The Kevin Sheehan Show - Eagles' D-Day

Episode Date: February 11, 2025

Kevin opened with the Eagles' Super Bowl rout over the Chiefs. Philly's defensive performance was all-time great. What does Washington need to do to catch up with Philly? Kevin discussed that. Already, the 2025 NFL odds and power rankings are out. Kevin recapped some of that while also talking Deebo Samuel and Derik Queen (Terps) too. Steven Spector/96.5FM The Fan in Kansas City jumped on to talk about the KC reaction to last night.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

You don't want it. You don't need it. But you're going to get it anyway. The Kevin Cheon Show. Here's Kevin. Third and 16, the Holmes roll out. Look at firing. Interceptive.

That pick six by Eagles corner, Cooper DeGine, gave Philly a 17-0 lead midway through the second quarter. And at that point, the Chiefs had 20 total yards on four offensive drives with zero points. and it would actually get worse. The show's presenting sponsor, as always, is Window Nation. If you're thinking about new windows, all I ask is give them a shout and give him a shot. 86690 Nation, Window Nation.com. I've got one guest on the show today.

Steven Spector from 96.5 FM, the fan in Kansas City, will jump on with us in the final segment. Stephen, a longtime friend. He was a producer at 980, late 2000s, early 2010s. He'll tell us how Chiefs fans are handling the beatdown their team took last night in New Orleans. And that's where we will start the show. Super Bowl 59, Philadelphia 40, Kansas City 22. The Eagles win their second Lombardi Trophy, still trailing in their division. Washington's three, the Giants four, and the Cowboys, five Super Bowl titles. The headline from last night's game is about as easy as it gets, right?

I mean, it was a defensive beatdown. It was one of the greatest defensive performances by a team in Super Bowl history. That's not an exaggeration. That's the number one storyline, the number one takeaway. headline from Super Bowl 59. The Eagles defense dominant. There were two other big stories, in my opinion, from the blowout last night. Not as big as Philly's defense, but in order. Jalen Hertz played great again in a big game. And then you also have to add that it was an all-time bad night for Andy Reed and Patrick Mahomes. But let's start with Phillies'

defense, totally suffocating Kansas City's offense. The Chiefs did not cross midfield in the football game on their first nine offensive drives. That is the most drives it's ever taken in Super Bowl history for an offense to cross midfield, to cross the 50 into the other team's territory. That's Patrick Mahomes we're talking about. That's the Kansas City Chiefs. and Patrick Mahomes, they could not move the ball into Philly territory until their 10th offensive drive of the game. When they finally did cross midfield, there were two minutes left in the third quarter, and the outcome had long been decided. It was 34 to nothing, Eagles at the time. Before their 10th drive of the game, where they generated some offensive

production, a drive that would actually result in points. Up until that point, the nine drives in which they didn't cross midfield, they had 45 total yards of offense and three first downs. They averaged 1.5 yards per play. They had 30 offensive snaps in which 11 of those 30 went for two yards, one yard or zero yards, seven of those 30 plays lost yardage, and two of those plays were turnovers. They were o for their first nine on third down. The game was completely over by the time they converted their first third down to the game. They punted on their first eight drives of the game six times with four three and outs, and on the other two drives, they turn the ball over.

I don't know if anybody was thinking at halftime about looking up the stats. I did. I always do that anyway, just to see, especially for our teams' games, but I wanted to see how historic the first half was. The Chiefs down 24-0. At halftime had one first down.

That came on the first play from scrimmage and 23 total yards of offense. How did Philly do it? Well, it starts with their front four. And it starts with their front four and the pass rush it got without ever needing an extra pass rusher the entire night. Philly didn't blitz once per next gen. 42 drop back throws for Mahomes, no blitzes. I actually thought there was one.

I thought I saw one like in the third quarter, but I guess it must have been, you know, a D-Linman dropping into coverage, or maybe there were three pass rushers to begin with. But on 42 Mahomes' dropbacks, not one blitz, 16 pressures, six sacks. Mahomes had never been sacked that many times in a game with just a four-man or less pass rush exclusive. last week I looked up something from the game that Washington played against Philadelphia in November, the first game, the Thursday nighter at the link, because I wanted to kind of put in perspective what the Philadelphia defense had become. And I thought that that was like the first night that it was obvious that Philadelphia was really good, really good on defense, and that they were really good

as a football team. Remember, they had a slow start to the season. They were two and two, and leading into that Washington game, they had won several games in a row, but they hadn't really beaten anybody, with the exception of Cincinnati on the road. That was an impressive win. But we were just in that moment becoming, you know, we had just started to realize that Philadelphia was really good and that their defense was really good. And I mentioned that I looked up my notes for that game, and I had written the following. It's a dream scenario for a defensive coordinator to not have to worry about blitzing to create a pass rush or loading the box to stop the run. That's how good Philadelphia's front four is, and they're deep. Well, that's what they were much

of the year, and that's what they were last night. I mean, it is rare in this day and age when you can get that much production from a front four. It kind of says a lot about football, as much as it is a quarterback, offensive, sort of slanted league. If you get some kind of dominating front four, you can still win a lot of games and win big games. And that's what it did last night. You know, it wasn't just the front four,

because the middle three and the back four were also great. But the fact that the Eagles didn't need to blitz against Patrick Mahomes and they sacked him six times and pressured him 16 times is an amazing statistic. The final numbers are not going to do the Eagles' defensive performance justice because the Chiefs put up some of the all-time garbage yards. I mean, some of the all-time stat stuffing yards in history. I mean, in the fourth quarter against Philly's backups, certainly later in the fourth quarter, that's where the yards and the points came from. The Chief's overall yardage in the game was 275. 230 of it came over the final 17 minutes of the game when they were down 34 to nothing.

