The Super Bowl is here and so yet again another TDOIA preview of the game. This year more than ever there is more noise around the game than ever before. I’m here to try and dissect the things that actually matter.
–For my Dad
The undoubted greatness of Mahomes
Patrick Mahomes is only 29 years old. He’s now played in 5 Super Bowls, three of those he’s won and now this will be the fifth he’s played in. To have a seven-year career as a starter and for five of those to make the Super Bowl is nothing short of remarkable. Mahomes has gotten to the big game at a 71 percent clip. Not even Brady can claim that rate.
I understand the argument that it’s still early in his career so it’s hard to call him the greatest player of all time but let’s flip that argument, this is just the beginning. This is just the first half of his career, even if he regresses in the second half of his career, which by the way there is absolutely 0 evidence to support that claim, he probably still finishes with a minimum of 8 Super Bowl appearances.
The cold hard truth is this, from the heart of a Mahomes hater who hopes to see him just give up the game after this run and ride into the sunset, there is absolutely no chance he doesn’t retire with every regular and post-season passing record. Will he catch Brady in terms of rings, if he wins Sunday he’s only three short of tying him, again with likely 10 years left in his career. I trust the man whose getting to the Super Bowl at a 75 percent rate to get there within 30 percent of the rest of his career.
Frankly it’s foolish of anyone who covers the sport to think that this reign of terror is anywhere near over. Whose stopping this team? The Bills have had five chances, they can’t. The Ravens have had a few shots at the title, they can’t. Only two AFC players have vanquished Mahomes, Tom Brady and Joe Burrow.
Brady is retired, and Burrow’s organization is an abject tire fire that aside from employing Burrow is somewhat directionless. No one in his own conference is stopping this guy. He’s going to have the opportunity to catch Brady, win or lose on Sunday.
Philly’s perfect build
If you asked me to build the perfect NFL roster, it would be the Philadelphia Eagles. You start in the trenches, this is the best set of offensive tackles in the league, paired with an interior that lost a hall of fame center and just kept on chugging due to the immaculate gamble of Mekhi Becton at guard.
The defensive line is full of studs. Jalen Carter is a top-five defensive front player in the league and has developed into the star of this defensive front. The edge rushers on this team just keep coming, Josh Sweat is the main attraction but over the past month Nolan Smith has showed himself to be an excellent pass-rush specialist, and even though he’s received criticism Bryce Huff has contributed nicely as a depth pirece. This front can both stuff the run and make life hell for a passer, the keys to keeping any offense at bay. Pair the skill talent on the defense, to leave the secondary completely out, CJGJ has been an all-pro for about two months now, with Vic Fangio and you have an unstoppable force on defense. Darius Slay and Quinyon Mitchell are a dynamic cornerback pairing and Cooper Dejean has turned into an excellent slot defender. This is just an immaculately constructed defense.
Then you look at the offense, Saqoun Barkley and Jalen Hurts are the perfect combo of running back and signal caller. Plus an elite WR tandem in AJ Brown and Devonte Smith as well as Dallas Goedert at TE and you think, the best way for the Eagles to win this game is to run a college offense and make the Chief’s defense pick how they want to die, either Saqoun up the gut or Hurts to the outside bonus AJ Brown on RPO slant plays for 30 yard chunks.
The point of weakness, coaching, is Kellen Moore smart enough to play to this team’s strengths in the biggest moment? Nick Sirriani is a loud-mouthed, 0 talent figurehead who probably couldn’t get Utah State to a bowl game. It’s a great experiment on whether coaching matters when you assemble the most talented roster the sport has seen in the past two or three Super Bowls, including the last Eagles team to get to this spot, the Super Bowl.
Jalen Hurts as the ultimate teammate
I just want to make a moment to shout out the humility of Jalen Hurts. He’s not a traditional MVP QB leading the offense into the Super Bowl. Instead this year Hurts has been relegated to being a bit of an elite game manager who does what’s asked of him to win the games.
I’ve been critical this year but I am willing to say I think that criticism has been unfair. He’s done what he’s needed to do for his team and shown himself to be the ultimate teammate and his performances sprinkled occasionally throughout the season with 275 plus yards and two plus TDs have shown that if forced to he can win any game he’s asked to.
