Arizona Bologna

 

Yield to the field, F the Ref.  Yes, Pat Mahomes and Andy Reid were great.  Yes, the Chiefs won Super Bowl LVII.  But it would have been nice to see what could have been, had professional field conditions and an incompetent late game call not controlled the outcome of the February 12 Super Bowl.

The Eagles won the first half (24-14), the Chiefs the 2nd (24-11, and therefore, of course, the game).  In the reg season the Eagles were 14-3 on the coin toss, always deferring.  While 0-3 in the playoffs on the coin toss, they therefore got the ball first 3 times in 3 playoff games and scored 3 TDs.  The decision to defer looked especially bad for Chiefs coach Andy Reid as the 2nd quarter ended.  His QB Pat Mahomes appeared to having re-tweaked his previously injured ankle on KCs last 2^nd quarter possession, giving the Eagles time to add a FG before halftime and open up a 10 pt lead.  The Eagle defense had only allowed 7 first half points, so, if not for a Jalen Hurts fumble returned for the other Chief score (Hurts had otherwise been exemplary leading his team to 24 first half points), the Eagles had had a terrific first half against a very good Chiefs opponent, and appeared in control of the game.

But the Defense was to be outfoxed in what was to be an abomination of a second half for Philly defensively.  Credit needs to be awarded to KC coach Andy Reid and QB Pat Mahomes, arguably each 1 of the best 5 ever at what they do.  They were no doubt part of why, per Pro Football Focus, the Eagles Defense had their next to worst game of the season in the Super Bowl, and this was a big reason for the Eagle loss.  It was a bad time to pull that 2^nd half boner… In particular, Hassan Reddick, Darius Slay and James Bradberry, 3 terrific players, were most culpable (Ironically, the best grade amongst the Eagle defensive players for the Super Bowl, and perhaps the only good grade, went to a youngster who only got 12 snaps… Jordan Davis.  The Eagles will need a lot more from Davis next year.  This was a silver lining in a horrendous 2^nd half performance by the Eagles D.  Davis should have seen more 2^nd half snaps). Where was the communication on the Philly back end during those final 2 walk in” TD passes Pat Mahomes threw?  The Chiefs had 4 second half possessions- TD, TD, TD, FG (and the last was merely a FG only because Chiefs RB Jerrick McKinney slid near the goal line to milk the clock).  So, like Supe 52, this became a shootout.  

There had been a few admittedly limited but repeated Eagle flaws discussed during the season that all  came to the fore in the second half, & combined to bite them in the final 30 minutes of Super Bowl 57:

1. Tackling- rookie 7^th round draft pick Isiah Pacheco ran strong & with good burst thru tackles in the 2^nd half.  He made Eagle defenders miss time and again, or carried them for a ride.
2. Winning games with dominating 2nd quarters- Again, as good as the Eagle offense was in the first half, they were inconsistent in the 2^nd half, netting 11 points while the defense yielded 24.
3. Loose underneath coverage- Mahomes longest completion all day was 22 yards.  The Eagles DB’s played back and loose, protecting against the big play, even when they didn’t need to against a Chief receiving core lacking legitimate deep threats.
4. Poor coverage units on ST, & poor punting- The 65-yard punt return was an abject failure on 2 counts- by punter Aaron Siposs who shanked his punt, and by the coverage unit with over-pursuit (yes, that’s you, TJ Edwards, who for 17 regular season games and 2.5 playoff games was incredibly good this season).
5. The Eagles typically won the turnover battle in 2022-23 games.  The few times they did not (Colts, Saints, Cowboys, Super Bowl)… They lost.  The D could not force a turnover.  The mercurial Jalen Hurts had only 1, but it was costly, and yielded the turnover margin to KC.

So the Defense was not fully complicit.  Hurts played a great game for Philly, but his error (fumble returned for KC TD), plus a 65 yd punt return by Kadarius Toney against a mistake prone Eagle Special Teams unit certainly helped seal the deal.

Following the KC Kadarius Toney 65 yard punt return & subsequent KC passing TD, Jalen Hurts answered all his critics with the drive late in the game with the Eagles down 8, 35-27, including a 2 pt conversion where he carried Chiefs into the End Zone, re-establishing Eagle momentum. He scored both the 6 point TD and the follow up 2 pointer, which, via a recent new NFL gambling term, is referred to as an “octopus.”  Hurts Octopus, and the drive that preceded it, was legendary stuff.

After that, what the Eagles needed was the equivalent of the 1 big defensive play, like the Brandon Graham sack of Tom Brady in Supe 52.  Well, the Birds actually did pull that stop on the final Chief drive when a Mahomes pass fell harmlessly to the end zone turf on 3^rd and 8, forcing a FG that would have given the Eagles the ball with 110 seconds remaining, down 3.  But the Eagles were DENIED their big D stop by a BS penalty…

James Bradberry was called for Holding on JuJu Smith-Schuster with that minute and 54 seconds left.  “The receiver went to the inside and he was attempting to release to the outside” said referee Carl Cheffers who was interviewed by a pool reporter afterward. “The defender grabbed the jersey with his right hand and restricted him from releasing to the outside. So, therefore, {I} called defensive holding.”  Did Bradberry grab Smith-Schuster?  Yes!  Was it a legitimate call?   Let’s allow 5 of the NFL’s most popular to answer that question, in what I grossly refer to as “F the Ref”-