I mean, all of their damage offensively came long after the outcome had been decided. Mahomes finished with 257 passing yards and three touchdowns. 200 of those yards are like 197 of them, and all three TDs came with the game completely out of reach. I'm not going to hopefully ever forget what I witnessed last night because if I go back years from now and look at the final numbers, I'll say, well, they're not up there historically. They gave up, you know, 275 total yards, 257 yards to Mahomes.

But, I mean, that was as one-sided a beatdown of a team in a Super Bowl that you'll see, and they just ended up with numbers that weren't historic because they basically started subbing out. there have been other great defensive performances in Super Bowl history. Plenty of them, actually. The 85 Bears is the greatest defense of my lifetime. And they held New England in Super Bowl 20 to 123 total yards in their 46 to 10 win in the Superdome, by the way. Dallas, I didn't remember this. I mean, I knew it was a dominant performance.

They turned Buffalo over nine times in Super Bowl 27 in Pasadena, a 52-17 route. The Ravens Super Bowl 35 win over the Giants was impressive in 2000. The Bucks, two years later, completely shut down the Raiders and Rich Gannon. I mean, the Giants holding the 07 Patriots to 14 points. That had been up until that point, the all-time offensive scoring team. That was super impressive. But what the Seahawks did in 2013 to Denver, who passed the 07 Patriots in terms of average points per game in a season, that was impressive. 43 to 8 in that game.

You know, I think that last night, Chicago in 85 and the Seahawks in the Meadowlands against the Broncos, the picture of, in my mind of those teams just swarming and totally suffocating the opponent's offense, that's what I'm going to remember about last night. Like, Kansas City didn't have a chance. Denver from the opening gun didn't have a chance. The Patriots, I mean, that was not a good offensive team. That was Tony Eason and Craig James, you know, They just didn't have the horsepower.

I mean, the fact that Philly did it last night to Kansas City is super impressive. I think those are the three that stand out to me. What the Giants did with Justin Tuck and Strayhand to Brady and the Patriots, but the Patriots moved the football in that game. You know, the Broncos didn't move the football. New England didn't move the football. Last night for three quarters, Kansas City went backwards. Last night's right there all time for me.

Anyway, you know, and they did it. Think about this. They did it without their best player, you could argue, Jalen Carter, having what I would call a great game. I mean, he wasn't super noticeable in terms of plays made. Now, in his defense, he's getting double teamed a lot. But they put on the performance last night with a lot of players that you're just like, I didn't know Brandon Graham was going to be back. for this game. Hunt? Where did he come from? I mean, Williams? I mean, some of these guys weren't their stars during the regular season. The hitting by Philadelphia, that tackling. I don't know. I was entertained last night. I know games like that aren't entertaining for a lot of people. I was entertained watching Philly defensively. Look, there were other stories from the game, including Jalen Hertz and then, you know, a bad night from Holmes and Andy Reed. Let me get to Jalen Hertz because he was great. You know, he had one bad play in the entire game.

An interception, you know, after a blown pass blocking situation up front, which left an immediate pressure right in his face. Now, he should have eaten the ball and taken the sack. He tried to throw it, it got picked. That was his first pick since early November. other than that, Jalen Hertz was near perfect. First of all, the game plan for the Chiefs, we're going to stop Barclay and make Hertz beat us.

And they did stop Barclay. 25 carries for 57 yards. My God, they stopped Barclay. But they couldn't stop Jalen Hertz. They thought they could. They wanted to put the game on Jalen Hertz. And they did, and he went 17 of 22 for 221. two touchdowns along with that one pick.

By the way, a couple of the incompletions were just miscommunications with A.J. Brown. One of the completions that would have given them a lot more in passing yardage was that first drive of the game on fourth and two when they went for it from the 50, and he threw a perfect strike to A.J. Brown like the fourth and five against us. And this time they got called for a penalty. They should have been called for a penalty holding Barkley against Louvre. in the NFC championship game. In this spot, that was a questionable offensive pass interference on A.J. Brown.

Pereira said shouldn't have been called. There was some, you know, hand fighting and, you know, AJ Brown's hand hit the defender's helmet. But look, perfect throw. I mean, Jalen delivered in all kinds of spots, third down versus the blitz. There were a couple of incredible throws like that back shoulder to A.J. Brown for 22 yards versus what looked like zero coverage blitz.

The deep shot to Devante Smith for the touchdown, 46-yarder. Had an early big one to Jahan Dotson. Jahan Dotson nearly had the first touchdown at the Super Bowl. He had scrambles of 14, 16, and 17 yards in the game. He looked so quick last night, fast last night, elusive last night. He led the team in rushing with 72 yards on 11 carries. Yeah, I mean, look, the defense gave Philly's offense points in short fields. But, you know, the Chiefs playing the run that well, Jalen needed to deliver,

needed to take advantage of the position he was given field position-wise, and he did. You know, simply put, Jalen Hertz is a big game performer, and he's been that throughout his career. He was great against our team two weeks ago. He was the highest rated PFF player on championship weekend. I've not seen the PFF grades yet, but I would imagine he was one of the highest graded PFF players in the game.

