So they always had a plan with it, but that was my bet, that Mahomes and Reed would figure it out with an offensive line. Juju's a free agent. MBS is contract. They can get out from under if they want to. Cadarius Tony is here now. They can kind of reshape the offense again, this off season, depending on what they want to be.

Yeah, I know. They, I know. They can drop another guy in. They can sign a free agent. And that's when you have a quarterback that gives a boost effect with everybody else around them. It changes the game. It changes what you can do team building-wise. It's a huge differentiating factor.

They gave up no sacks tonight. And yes, the offensive line played really well. Mahomes was getting rid of the ball. And that's the thing. It's a boost effect not only just on the players or receivers, but boosts his offensive line so that they're taking no sacks. That's what that guy does. And he's going to continue to do it, hopefully for another decade. I mean, I know I'm a neutral fan so I can say that.

I know other teams fans, AFC West fans are kind of like, no. Oh, but that's what he is. He's always going to be that. So whatever happens with Andy Reid, you still have Patrick Mahomes, and that's a great place to be in the NFL. All right. That's all we got. That's all we got.

Great season. Another great season. Thank you to all you weirdos that are watching right now. I know. I've done it all season, this weird little setup that we have. Such a great time this year. I tweeted it today. Not even kidding.

This is my eighth Super Bowl. I would have dreamed about this when I was a kid. dreamed about it. And the fact that I get to do this every single year, it will never be lost to me. It's still cool, still getting chills during the national anthem, and that'll never go away. And it doesn't have to be like this. We don't have to have this opportunity. It could have gone 10,000 different directions and the opportunities, the chances, the breaks to arrive us in this moment, and for me to get the chance to do this with you and for all of you to listen, I'm truly grateful. And I just can't even tell you what it means to me. And we've had such a great time this

year. I'm excited for the off season. I'm excited for where the show is going. And I couldn't ask for more from you, from you guys. So thank you very, very much. Thanks, man. No, I agree. I'm literally watching confetti getting sweeped up right now. I've been on the losing side of a lot of these types of games. So I've never been out on the field this long to see the confetti process after the game. But honestly, that's what it feels like this season. We have confetti all around me and Robert right now. It's been a joy this year watching especially these videos that we do now. The live streams have been so much fun to see the feedback from everybody. Thank you to everybody. Thank you, buddy.

Thank you to Beller and Kent and Alex. I mean, everybody that helps us out with this show. And honestly, it's been a fantastic season. I can't wait for draft season now. We're coming. So just a reminder to you guys, this will be out Sunday and to Monday. Between the Lines to Sean Reed's series about just what means to be black at every level of the NFL, executives, players, coaches.

That's going to start for you guys on Tuesday within the feed. It's going to come out once a week, twice a week a little bit later into March. It doesn't matter right now. It's going to be in the athletic football show feed on Tuesday's here. for the next five, six weeks. Please go check that out. What prospect of the pros on Wednesday? Rick and, Rick, it's getting late.

We'll have Mike and Randy on Thursday doing football GM. You and I will be back on Friday, so we will have something coming you later this week. And then we're coming to you every day. Nothing is changing. We will be in your ears every single day. Combine's coming up soon, so there will be no breaks. Please keep checking out the athletic football show.

We really, really appreciate you guys. We'll talk to you soon. This was the Athletic Football Show.