The 0 talent figurehead is right about one thing, Hurts is a winner and all he does is do his best to help his team win games. That’s the mark of a franchise QB and the football community as a whole should hold him in higher regard as a no doubt top ten NFL passer.
The NFL as a Meritocracy
For as much hate as this matchup has gotten, ultimately the playoff machine got this right, these are the two best teams in the NFL. It’s only right that they find each other head-to-head in the Super Bowl.
The current administration of the US has made a lot over the past few weeks about the need for the country to be a meritocracy, signaling that diversity is a weakness in such structures and holds us back. Look no further than the NFL to prove that completely incorrect. The NFL is a meritocracy powered by its diversity. Is there room for improvement? Of course, but a great example of merit-based reward in this country is the NFL.
The league is a diverse cadre of backgrounds, philosophies and personalities. The best organizations mesh these all together to have unbelievable success, look no further than both these teams. It’s not surprising that the President is wrong, he clearly does not know ball, because in the NFL the diversity of skill, philosophy and staff are all that create unmatched strength for superpowers and allows the league to produce the best of the best time after time.
The Super Bowl as a unifier, do we even deserve to be United?
We enter this Super Bowl in a moment of national turmoil, of unprecedented division. I often talk about sports and games like the Super Bowl as a unifier.
I wonder today though, do we deserve unity? Or are the core values of our leaders and oligarchs fundamentally opposed to that of the common sports blogger just trying to make it paycheck to paycheck to make a life for himself? If the fundamental disagreements are between giving everyone a fair shot and treating all humans with dignity and respect, and the opposite view is to keep the old guard in power and strike down anyone and anything that opposes or threatens them, do we in fact deserve unity?
I don’t have the answers to these questions, my Lutheran upbringing, tells me God loves all his children but when a chunk of his children have strayed to the side of evil and temptation, what redemption is there to be had and how do we forgive those people? Questions I once again have no answers for. At this moment when I want to believe sport is the great unifier and that we can come together and resolve our differences, the overwhelming evidence is that it is simply not true. It’s a tough spot to be in, but it is where we are at. The question now becomes not can we re unite, but when is the breaking point? It is a scary place to be but history shows us, at some point all great empires chose a path.
Are we a rebuilding franchise or do we just keep squeezing the life out of an outdated and overworked roster. The innovators of the NFL would choose a re-set.
State of the League
A few points from Roger Goodell’s Super Bowl week press conference.
- The NFL is considering expanding replay review. Finally, the league will be better off if replay assist can help with small things that refs miss, such as face call penalties and roughing the passer calls. If a big call in a big game influences it, replay assist should have the ability to review everything to help get the calls right. VAR is unpopular at points in European soccer but it does help the integrity of the game and has caught things human judges have missed. This is a positive development.
- An 18-game schedule is coming, but the timeline is not imminent, you probably have to wait for the next CBA and it is clear the players association wants nothing to do with adding another game unless massive concessions are given to them.
- Nothing but praise for Tom Brady. Ok I guess we are just going to pretend it’s ok to let a NFL GM/President/Part owner have access to the league via broadcasting meetings even indirectly. Seems to me like an obvious conflict of interest. On a positive note, at least I can hate Tom Brady again, he is a truly dreadful broadcaster and I hope nothing but the worst for him.
- One argument: Roger Goodell is doing an excellent job, the league dominates the sports news cycle year round, franchise values keep climbing, the cap keeps going up and it remains the most profitable sport at every level in the world aside from high-level Champions League football in Europe.
- Another argument: Goodell actually hasn’t done anything to change or improve the game. The sport sells itself, he fumbles on big issues like gambling and player’s legal violations, and ultimately he’s just a puppet steering a trillion-dollar ship that needs minimal maintenance at all, because what is the American public going to do, stop watching football? More on this from our newest Endzone contributor, Ohio Phil, here on our Super Bowl Storylines pod.
Kendrick Lamar’s Opportunity to Become a Universal Star
Rapper Kendrick Lamar will get the half time stage Sunday and get the chance to do something only a few rappers ever have, be a complete generational star with mass public appeal.