Certainly offensively for Philadelphia, he had to be the highest graded PFF player. He had a 75.8 QBR. That's good. That's really good. It's not the best we've seen. I thought he was going to get the MVP just because it was kind of hard to pick. a Philadelphia defensive player

unless you were just going to give it to the entire defense. Sweat had, you know, two and a half sacks. Williams had two and a half sacks. Sweat, you know, I thought was pretty good, you know, as a pass rusher at times for sure. Hertz was stellar during this game. I mean, remember, he was the best quarterback in the game two years ago that they lost 38 to 35 to Kansas City.

Let's talk about Mahomes and Andy Reid. Bad nights for both of them. Awful nights for both of them. Let's start with Mahomes. I've never seen Mahomes. Look, that rattled in a game. The pass rush pressure got to him, and it got to him early. This was not the same as when they lost to the Buccaneers, in my opinion, in the COVID Super Bowl.

That night, if you recall, Kansas City's offensive line had a major problem. It was because of injuries that year. It was in tatters going into that game. But Mahomes was pretty decent considering in that game. He didn't look anywhere near his rattle that night as he did last night. He was shaken to his core last night, completely lost. Look, a lot of it, in my opinion, is on. the game plan, the lack of adjustments during the game when it became obvious that they had no solution

to protect him in the dropback game. But man, he felt the pressure. His eyes came off of downfield. When he did throw it under pressure or not under pressure, the accuracy wasn't there. He was jittery in the pocket. He missed easy throws like to Kelsey in the first half. The picks, I mean, he just didn't see Cooper DeGine. I mean, that's Mahomes. And that was on a rollout where he had a little bit of time. The interception at the end of the first half to Bonn was a terrible throw. I know he got pushed into, but there was no adjusting in the pocket after he felt the pressure and got hit a little bit.

He just looked off. He looked, you know, he looked frightened. It was the most unlike Patrick Mahomes' performance of his. career. Obviously, there were major protection issues, especially a tackle, but he wasn't good. There was a stat that I saw early this morning from a clean pocket, which there wasn't much of one for much of the night, but when he did have a clean pocket, he only passed for 33 yards. I mean, he looked jittery when there was a little bit of time. I mean, he was seeing ghosts. He was getting pressured. Philadelphia did an awesome job with the pressure. They beat,

Kansas City physically. They beat him with speed. They beat Mahomes with contain. They surrounded him. It was a bad night for Patrick Mahomes. I mean, the three touchdown passes and 257 yards, I mean, could there ever be a more misleading quarterback stat line than that one? And I think it was a bad night for Andy Reid. I mean, what was he thinking when it became so obvious that the Chiefs could not drop Mahomes back and throw the football, and yet they kept doing it? Look, let me just mention this. I personally don't think after watching that game that the Chiefs could have tried anything that would have worked, but the people screaming that they should have run the ball more or at least tried to run the ball more, should be.

Sure, why not? I don't think they would have been successful, but we'll never know. They threw the ball on 12 of their 13 offensive snaps. 12 to 1 passed a run on their first 13 snaps. Now, some of those were RPO's it looked like, but still, they had three carries for their running backs, Hunt and Pacheco in the first half, for three total yards. it didn't look like they, you know, tried to go bigger with an extra tight end.

It looked like they were an 11 personnel, more than 12 personnel for much of the night. I mean, maybe that would have worked in the run game a little bit. Look, when the game got sideways score-wise, you're not going to start running the football then. You know, down 24-0, Pacheco had a big run on that first drive, and they picked up a first down with what I thought made sense, which was, Quick game. Get it out of his hands like Washington did with Jaden Daniels against Philadelphia. You know, get it out of his hand. How about just a screen or two? They threw one to Worthy on that first drive of the second half. I think they had two total screens in the first three quarters.

You know, at least throw a quick screen, even if it's going to get tackled for a two or three yard gain, at least it's forward progress. They weren't making forward progress for much of that. the night. I mean, what do I know? But I thought a few quick bubbles, a few quick tunnel screens, you know, a four or a five-yard gain on first down, maybe the, you know, second down play becomes more tolerable. I mean, Philly murdered Kansas City's past protection. And I just didn't think that Kansas City adjusted to what you see when you can't protect. What do you see when you can't protect? You see, well, maybe we need to try to run the football. football, but from a throwing

standpoint, it's all quick stuff. It's like, we're not going to let this pass rush get home because the ball's going to be out. And Philadelphia played mostly zone coverage it looked like much of the night. I didn't see much man coverage. So get somebody to sit down

real quickly, two to three yards beyond the line of scrimmage, throw it to him and see if he can get another two or three before he gets hit. At least it's not a negative play. Andy Reed is, you know, in all time, man. I mean, he's first ballot. Mahomes' first ballot. You know, maybe there was just nothing, and they knew going in, there was nothing that was going to work

after they watched the tape. But if they had watched Washington and Jaden Daniels, at least some of the quick stuff against zone coverage, look, they don't incorporate the quarterback into the run game like Washington does. Mahomes' runs typically are scrambles off schedule more than they are designed or more than they are option-wise. But look, last night's game was about Philly's defense more than anything else. It was about Jalen Hertz more than anything else. But Kansas City's head coach and quarterback were rattled. Rattled.

