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Eagles vs. Chiefs: The Andy Reid Super Bowl

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NFL Conference Championship – Andy Reid faces off against his legacy when the Kansas City Chiefs face the Philadelphia Eagles in Super Bowl LVII.

If you think that’s an overstatement, consider this: Fletcher Cox, Brandon Graham, and Jason Kelce all played for Reid’s Eagles in the early 2010s. Ten full seasons, three coaching changes, one previous championship, and multiple rises-and-falls later, three of Reid’s players remain part of the Eagles’ core. And of course, Reid’s former personnel majordomo Howie Roseman is the Eagles general manager after gaining, losing, and regaining power over the last decade. At their foundation, the Eagles remain the franchise that Andy Reid built and his descendants and their descendants remodeled.

For a lifelong Eagles fan (ahem), Eagles-Chiefs is a dream matchup. Heck, long before Reid took over the Chiefs, Dick Vermeil made them Philly’s unofficial AFC favorites. Only the contrarians of Greater Philly will really be rooting for Reid’s Chiefs two weeks from now, of course. But Reid’s presence reframes the last 20-plus years of Eagles history. The bittersweet playoff/Super Bowl heartbreaks of the Reid era aren’t quite so bitter now, 10 years after the semi-amicable divorce, with both parties doing so well.

As for the matchup itself: Reid is the better coach, Patrick Mahomes the superior quarterback (even on one ankle), Travis Kelce and Chris Jones perhaps the second- and third-best players who will participate in Super Bowl LVII. The Eagles, however, have everything else: better wide receivers, running backs, offensive linemen, a not-even-close comparison for 10/11ths of the defense, and—critically—a shorter injury report after a brutal evening in Kansas City.

The Eagles open as 2.5-point favorites. But an ankle can heal significantly over two weeks, and that line is likely to hopscotch around in the days to come.

Let’s recap Sunday’s wild and unpredictable action, take a brief look ahead to the Super Bowl, bid fond farewell to the Bengals and 49ers, and—just for the heck of it—wrap Walkthrough up by taking potshots at the Denver Broncos.

AFC Championship Game Spotlight: Kansas City Chiefs 23, Cincinnati Bengals 20

What Happened: The Chiefs outplayed the Bengals in the first half but only led 13-6 at halftime because:

  • Kadarius Toney could not quite control a Patrick Mahomes pass in the end zone;
  • An Isiah Pacheco touchdown run was nullified by holding; and
  • Joe Burrow led a 90-yard field goal drive with no timeouts left in the final two minutes before halftime.

The Bengals tied the score at 13-13 with a leaping Tee Higgins touchdown early in the third quarter. The game then devolved for a while into Joe Burrow searching for his receivers with zero protection from his offensive line versus a gimpy Mahomes trying to figure out who to throw to with Toney, JuJu Smith-Schuster, and Mecole Hardman all hurt.

Mahomes appeared to have the edge thanks to a touchdown laser to Marquez Valdes-Scantling, but no Chiefs-Bengals game would be complete without a few rolls of the ol’ “rare play” chart:

Whoopsie! Ja’Marr Chase then out-leapt a pair of defenders on a fourth-and-6 deep ball and Samaje Perine bulldozed into the end zone to tie the score again at 20-20.

The Chiefs got a break on the next series when an apparent third-down stop was declared a non-play because an official blew the play dead but didn’t make much of an effort to tell anyone. So third-and-9 became fourth-and-4 before a glitch in the matrix made it third-and-9 again. The temporal loop did not impact the outcome—the Chiefs punted a few plays later—but it sure did make the game feel like it would be decided by the refs instead of the teams.

Speaking of which: let’s roll up more rare/random plays!

  • A bomb that ricochets off Ja’Marr Chase’s noggin (lots of defensive contact on the play, though Walkthrough respects the no-call), followed by a tip-drill interception by Joshua Williams!
  • Reid punting instead of attempting a 55-yard field goal or pulling out the perfect Mahomes-to-Kelce concept he has kept in a safe for five years on fourth-and-8!
  • Ticky-tack intentional grounding on Burrow, followed by a third-and-16 conversion to (rolls dice) Hayden Hurst!

And the final spin of Fortuna’s unforgiving wheel after a Bengals punt:

  • Linebacker Joseph Ossai shoving Mahomes several yards out of bounds at the end of a scramble to give the Chiefs the yardage they needed for a 45-yard Harrison Butker game-winner.