Hip hop heads like myself have long been familiar to Kendrick and his immaculate game, he’s been a top-five rapper in the sport basically since his second album Section 80. He’s widely regarded in the hip-hop community as the current GOAT and potentially in the conversation for the best rapper of all time.
This is a moment for the rest of America though, for people like my Dad who have been unplugged from hip hop since the tribe called Quest to see an artist who has re-defined the genre. A moment for Kenrick Lamar to carry the cache of names like Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg, Eminem, Tupac, and Biggie Smalls.
He has the opportunity Sunday to become the most famous living rapper, and diminish the claims of his famed rival Drake by performing a song that crucifies him at every single bar and beat.
This if he plays it right can become a moment like super stars of yore, such as the late Prince had. This is a moment to become the face of modern rap music, it is a massive moment for Lamar and given his track record it is hard to see it not becoming a massive win that hurls him even deeper into stardom. The Super Bowl is the ultimate moment. A quick tracklist predication.
Probably 7 songs max
Not like us
Good kid Maad city
Humble
Luther
Tv Off
Hey now
Money Trees
The case for the Eagles
This is the best roster in this game. From front to back on both sides of the ball the Eagles have the most talent. The question throughout these playoffs has been, can you ride Saqoun Barkley to a Super Bowl title? So far the answer appears to be a resounding yes.
I think it’s hard to see a world in which the Chiefs can effectively stop the Eagles running game for four straight quarters. If the Eagles want this title they need to get ahead, and get ahead by multiple touchdown scores early.
This is the biggest game of Kellen Moore’s career, I’ve long been an advocate for him as a coach but this is his final test. What does he do on this stage, in the biggest game against a defensive mastermind like Steve Spagnuolo?
The defense can prevent the Chiefs from engaging in a shootout but do they have the dawgs to get Patrick Mahomes off the field on short third downs and prevent him from gashing them with his legs, something he has done extremely well during this run.
If the Eagles play the perfect game no one, not even Patrick Mahomes is beating them. The question is, can they play a perfect game on Sunday?
The Case for the Chiefs
The biggest case for the Chiefs, is that they actually do play perfect games, most all of the time. Every single win they have come across this year has been due to the fact that in the crucible they just execute better than the other team.
If Mahomes slips, the defense steps up, if the defense falters Mahomes has come through with scores. The problem has been, for opposing teams, that the defense has rarely faltered this year.
The other problem for the Eagles is that they have the best coach in this game. One thing Andy Reid does extremely well is neutralize rosters that are simply better than his own through game planning. Two weeks, no distractions you know Reid, arguably the best coach of all time offensively will come with his best stuff.
The other problem for the Eagles is that the conduit for Reids best stuff is Patrick Mahomes. A QB that throughout his career has had a superpower most other signal callers outside of Tom Brady and Peyton Manning for brief stretches in his hall of fame career simply do not possess, the power of perfection.
The power to play the perfect games, not make mistakes, and find ways to move the ball against any and every defense. It’s a massive disadvantage for the Eagles, because this Fangio defense was developed about four years ago to slow down Mahomes.
He’s had four years to see this defense, week in and week out, and in three other Super Bowls, one fears that Reid and Mahomes, master students have all the answers to any particular test the Philly defense will throw at them.
For the Chiefs, the key is simple, play perfect on offense, and find ways to slow down the Eagle’s rushing attack and ball possession offense.
Pick
Official Endzone pod preview show, right here if you are more of a listener a lot of really fun thoughts on the game ahead and our picks.
The Eagles are the perfect roster, but to win the Super Bowl, and especially against Mahomes you have to play the perfect game, from the top down.
I don’t trust Nick Sirriani, a lick. I don’t yet trust Kellen Moore to find the perfect balance on offense and I have less faith in Jalen Hurts than I do Patrick Mahomes to avoid mistakes that can tilt the scales of the game.
No shootout on Sunday, this is going to be a battle. Long, slow, crushing drives on both sides.
In the end their are rules, don’t pick against Patrick Mahomes in a matchup of perfect.
The first half ends in a 17-17 tie, the Eagles take a touchdown lead in the third quarter, get a stop but make a mistake that ultimately prevents them from getting more and the Chiefs capitalize. Mahomes finishes with the ball, we know how it ends.
Chiefs 27 Eagles 24