They just never recovered from an absolute defensive onslaught. So last night in watching the game, I would imagine that at least, least for a brief moment you thought of our team while watching the game last night. Not that, oh, how would our team have done against Kansas City had we won the NFC Championship game? That's not what I'm talking about. What I'm talking about is that it was kind of hard to watch Kansas City's offense struggle against Philadelphia's defense and not think of the success that Jaden Daniels and Washington's offense had against that same deal. defense. I mean, like, I don't think there's any way that you could talk to a Philly coach or

player on the defensive side of the ball and not get an admission that Washington was their biggest challenge of the year, that dealing with Jaden Daniels and the Washington offense was the biggest challenge they had all season. The first Thursday night game, Washington was confused. They were, you know, four-day turnaround after that game. Pittsburgh. We've talked about it a lot. First time facing Vic Fangio, et cetera. And look, familiarity is a big deal in some of these rematches. And maybe if Kansas City, you know, was playing Philadelphia for the second time last night, it would have been different. But there's, you know, there was no comparison in the way Washington was able to move the football against

the Philadelphia defense compared to what we watched Kansas City do last night. Washington scored 36 points after turning the ball over five times in the December 22nd game. The Thursday night game, they struggled offensively. They did. And a lot of people remember in the moment blamed it on Jaden being hurt. It wasn't that. It was Philadelphia's defense was really good. And that was the first time seeing it.

And you only had four days to prepare for it, not the two weeks that Andy Reid had to prepare for it. But, I mean, the show that Jaden Daniels put on in Washington in late December, you know, that was, there was nothing resembling that last night. You know, keep in mind if Devante Smith just catches an easy, wide open third and five throw from picket late in the game, Philly wins that game 33 to 28. I mean, let's not forget about that second game, which we've, you know, talked a lot about the second Philadelphia game. It was an all-time performance by Jaden Daniels. It was an all-time aberration game in which you lose the turnover battle minus four, but still win the game against a team like that. Jalen Hertz obviously left the game with Philadelphia leading and leading big early,

and that had an impact for sure on the game. There's no doubt about it, but he doesn't play defense. And Washington, you know, rolled up a ridiculous offensive performance despite turning the ball over five times, and Jaden Daniels was unstoppable and was never really rattled. Now, he threw two picks in that game, but he just kept coming back slinging it and running it. Yeah. And then, you know, they moved the football consistently in the NFC championship game against that team.

They just turned it over four times. Philadelphia was the better team, don't get me wrong, but I think it was hard to watch last night not think about how that great eagle defense struggled with Jaden Daniels, but dominated Patrick Mahomes. Yeah. Washington, I think, is the biggest challenge out there for Philly's defense, although defense has more variance year to year. We've talked about that in the past. You know, they've got some key free agents like Bonn and sweat. Let's see if they come back intact. But while Washington might be the biggest offensive challenge to Philly's defense next year,

is still the better team. They've got the better roster. They are bigger and better in the trenches. And that's where Washington has to focus in the next two to three months. They've got to become better up front on defense, better up front on offense. You can't get bullied next year by the Eagles like you did in the NFC championship game in particular, or like you did in the first matchup. It's a big off season coming up for.

Adam Peters. You know, they got the hard part right. They got quarterback, right. We understand that. But there is a bully in the division. And to get where that bully was last night, you've got to win more games than Philadelphia next year. And it starts for me on defense. You can't go 17 games next year struggling against the run like they did this year. You can't go 17 games next year without being disruptive enough with your pass rush to scare teams, to turn teams over more than they did this year. That's where it starts for me. If they want to finish next season two weeks after they finished this season,

they've got to get better in the trenches in particular on defense. All right. I got a few more things from the Super Bowl. A few interesting, I thought, coaches' decisions last night. And there are some early power rankings out there for next year and early odds on the Super Bowl. Yeah, all that stuff is out there. My bookies put up their Super Bowl odds. So you'll hear that when I come back.

Stephen Spector at the end of the show, all of it coming up after these words from a few of our sponsors. I want to welcome a new sponsor to the podcast, and that sponsor is Rocket Money. And, guys, this is interesting. So listen carefully, because we've actually talked about the, problem that Rocket Money is solving. You ever sign up for something, forget about it after the trial period ends, and then you're charged month after month after month. The subscriptions there, but you're not using it? Well, in fact, I just learned that 85% of people have at least one paid subscription that goes unused each month. Well, thanks to Rocket Money, you can now see all of your

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We're going to run some clock, or maybe it's through the dagger. Hurts going deep. Fortin-off to Vosem. That play was a killer for me and anybody else that had the under. I lost my final three smell test wagers of the season. Three unders, the unders in the two championship games, the under in the Super Bowl. And it looked good up until that point. Philadelphia gets a stop.

