New Orleans – The third team under scrutiny at Super Bowl 2025 was the host crew.
That didn't become a major issue with Sunday's game after the growing perception that the NFL wanted staff to call the game to support the Chief.
The Refs made some suspicious calls, but they went both ways, and the biased score wasn't that important in the 40-22 Eagles victory.
There were some calls they felt were related to the game before the scores got out of hand.
It started with the first drive of the game.
The Eagles completed deep down the sideline to AJ Brown in fourth and second, but Brown was flagged for offensive passing interference.
Brown placed his hands on the face mask of Chiefs cornerback Trent McDuffy, but it's doubtful if he had an impact on the reporting.
“Before every game, I try to tell myself before Cole has the evening way, but sometimes in that moment it's hard to convince me,” Eagles' Nick Director Silianni said. “I was mad at first about it, but these guys are making a momentary decision. It was an All-Star crew out there. They got the right to be in the Super Bowl and I've got the right to do it. No matter what I thought, I thought they did a good job.”
The next call went to the Eagles' way.
Jalen Hurts threw third and five passes towards the tight end of the Dallas Goedert, but it became incomplete.
McDuffy was asked for unnecessary roughness to hit Gaedart in his head, but that was inconclusive.
Chiefs wide receiver DeAndre Hopkins noted that several calls were made to the Chiefs on Sunday.
“I've seen a lot about refs in the media, but what are you going to say about refs and us now?” Hopkins said. “We've had a lot of annoying calls. Are you going to report it? Do you want to talk about references now?”
The Eagles were also punished for the false start of a field goal attempt when it appeared that the Chiefs could have moved first.
The Eagles still scored a long field goal, but if Cole went against the Chiefs they would have given the Eagles their first down.
The Eagles ended with eight penalties. The Chiefs had seven.
After all, this was a fitting end to Bryce Huff's first season with the Eagles.
He was not wearing his uniform at Super Bowl 2025 as he was inactive against the game.
The 26-year-old Huff had the Jets' career-high 10 bags in 2023, and the Eagles considered him a pass rush as the successor to the Harson Reddick and signed a three-year contract worth $51 million.
It turned out to be a rare, bad signature by the Eagles. Huff played in 12 games and started only six with minimal productions with 2.5 sacks, five solo tackles and four quarterback hits.
According to ESPN, the Eagles didn't blitz once in this game.
They still managed Patrick Mahomes' six sacks and recorded 11 quarterback hits.
Patrick Mahomes led the chief in a hurry for 25 yards.
The running back didn't have double digits.
Kareem Hunt was the next nine yards.