Close game? Yep. Thrilling? Certainly. Interesting? In the best and worst possible ways. Satisfying? Bengals fans can be forgiven for not feeling that way.

What it Means for the Kansas City Chiefs: We all know about Mahomes, Kelce, and Chris Jones. But the Chiefs got step-up performances in the AFC Championship Game from rookie cornerbacks Jaylen Watson (early interception), Bryan Cook, and Joshua Williams (the fourth-quarter tip-drill pick); from Pacheco (5-59 as a receiver when Mahomes had nowhere else to turn); and from Skyy Moore (a 29-yard punt return to start the fateful final drive.) Several of those rookies were silent (Moore) or dreadful (Watson) for much of the year.

The Chiefs’ Super Bowl prognosis may come down to the health of Smith-Schuster and the other receivers, as well as Pacheco, who looked banged up in the fourth quarter. Mahomes will have trouble hobbling his way into miracles against the Eagles pass rush, and the Eagles offensive line won’t crumple nearly as easily as what was left of the Bengals line on Sunday. If Mahomes has a reliable target besides Kelce, the Chiefs have an excellent chance of winning their second Super Bowl of the last five years. If not, well, you saw what the Eagles just did to the NFL’s most physical team.

What’s Next for the Cincinnati Bengals: The Bengals enter their offseason with $43 million in paper cap space, a short in-house free-agency to-do list (pay Jessie Bates and/or Vonn Bell, perhaps work up a Higgins extension), few real weaknesses, and a mandate to sign Burrow to his Young Zillionaire contract before someone else drives up the price.

In the past, Walkthrough would insert a joke about the thrifty/pokey Bengals front office, but Duke Tobin handled last offseason well, and even if the Bengals lose Bates to pay Burrow, they should be able to add a safety in the draft or promote Dax Hill and remain among the AFC’s top contenders.

Burn This Play!

The Travis Kelce hook ‘n’ lateral makes sense until you realize that Kelce is great at everything football-related except throwing the ball, which transforms him immediately into Garo Yepremian:

Worst of all, once Kelce got a taste of the hook ‘n’ lateral it nearly became his addiction:

The hook ‘n’ collateral was about the eighth-weirdest thing that happened in the AFC Championship Game, which gives a sense of just how weird the game was.

NFC Championship Game Spotlight: Philadelphia Eagles 31, San Francisco 49ers 7

What Happened: Brock Purdy suffered an elbow injury while getting stripped by Haason Reddick with the Eagles leading 7-0 in the first quarter.

Enter Josh Johnson, America’s Fourth-String Quarterback. The 49ers may have been in trouble, but they still had their defense, Christian McCaffrey, the Mighty Deebo Horn Section, and a knack for manipulating field position to their advantage. Nick Bosa and company shut the Eagles offense down on several series before McCaffrey capped a 46-yard drive with a 23-yard elusiveness-clinic touchdown to tie the game.

The Eagles answered with a 75-yard touchdown drive, getting a boost from several 49ers penalties in what was an interestingly-officiated game. Then Johnson—who may have never taken a snap from starting center Jake Brendel before, even in practice—fumbled a shotgun snap that led to a Boston Scott touchdown run just before halftime.

Johnson suffered a blow to the head and entered concussion protocol early in the third quarter. Purdy re-entered the game but clearly could not grip the football well enough to throw it across a studio apartment. Kyle Shanahan emptied his playbook of screens and trickery to no avail: the 49ers weren’t coming back from (initially) a two-score deficit with ZERO downfield passing capability.

The 49ers totally lost their cool late in the game, with Trent Williams getting tossed for a late-game choke-slam. It was a shame to see a team that played with such intensity and pride through adversity all year to come unglued at the end of a truly remarkable season.

What it Means for the Eagles: The NFC Championship Game ultimately came down to one team having a healthy non-rookie quarterback while the other did not. And yes, DeVonta Smith’s non-catch catch in the first quarter and a roughing the punter penalty that probably should not have been called in the second quarter helped tilt the game in the Eagles’ favor. But give Nick Sirianni and Shane Steichen credit for switching to a zone-read heavy ground game when Jalen Hurts was a little wild early, and to the Eagles defense for swarm-tackling after getting embarrassed on McCaffrey’s run and avoiding mental errors while playing with a lead against what deteriorated into a high school offense.