They're up 27-0. There are two minutes plus in the third quarter. Let's burn four or five minutes off this clock, kick a field goal, make it 30 to nothing, and we can get home in under 49. But they scored on that first play, and then that set off a fourth quarter of too much activity for both teams, and it ended up 40 to 22 way over the total. Still a great smell test year. Just painful.

though. I did not bet the game personally, even though I know I picked Philadelphia on Friday. I thought it was, you know, too hard of a game to play. The under was definitely the anti-public side and even the sharp side. I saw some 48s and 48 and a halves when the game went off. Yeah, still good year. Oh, and three over the final two Sundays of the NFL season. This segment of the show is brought to you by My Bookie. Go to my bookie. Go to my MyBooky.ag for all of your sports betting needs. Use my promo code, Kevin D.C., and they'll give you a cash bonus on your initial deposit. We've got a lot of basketball coming up.

March is right around the corner. So big-time NCAA tournament opportunities at MyBooky. And MyBooky's already posted their 2026 Super Bowl 60 odds. Here they are. Philly and Kansas City are co-favorites. at plus 600. Baltimore and Buffalo come next at plus

650, then Detroit is plus 850, and then Washington and San Francisco are the same at plus 1,600. So basically Washington and San Francisco are tied

for the sixth best odds to win Super Bowl 60. This will be the most optimistic preseason odds, the best odds, creating, I think, the most optimism preseason that we've had for a Washington team since the year 2000. Washington in 2000 was plus 350 to win the Super Bowl. The St. Louis Rams were plus 300. So they were the second choice in that 2000 season when they had signed Dion Sanders and Bruce Smith and Mark Carrier, etc. But

Washington, that makes Washington right now the third favorite, tied for the third favorite behind Philly and Detroit in the NFC. I would certainly view Washington as, along with Detroit, Detroit's roster overall, especially if they get healthy, but they don't have the coordinators anymore. Their situation player-wise may be better. God, help us if they add Miles Garrett instead of another team like our team, because Imagine Aidan Hutchinson back with Miles Garrett on the Lions. But I think Washington is super close to being the next team after Philadelphia because they've got the quarterback. You know, San Francisco, Green Bay, the Rams, the Bucks, you know, the Vikings, who knows who their quarterback's going to be, going to be a fun offseason leading into the 2025. season. It's going to be a great off season, actually, because we're talking about, and we will be

talking about upgrades and moves for a contending team in the NFC. Not how do we get the quarterback or the coach or should we go offensive line, defensive line, and not worry about the quarterback yet. Those conversations are over. We got the quarterback, and now it's about taking a championship level quarterback, and I think maybe coaching staff, and building around that to support a deeper run in the postseason next year. There are no over-unders yet on wins for next year. Those should be up in the next couple months. Usually they follow free agency. They're before the draft, but you've got to get through free agency to really see what teams retain and what they lose before you get over-unders on season totals.

But I would imagine Washington will have somewhere between 9.5 and 10-and-a-half on their over-under number for next year. MyBooky.ag, use my promo code, Kevin, D.C. A couple of other quick things from the game yesterday. First of all, I was really surprised at the end of the first half. And Tom Brady wasn't, and he was right. I was really surprised that Philadelphia didn't try to score when they took over at their own 37-yard line

with 25 seconds left in two timeouts. It was 24 to nothing. They had dominated. It kind of felt like the game was over. But still, it is Patrick Mahomes. They are the Kansas City Chiefs. I would have been going for field goal range. I couldn't believe when Brady said they should take a knee and get to the locker room.

I mean, Kansas City was getting the ball to start the second half. What team ever with 25 seconds to go at their own 37-yard line in two timeouts goes to the locker room? I guess, you know, Nick Siriani just thought they can't score 24 points. we've already got 24. The only way they can score 24 is if somehow we make mistakes with the football. I mean, it's logical. I just thought I was surprised at that.

I was also surprised that Nick Siriani, with two minutes to go in the game and a fourth down at midfield, kept Kenny Pickett out there and threw a slant to John Dodson that was incomplete. Like, what are you doing? Just punt the football. I guess, you know, if they completed it, it's game over. But, you know, it's 40 to 14 at that point.

Not that they're going to lose the game. The game is over. But why give Kansas City the ball at midfield so that they can score again and try an onside kick? That was weird. I love that Andy Reid started calling timeouts on defense when he was down 40 to 6. Love that. He's like, it started with like nine minutes and 50 seconds to go. You rarely see that, right? Where it's like, all right, we got to start using our timeouts on defense now.

But I love the fact that he was never thinking about giving up, including, you know, going for two, even on a couple of them when they shouldn't have gone for two, and kicking on sidekicks in the game. You know, people will look at that DeAndre Hopkins drop at the end of the first half and act like, you know, that was a big play in the game. I didn't think it was a big play in the game. I thought if Kansas City got down there and scored a touchdown or a field goal, it's 24 to 3 or 24 to 7. They're not, I didn't think, after watching their first, you know, half of offensive football,

I didn't think there was any chance that they could score the 24 that Philadelphia had already scored. So, you know, it's amazing that Sequin Barclay couldn't run the football. And there was never a doubt in this game that Philadelphia was going to win it. You know, after the first three or four drives, in my opinion, there wasn't. I mean, I put it this way. After the first three or four drives, I certainly thought that the odds were heavily tilted in Philadelphia's direction because Kansas City just didn't have any answers to what they were doing on defense.