• Gary Myers- (on Birds 365 on Valentine’s Day): “I thought it was very stand up of James Bradberry to say (he grabbed Schuster’s jersey).  It really took the heat off the officials. But once he watches the tape of that play, he might feel differently.  There are so many people I respect that have come out and said that was not a flag… The problem I had with that penalty is that they were not calling it the entire game. There was not 1 defensive pass interference.  There wasn’t 1 defensive holding.  There was a similar play in the 2nd quarter where no flag was thrown.  There were other similar plays.  To call it late in the game, with what was a border line call… the officials decided it (the game).” 
• Mike Tanier (Football Outsiders)- “The holding call was accurate, but ticky-tack. Color commentator Greg Olsen didn't like it. No Eagles fan could like it. Emotionally, this one-time child grounded for a wall-punching tantrum during Super Bowl XV, me, I hated it. And intellectually, this lover of games best settled by the players—this old sportswriter musing about whether he was watching the greatest Super Bowl ever—also hated it.  The Chiefs deserve every accolade. But it's impossible to not imagine what might have happened—and how great this game could have been—if the Eagles got another crack, down by three, with a minute-odd left to play.”
• Colin Cowherd (Fox Sports & Youtubes “The Herd”)- Hate that call. Not on this stage. Eagles hadn’t made stops in the second half but …agree with (announcer) Greg Olsen (You can’t make that call at that time given prior non-calls in the game).
• Troy Aikman (ESPN MNF, former FOX Analyst)- " I didn't see a good look at a real hold for that moment in the game. So I personally didn't like the call… holding is holding… you have to be willing to make the call if in fact it happened… But from what I could tell and what I saw, I didn't think there was enough there to basically hand the Super Bowl over to Kansas City… To me it had to be pretty egregious to where there was just no doubt. And I think the fact that we're sitting here having this conversation and I'm sure people are all across the country, probably tells you there wasn't quite enough there."
• Group collaboration by folks at “The Athletic” - Text messages from coaches around the NFL were flying back and forth Sunday night after a call for defensive holding against the Eagle corner James Bradberry, allowing the Chiefs to run down the clock before punching through a chip-shot field goal for a 38-35 victory, their second Lombardi Trophy in three Super Bowl appearances over the past four seasons. “Terrible! Not one holding called all game!” A game-management coach protested. “Way to f— up a great game,” a former head coach raged. “Late flag tells me the K.C. sideline called for it,” an exec speculated. [...] Bradberry’s uncommon grace and Cheffers’ stock answer do not change that Cheffers, a nine-year NFL official, threw a flag in a situation when officials frequently do not throw flags, with legacy-altering consequences. “You know how many times that route gets run and it is not called?” a veteran offensive play caller said. “It’s a play teams perennially send into the league and never get the call. Guys grab like that all the time. If it stopped the receiver from getting to the ball, I understand, but that was not the case.”

I completely concur with Hall-of-fame voter/NFL writer Gary Myers and the others.  The critical point is NOT whether or not it was a penalty, it’s about how similar plays earlier in the game were called! Similar infractions earlier, no penalty!  It’s like a baseball umpire changing his strike zone!  YOU DON’T DO IT.  THE OFFICIALS DID NOT ALLOW THE PLAYERS TO DECIDE THE GAME. The Eagles would have had almost 2 minutes, with 2-time outs, down 3, with a chance to win or send the game to overtime.  Let them win or lose fairly!  The appropriate label here is “travesty.”

As far as the second travesty of the 2023 Super Bowl, either of which could have changed the course of the game, I’ve labeled it “Yield to the field…”

From Crossing Broad: “The Super Bowl Groundskeeper is a Chiefs Fan and Retired After the Game” This is actually true.  George Toma, better known in NFL circles as “The Sodfather,” has been a Chiefs fan since working at Arrowhead… from 1957 – 2020!  He got a Super Bowl ring from the Chiefs in 2020, the Chiefs gave his family season tickets, and he “semi-retired.”  The Former heads groundkeeper for KC till a few years ago, the 94 year old was brought out of moth balls in charge of each of the last 3 Super Bowl fields, including Super Bowl LVII.  It was mutually agreed he’d fully retire after this one.  Roger Goodell had to remind him he works for the NFL, not the Chiefs.  Per the Sodfather himself, “Commissioner Goodell told me, ‘George, you work for the league, the league pays you, you have to be (unbiased)…’, so I can’t cheer for anybody. But in my heart, there is the Chiefs, and on the other side is the Eagles.”  Clearly, a key component of the game was would the explosive Eagle pass rush get to Mahomes?  About 40% of the Chiefs offensive plays show at least 1 (and typically >1) Eagle lineman slipping on the horrendous surface.  “I’m not going to lie — this is the worst field I’ve ever played on,” Eagle star pass rusher Hassan Reddick said.  Eagle Offensive tackle Jordan Mailata added, “We can’t control the field; we just had to accept the reality of the situation.” While Eagles had to change their cleats during the game, interesting none of the Chiefs did?  Eagle defensive players can be seen slipping on around 40% of the Chiefs plays, while the Chief defenders can be seen slipping about half as much, or “only” 18% of the Eagle offensive plays (maybe they knew something the Philly guys did not)?  The appropriate label here is “travesty.”

Eagle Lesson: I really don’t feel I am being a crybaby here; I just wanted a fair shake for both sides.  The saddest part of this is that the NFLs truly best team in 2022-2023, the best Eagle team in franchise history, was not given an appropriate opportunity to win the Super Bowl.  These were 2 gross negligence’s, “F the Ref” and “Yield to the Field.”  Either of them could have turned the tide.  We don’t know, and we won’t know… so here-to-fore the 2022-23 Eagles will be a footnote in franchise and league lore.