Oh, and miss Walkthrough forever with those Eagles had an easy road to the Super Bowl takes. Two weeks ago Daniel Jones was supposed to be Eli Manning, and the 49ers didn’t look like an easy out anytime in the last two months. (Yeah, Purdy got hurt—because the Eagles pass rush actually got to him, folks.) The Eagles just won two playoff games by a combined 69-14 score. It was an easy road because they made it look easy.

The Eagles know how to win the games they are supposed to, and they are built to turn every game into one they are supposed to win.

What’s Next for the San Francisco 49ers: Shanahan should announce an open competition between Purdy and Trey Lance starting in OTAs. He can invite the HBO cameras in, televise April 7-on-7s in prime time, and turn the whole saga into a moral parable for our times.

The 49ers will win the Purdy-Lance competition no matter which of the contestants stands triumphant. The only risk would be a double-knockout that leaves coaches/players/management choosing sides while both young quarterbacks look over their shoulders instead of playing to their potential. What would be the chances of that happening? (Narrator: that’s actually the most likely outcome of such a scenario.)

Most of the 49ers nucleus returns next year. The team will free up the cap space to re-sign tackle Mike McGlinchey and/or defensive Jimmie Ward once it does something with Nick Bosa’s contract (playing on the fifth-year option is possible, a massive extension full of 2024/2025 bucks is more likely.) Jimmy Garoppolo is gone, although … hear Walkthrough out: trade Lance AND Purdy for first-round picks, resign Jimmy G., and then … nah.

In summary, the Niners will be back in the playoffs in 2023 with sacks, YAC, and someone still on his rookie contract at quarterback. There are far worse fates.

Best Supporting Actor in Someone Else’s Highlight

Never forget that Christian McCaffrey’s thrilling second-quarter touchdown might have been a 1-yard loss if Marcus Epps (22) didn’t jam his thumb into the dive button and try to take flight instead of just breaking down to make a sound tackle.

Worst Supporting Actor in His Own Highlight

It’s hard to find a replay that really show it, but DeVonta Smith wasn’t exactly wearing his poker face when he leapt from the ground after his first-quarter fourth-and-3, ahem, reception.

You can see a little bit of it in the clip above: Hey guys hurry hurry hurry let’s run a play ASAP no particular reason for the rush look I am making the HURRY UP OFFENSE gesture with my hands let’s go let’s go!

Kyle Shanahan and his staff saw Smitty acting like a quick snap was the difference between success and disaster and thought, “Welp, looked like a clean catch to us. No reason to challenge a play that could mean the difference between possession of the ball and a quick Eagles score.”

Many NFL coaches, even the best ones, have the common sense and street smarts of a parsnip.

Burn This Play

This Christian McCaffrey “why the hell not?” option pass looks ridiculous..

… but Christian D’Andrea of ForTheWin raises a good point in that Tweet: why didn’t McCaffrey, or Deebo Samuel, or some other playmaker start taking some of the snaps once Purdy was injured? A few Wildcat wrinkles would have taken pressure off Johnson, and a full-time read-option would have made more sense in the second half than the one-armed Purdy offense. But that’s the Shanahan coaching experience: A++ in several important areas, but with some weird D-minuses sprinkled in.

Rando of the Week

There was a fellow roughly Walkthrough’s age in a Brian Dawkins jersey palling around former Phillies shortstop Jimmy Rollins before the Eagles game. Wait, was it a bird? A plane? John Oates? Art Garfunkel?

No, it’s hip-hop pioneer DJ Jazzy Jeff, who also performed at halftime!

Yes, that Oates-Garfunkel joke was lame, as Mr. Jeff has had a fine career without Will Smith. (Garfunkel was in major motion pictures in the 1970s, too … but never mind.) With that post-Smith career in mind: hey you Eagles fans, stop what you’re doing (especially if you are climbing a lamppost) and set it in motion: It’s the Next Movement.

Around the NFL

Coaching carousel stuff, and more.

Rams hire Mike LaFleur as offensive coordinator.

Sean McVay gets his BFF’s baby bro as a wingman. The Rams get an heir apparent for when McVay for-real gets bored and wanders off next year. LaFleur gets to rebuild his rep by tinkering with Cooper Kupp and Matthew Stafford. And the Jets keep slowly self-immolating in real time because they flew too close to a wild-card berth. It’s a real win-win-win-Jets.

Tua Tagovailoa remains in concussion protocol, won’t participate in Pro Bowl activities.