What else did I have in my notes? I think that's kind of it. I mean, put a bow on it, the 2024 season. It's over, officially. I feel like it ends a few weeks earlier, but it's not officially over until the Super Bowl game ends, and it ended last night with Philadelphia as the 2024 NFL champions, and now we look ahead, 29 weeks from today.

29 weeks from today, it will be Monday, September 1st, Labor Day, and that will be the beginning of week one of the NFL's 2025 season. And on Thursday night, September 4th, Philadelphia will open up at the link as the defending Super Bowl champions against somebody on their home slate. They play their three-divis. opponents, Dallas, the Giants, and Washington. They also play Chicago, Detroit, Denver, the Raiders, and the Rams at home next year. I think there's a decent chance of an NFC title game rematch in the first game of the year, Thursday night, September 4th in Philadelphia.

Last year, remember, it was Baltimore, Kansas City at Arrowhead. That was a rematch of the AFC championship game from the year before. I guess they could go Detroit. I guess they could go Denver or the Rams. Or, you know, we've seen before the NFL not really care who the opponent is because everybody's going to watch that first game. But I think it would be pretty hyped if it was Jaden Daniels in Philly against the Eagles on the night in which they hang their banner.

Speaking of next year, the all-too-early power rankings are out on a number of sports publication websites. Yahoo has Washington at 6. They've got Philly at 1, Kansas City at 2, Buffalo at 3, Baltimore, 4, Detroit 5, and then comes Washington, followed by Green Bay at 7, San Francisco at 8, the Chargers at 9, Cincinnati at 10. six seems about right, I think. They're also six in the ESPN.com all too early, NFL 2025 power rankings. Casey's won in that power rankings list, followed by Buffalo, Detroit, and then Philadelphia at four. Baltimore's five, Washington, six.

Then it's the Packers, Chargers, Bengals, and Vikings. I don't know. It seems like ESPN's going a little bit off of. the end of the regular season last year with KC, Buffalo, Detroit, 1, 2, 3, then Philly, then Baltimore, Washington, Green Bay. Minnesota is going to be an interesting team. What are they going to do a quarterback? What are a lot of teams going to do a quarterback? The news came out over the weekend that Debo Samuel wants to get traded or may get traded. I'm a no on Debo Samuel, unless it's a lot less expensive than I think it might be,

because I do think there will be teams with high interest in Debo Samuel. I've always been a fan of Debo Samuel. I just think he plays a style in which, man, he ends up on the injury report a ton. Even if he doesn't miss games, he seems to be on the injury report and compromise for a lot of games. Look, there's a lot of cap space. There's a lot of room. They need players. It starts up front on defense for me.

and then it goes up front on offense for me. For those of you who have been waiting for me to focus only on O-line and D-line, now that we have our quarterback, I will be doing that. That's what I'm focused on. All right, let's get to Stephen Spector out in Kansas City. Actually, real quickly, before we get to Stephen, just wanted to mention Maryland's win over Rutgers. They needed it because they had lost to Ohio State on Thursday night in Columbus,

Wednesday night, whatever night that was. Not that they need it for like NCAA tournament hopes. They're a near lock for the NCAA tournament. But to still have a chance to finish in the top four of the Big Ten, which would give them the double buy in the Big Ten tournament. And to get them back on track after a loss, they blew a 17-point lead against the Buckeyes last week. They should remain ranked, even though they lost this week

after beating Rutgers yesterday in College Park. I would imagine, actually the rankings should be out. They were 18th in the AP. They'll probably fall to like 21st, 22nd, I'm guessing. Something like that. They should be out. Oh, 25th. They fell seven spots.

Wow. In the AP. They're 25th in the coaches poll, too. But they were 24th last week in the coaches poll. So they only fell one spot in the coaches poll. They fell seven spots in the AP. whatever. The reason I bring up the game is because in the game yesterday, there were three projected first round picks in the upcoming June NBA draft. Ace Bailey and Dylan Harper for Rutgers,

both projected top three to top five picks, and Maryland's five-star freshman big Derek Queen. Queen's been, you know, I've seen them anywhere from 10 to 20 in the first round, depending on where you look. Well, after the game he had yesterday against Rutgers with 47 NBA scouts at the game, he gone. I mean, he had 2915, 5, and he did everything you could have asked a player to do in that game in front of all those scouts. Look, I don't want him to go. I would love for him to decide to come back for his sophomore year. Maryland will probably have to come up with a lot of money, but I'm sure they could do it. to bring Derek Queen back. But man, after a game like that, for those that haven't seen him play,

he's 610, 250. He is a skilled big guy. He's not a power athletic, you know, explosive player. He is a skilled basketball player. Great hands, great feet, great IQ, great vision, can post, can face, has a really good stroke, really good passer. That's the kind of player he is. I mean, you know, early in the season, people were calling him a baby Yokic. I mean, he's not Nicole Yokic, obviously not yet, but he plays like him. That's his style of play. He was so good yesterday. I mean, Ace Bailey basically tapped out.

