Completely agree with the focus on the Chiefs here, but I don't see the Eagles script as being followed to a T as you suggest at the outset. Quite to the contrary.
Consider that the Eagles had a total of 64 offensive plays excluding kicks. Of that, they foolishly dedicated 31 of them (48%) to Saquon Barkley. He objectively had an awful game and generated a paltry 97 yards or just 3.1 Yards Per Attempt. That rarely speaks to Super Bowl victories.
But, the media's "heads we win, tails you lose" narrative was two-sided of course. It went that "if they focus on Barkley, A.J. Brown will just take over the game." Nope...he was barely better than Jahan Dotson on the night with just 3 catches for 43 yards. Then sprinkle in that the hyped Jalen Carter and Nolan Smith were both at the bottom of the defense stat sheet - literally silent all night long.
Not quite the script as written.
This hard reality places much of the responsibility on Mahomes and the Chiefs where it belongs. But a lot of bad 2024 Philadelphia narratives died on the field last night too. Perhaps none more notable than the often repeated and embarrassingly wrong, "Jalen Hurts and Nick Sirianni are the weak links of the Eagles' Super Bowl aspirations."
I suspect the script will be different next year...
I think the Chiefs were very afraid of Saquon beating them, to their detriment elsewhere. And then even if Carter didn't register a sack, he hit Mahomes twice and played 73% of snaps of a D-line that absolutely overwhelmed KC's blockers on almost every play. The Eagles were just the better team on Sunday, and in general this season.
Completely agree with the focus on the Chiefs here, but I don't see the Eagles script as being followed to a T as you suggest at the outset. Quite to the contrary.
Consider that the Eagles had a total of 64 offensive plays excluding kicks. Of that, they foolishly dedicated 31 of them (48%) to Saquon Barkley. He objectively had an awful game and generated a paltry 97 yards or just 3.1 Yards Per Attempt. That rarely speaks to Super Bowl victories.
But, the media's "heads we win, tails you lose" narrative was two-sided of course. It went that "if they focus on Barkley, A.J. Brown will just take over the game." Nope...he was barely better than Jahan Dotson on the night with just 3 catches for 43 yards. Then sprinkle in that the hyped Jalen Carter and Nolan Smith were both at the bottom of the defense stat sheet - literally silent all night long.
Not quite the script as written.
This hard reality places much of the responsibility on Mahomes and the Chiefs where it belongs. But a lot of bad 2024 Philadelphia narratives died on the field last night too. Perhaps none more notable than the often repeated and embarrassingly wrong, "Jalen Hurts and Nick Sirianni are the weak links of the Eagles' Super Bowl aspirations."
I suspect the script will be different next year...
I think the Chiefs were very afraid of Saquon beating them, to their detriment elsewhere. And then even if Carter didn't register a sack, he hit Mahomes twice and played 73% of snaps of a D-line that absolutely overwhelmed KC's blockers on almost every play. The Eagles were just the better team on Sunday, and in general this season.