Chiefs writer gives 3 reasons why the Eagles will win the Super Bowl

Bleeding Green Nation is taking some time to chat with Arrowhead Pride in order to preview the Super Bowl LVII matchup between the Philadelphia Eagles and Kansas City Chiefs. We’ll have a Q&A exchange later in the week.

For now, we’re here with three reasons why each team might lose. This exchange allows us to show what the other side is concerned about.

Read on for why the Chiefs could lose, as written by Rocky Magana. To see why I think the Eagles could lose, stay tuned to AP.

1. The Eagles are able to isolate the Chiefs’ young secondary into one on one matchups.

When you think of the Philadelphia Eagles offense, two of the first names that pop into your mind are AJ Brown and DeVonta Smith— and it may seem like stating the obvious, but if these two guys go off on Sunday, the Chiefs are going to be in for a long night.

Eagles offensive coordinator Shane Steichen likes to use motion along the line to expose zone coverage, and then send slot receivers and Dallas Goedert on routes over the middle to place the opposing safeties into conflict, which frees up one on one matchups for his outside receivers.

While the Chiefs have the length and speed in the secondary to run with anybody, they are inexperienced and vulnerable to blown assignments. If Jalen Hurts can capitalize on these opportunities, then the Eagles’ offense will be able to put pressure on Kansas City’s offense and special teams to play mistake-free football, which they have struggled with at times this year.

In addition, if the Eagles’ wide receivers can win early and often, it will force the Chiefs to dedicate resources to the parameter and limit their ability to blitz, which in turn will open up running lanes for Miles Sanders and Jalen Hurts.

2. The Chiefs fail to contain Jalen Hurts’ legs

Jalen Hurts is just the latest quarterback in the Eagles’ storied history of triple-threat quarterbacks who can beat you with their legs, their arms, and their minds.

Chiefs defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo is a mad scientist when it comes to dialing up creative blitz combinations and ways to disguise it— in 2022 the Chiefs blitz 24.2% of the time. Spagnuolo will live and die by the blitz, and to his credit, it has worked. With 55 sacks on the season, the Chiefs are ranked second in the league, trailing only the Eagles. Out of those 55 sacks, 14.5 were generated via the blitz by someone other than one of the Chiefs’ four down linemen.

The issue with living and dying by the blitz is that you are rushing downhill at full speed and if everyone is trying to get into the backfield, then you are undermanned in the secondary, and there is nobody left to step up and fill running lanes. It also doesn’t help that the Chiefs have 82 missed tackles on the season. We have seen at times over Spagnuolo’s tenure that the Chiefs’ over-aggressiveness can lead to mobile quarterbacks generating big plays on the ground.

The same can also be said for when the Chiefs show blitz and then drop back into zone defense as they did against the Cincinnati Bengals in the AFC Championship game. With 8:29 left in the fourth quarter, the Chiefs lined up in nickel formation and showed blitz with both linebackers pre-snap. However, once the ball was snapped, the linebackers bailed into coverage, leaving a gaping hole for Burrow to prance through for a 13-yard gain.

3. The Chiefs fail to protect Patrick Mahomes

Every Chiefs fan still has nightmares of Super Bowl LV, when Mahomes famously for 500 yards behind the line of scrimmage as he scrambled for his life against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. It was a game that spurred Chiefs general manager Brett Veach to overhaul the entire offensive line by trading a first-round draft pick to the Baltimore Ravens for Orlando Brown Jr., signing Joe Thuney to one of the most lucrative free-agent guard contracts in NFL history, and drafting two stellar young interior offensive linemen in Creed Humphrey and Trey Smith.

Fast forward two years and right tackle is still being manned by Andrew Wylie and left tackle Brown Jr., has been inconsistent, to say the least— the problem with Brown Jr. is that his feet just don’t move fast enough to keep speed rushers in front of him, and when he gets beat, he gets beat bad.

On the play when Mahomes injured his ankle against the Jacksonville Jaguars, it was Brown Jr. who was left trying to catch up to pass rusher Arden Key who had blown by him nearly untouched. The Chiefs are going to have to utilize a running back and possibly a second tight end on nearly every down basis to help with pass protection and keep Mahomes upright.

Even then that might not be enough when you consider the fact that the Chiefs offensive line hasn’t faced an opposing front four this talented. It’s very possible that Mahomes spends another Super Bowl running for his life.