Sadly, we can all see what’s coming.

Dolphins make Vic Fangio the NFL’s highest paid defensive coordinator.

It’s not gonna matter because … see previous item.

Jonathan Taylor undergoes ankle surgery.

If the Colts head coaching job starts looking any worse, Jeff Saturday will turn it down.

Rob Gronkowski thinks Tom Brady would choose the Buccaneers over the Raiders if he plays in 2023.

“The fiduciary impact of renewing a contractual commitment with a franchise whose ownership group offers greater capital liquidity, combined with Florida’s favorable personal-taxation policies, makes the cost-benefit analysis of Brady’s decision elementary,” Gronk said. “Also, shiny beach sun prettier than hot desert sun.”

Kyler Murray posts a picture of his reconstructed knee on Instagram.

Read the tone of this Darren Urban post on the Cardinals website for a sense of how relations between Murray and what’s left of the organization are going. The Cardinals in-house media team aspires to someday graduate to becoming the Cowboys in-house media team so they can publicly rip Dak Prescott.

Steve Wilks (and his lawyers) express disappointment over the Panthers’ decision to hire Frank Reich.

The NFL’s regressive hiring practices for minorities in leadership positions remains abhorrent. Walkthrough supports all efforts to break up the old-boy network, push back against implicit bias, and diversify head coaching/general management hires. We’re watching DeMeco Ryans, Brian Flores, Jim Caldwell, and others and hoping for the best. But Reich is more qualified and a better fit for the Panthers than Wilks. We’re keeping our powder dry until some overqualified coach of color is passed up in favor of some white dude with peach fuzz who was coaching MAC quarterbacks three years ago. In other words, tune in next week.

Broncos have spoken to Jim Harbaugh.

Sean Payton apparently said no. Why? Perhaps because Broncos coaching interviews go something like this…

Meanwhile, Deep Inside Denver Broncos Headquarters…

SEAN PAYTON: Thanks for flying me in on that stealth bomber. I’m excited to share my vision for the Denver Broncos, but I was expecting to speak to Greg Penner.

CONDOLEEZZA RICE: Sit down, Saints boy. I’m running the show here. I’m not assembling a football team. I’m assembling a task force.

PAYTON: A task force?

CONDI: What happens if Patrick Mahomes suddenly goes rogue? We’re the first line of defense if that happens. So I am assembling a squad with unique skills. And I need someone to lead that squad on the field.

PAYTON: You can count on me, ma’am. I’m a winner. Unless a call goes against me in a playoff game where I take a fourth-quarter lead on a field goal on the next play and then get the ball first in overtime. Then I lose but spend weeks throwing little baby tantrums.

CONDI: Oh, you will fit right in on this squad. Let me introduce Deadshot, the most accurate sniper on earth.

RUSSELL WILSON: I just visualize the target in my mind and then I hit it! In my mind!

CONDI: And of course, every team needs a fashion-forward but unpredictable femme fatale.

CIARA IN CLOWN MAKEUP: Puddin!

CONDI: Then there is Captain Boomerang.

JORDAN MAILATA: G’Day mate! Let’s throw another shrimp on the barby.

PAYTON: I am almost certain Jordan Mailata does not talk like that. Or play for you.

CONDI: Adam Gotsis would have been too obscure a pull. Then there is the man who cannot be covered by anyone, Slipknot!

KJ HAMLER: Ouch! I fell!

CONDI: Sigh. I meant the man who cannot be tackled by anyone, Slipknot II!

JAVONTE WILLIAMS: Ouch! I fell too!

CONDI: Whatever. We’ll grab Melvin Gordon again or something. And this is The Sorcerer Surtain. He’s got my back. I would advise not getting covered by him. His cleats trap the souls of his receivers.

PATRICK SURTAIN: (nods.)

PAYTON: Listen lady, I don’t know what kind of circus you are running, but I am looking for a team where I am the one calling the shots. I’m gonna go work someplace where everyone is highly professional and there are no political operatives playing mind games, like the Arizona Cardinals or FOX television.

(exeunt Sean Payton.)

CONDI: Sigh. (on intercom) Did we implant the explosive in DeMeco Ryans’ skull yet?

GEORGE PATON: (on intercom.) No ma’am. Our agent got stuck in traffic in Santa Clara.

CONDI: Very well. Send in the big guns.

(Door swings open.)

JAMES GUNN: Have I got a reboot for you! I call it THE Denver Broncos!





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