He was injured, apparently. He wasn't playing well. Rodney Rice did a job on, you know, Ace Bailey when he was in there. Maryland's got some really good players. I mean, for those that haven't seen them play, they're capable. of beating almost anybody because they shoot it as well as anybody. Plus they can beat you with size. You know, they don't have a lot of depth at this point. They play a lot of players. And some of these players, Jordan Geronimo had a great game yesterday off the bench, had his

tooth knocked out in the game. But Derek Queen had a game in which if you're, you know, an NBA draft person and you knew about all these NBA scouts being loaded up to watch three players, and Queen played the way he played, he's soaring. I mean, to me, he's a lock right now to be a lottery pick. He's just too skilled for the size for NBA teams to pass on somebody with that level of skill at 19 or 20 years old. All right, let's get to Stephen next after these words from a few of our sponsors. So, guys, if you're like me and you've basically been buying and wearing this same

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This segment of the show is brought to you by Window Nation. If you've been thinking about new windows, call Window Nation 86690 Nation or Window Nation.com. Windonation's giving you. a chance between now and the end of the month to purchase windows at 60% off. That is 60% off on all window styles with no payments and no interest for two full years. We've got a lot of winter left, including a snowstorm tomorrow, probably another one late next week, more cold weather

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Stephen was a producer for us at 980 in the late 2000s, early 2010s. Stephen was on the air with me that day that the earthquake struck in August of 2011. We've played that audio for you many times in the past, usually on the anniversary of the earthquake. Stephen for over a decade now has been the first. program director at 965 FM the fan in Kansas City. And we wanted to get kind of a feel for what Kansas City is going through the day after. What was an unexpected result in terms of the lopsided nature of the game last night. Before we get to some of that, Stephen, what were the expectations yours and the fans of the chiefs that

listen to your station going into the game? I thought the Chiefs would win because I'm a big believer. And if you have the better coach and you have the better quarterback, you're going to win a majority of the games. And that is obviously proven true for the last seven years as Patrick Mahomes is the starter. I did not have on the bingo card being down 24 to nothing and eventually losing 40 to 22 because, frankly, there's no sample size for that ever happening to this Kansas City Chief, team that has been to seven straight

AFC championships and had won two straight Super Bowl. So, you know, the expectation was that the chiefs are better at the two most important parts. Maybe they didn't have the better roster going into the game, but the expectation was three feet, and that has been the

expectation since raining camp in August and the team going after history, that's the city and the fan base's expectation. So, I think everybody wanted last night really, really badly, and I think you could tell pretty early on, at least in that early part of the second quarter, that, you know, Patrick Mahomes and this chief team has made a living

comebacks and late game wins and in all three Super Bowls, they've been down 10 plus points. Last night just felt a little bit different, especially after that Cooper DeGine pick six. It just felt like the knockout punch had been thrown, and this one could have been over very, very quickly, which it was. So it's odd for you guys to watch that unfold the way it did, like you said. I mean, this just hasn't happened to the Patrick Mahomes, Andy Reed chiefs, certainly not in the postseason. So the talk there today about why it happened is what?

I think it's probably three pieces of the pie. It's what was Andy Reid thinking for two weeks looking at the matchup? It's Patrick Mahomes picked the worst time. to have the worst game probably of his entire career, which again is few and far between, but I think this is number one with a ball at the worst that we've ever seen Patrick Mahomes playing a football game. It just happened to be on the biggest stage with history on the line. And then this has been a conversation we've had for at least two years in Kansas City is the offensive line was really, really bad. That was the football reason for them losing last night. Patrick Mahomes and Andy Reid.

It's a three-pronged problem that the Chiefs ran into last night. Credit to the Eagles for taking advantage of those three things, but those are the three pieces of the conversation. I would add was that Kelsey's last game is maybe a small sliver of that pie, but the three things that Chiefs fans are talking about are Andy Reid, Patrick Mahomes, and the offensive line. I mean, I suggested the same thing that Andy Reid and Patrick Mahomes had all-time bad nights.

But are you able to look at it like I was in the NFC championship game and say, yeah, we turned it over four times, but the bottom line is Philadelphia was the better team and they played great. Philadelphia was the better team. They played an incredible game, especially on the defensive side of the ball. But frankly, I don't think there's an excuse to be made for. Pat and Andy today. And listen, sometimes you're going to win a football game.

Sometimes you're going to lose a football game. The NFL is the ultimate coin flip league, unlike any other professional sports league that we watch. So sometimes you're going to win, sometimes you're going to lose. There's no excuse to be down 24-0 in the second quarter if you have Andy Reid and Patrick Mahomes. And so for that reason, I guess I'm fine with losing. What I'm not okay with was not only getting punched in the mouth early, but having no response. The only one who showed any sort of emotion yesterday

was Chris Jones, and I think the defense kind of did, you know, held up their end of the bargain at least for the first couple of quarter until, you know, eventually the floodgates are going to open. There's no excuse for whatever Andy Reid had game plan-wise or team preparation-wise. And, you know, I don't, I've never played quarterback in the NFL.

I've never played quarterback in high school, but I've watched enough Patrick Mahomes to not really, understood, stand what was going on. And I get it, he was under duress, but I still think he ran into a bunch of sacks. I think both interceptions were pretty, by and large, unacceptable plays that he tends not to make in the playoffs. Credit to the Eagles, but there's no reason why that game should have been as lopsided as it was.

And I think it starts and ends with the coach and quarterback here in Kansas City. On the coach specifically, are the complaints in Kansas City that he didn't try to or run the football enough that they kept dropping him back when they couldn't protect him? What are the complaints specifically about Andy Reid? That's the first one. They never got Cream Hunt going. They never got Isaiah Pacheco going. And they never had the Eagles guessing, at least in that first and second quarter.

You know, eventually if you're down 24 to nothing in the second half, you know, I get it. You got to drop back and throw the football. I think the second complaint is you've had 19, 20 weeks. of NFL football, and Andy Reid has had two weeks to prepare for this Eagles game. At some point, you've got to be watching on tape and saying their advantage is their defensive line versus our offensive line. Why are we sending guys deeper, 15, 20 yards down the field, where's the quick game, where's the adjustment, where's the screen game, get the ball and Xavier Worthy's hands, let him use his speed, you know, let Isaiah Pacheco and some Maje Piron

run some screens or some misdirection. They're just, they're just, they, they, they're just, they There didn't seem to be a plan early on, and there certainly wasn't a plan once they got punched in the mouth. There was just absolutely no adjustment from the chief offensive coaching staff. I agree with that, watching as not a fan of either team. I'm just curious, like, is Kansas City a town that is taking Andy Reed and Patrick Holmes to task today? or is it an East Coast response after this dynastic run? And by the way, a team that didn't look like during the regular season that this was going to be a three-peat team, given all the close games, etc.

Is the reaction, you know, are people upset? Are they ripping Reed and Mahomes? No, it's not an East Coast reaction, which is like my favorite type of radio is East Coast call or reaction. I wish that you had beaten Eagles because then we get some classic calls on WIP and what's on and so forth. That's just not how this fan base and this part of the country typically reacts. Right.

It would have to be something really egregious to get that type of response. I would kind of like make the analogy as like a father. You know, you send your kid to time out, but you still love them. You know, it's hard to be mad and upset for a long time at a coach and a quarterback who, in seven seasons have gone to five Super Bowls and seven AFC championship games, right? So I think we can be mad and angry and not understand for about 24 to 48 hours. But at the end of the day, this team in this dynasty has given Pete fans like myself something that they never could have dreamed. and yeah, history ended last night with a chance to repeat. But I think if you were to poll most chief fans today,

they don't think this is the last time they're making the Super Bowl. I don't think this is the last time Patrick Mahomes is going to have a chance to win another ring. So, yeah, I think there's anger for 24 to 48 hours. And then, you know, by Wednesday or Thursday, they're still going to be confident in this organization because the spine from owner to GM to coach to quarterback is still really, really strong. Andy Reid's coming back next year, correct?

Yes, he is confirmed that he's coming back, and he's 66 years old, but Pete Carroll's just coming back to the Raiders at 72. So I still think there's a half a decade left of Andy Reid in football. This guy is an NFL lifer. I don't think he's going anywhere anytime soon. So what is next? What's the next iteration of the Kansas City Chiefs? I think that's the big question this offseason. And, you know, through this last seven years,

there's really been two eras. It's been the Patrick Mahomes, MVP, 5,000 yards, 50 touchdowns, Tyree Kill, Sammy Watkins, Travis Kelsey and his prime. That was kind of era number one. Era number two was Patrick Mahomes leading a group of skill position guys that aren't that great with an elite defense,

and that's how they've really won the last two Super Bowls. And I think we're now going to enter into era number three. You know, Travis Kelsey's future's up in the air. Chris Jones now is 31, 32 years old. There's going to be a lot of changes that some of the guys that they've drafted in last four or five years that are not going to be on this roster because of, you know, they're not going to be able to pay everybody. I think they're heading into error number three, and I don't know if that error is going to be back to error number one, or they're going to stick with a team that's led by a really good defense and kind of a

seven to 12 rated offense. So that's the big question this off season. What is going to be the next iteration of the Chiefs? And is that iteration good enough to continue this run? Thank you for doing this. Really appreciate it. I know it's a busy day for you. At Steven Specter 10 on X on Twitter.

Let's do it again sometime, you know, before the season starts. I actually was thinking, Stephen, that had Kansas City won. last night that the season opener next year might be Jaden Daniels and Washington at Arrowhead because Washington plays at Arrowhead next year. I don't know if you had given it that much thought towards next year, but I thought that that was a distinct possibility. It still could be Washington at Philly, but I thought that that would have been a hell of a season opener. I mean, now that you mentioned, I mean, it feels like they're just going to have a repeat of the Super Bowl at Philadelphia in week one. Now, maybe they do an NFC East game to kick off the season

as a rematch at the NFC championship because of, you know, Dave, Jaden Daniels versus Jalen Hertz, but it feels like we're going to have a Super Bowl rematch in week one at Lincoln Financial field. That'd be my guess. I think, but I think Philadelphia plays at Arrowhead next year. Oh, they play at Arrowhead. Okay. Yeah. I think they do. Yeah. I'm looking at it right now. They do. Yeah, Philly does not. have Casey at home. Got it. Okay.

They play at Arrowhead. So, man, I mean, I haven't seen the chief schedule, but they play the entire NFCE, so they'll have some big games. Thanks for doing this. I'll talk to you soon. Appreciate it. Sounds good. Thanks.

Go Caps. Go Caps. Indeed, although they did lose in a shootout yesterday. No Ovechkin goal yesterday. He did have three assists in the loss to the Utah Hockey Club. Yes, that's their current name, the Utah Hockey Club. All right, that is it for the day after the Super Bowl, the football season officially over, the offseason, officially underway. Tommy will join me tomorrow.