One of my favorite football strategy quotes comes from great coach Chris Vassar. “Soccer is a simple game that is complicated by coaches.”
Often, when the game is really easy, you know why one team beats another.
It was fully on display in New Orleans, Philadelphia Eagles throttle Kansas City Chiefs On the way to a Super Bowl victory. It was one of the worst performances of the Andy Reed era and the chief of QB Patrick Mahomes' career, but it wasn't very exotic. In fact, if you're looking at the complicated things that have confusing the Chiefs' offensive brain trust, you've been looking for a very long time.
The Eagles had a simple, simple, hip-hidden butt in front. University of Georgia head coach Kirby Smart talks a lot about stopping the run to decide on the game and investing in the right institutions, allowing them to do anything they can do on the back end of their defense, and the Eagles say I made that happen on Sunday. Mahomes was pressured by 38% of his dropbacks, fired six times, and had the worst EPA per play in his entire career.
The Eagles' dominant defensive performance was the culmination of the work of GM Howie Roseman and head coach Nick Silianni, which has always improved year by year. Seven of the Eagles' defensive starters in the 2022 Super Bowl are no longer on the roster. The defensive line was constantly modified and re-created itself to reach this point. Adding the DC Vic Fangio is obviously helpful, but this was about the Eagles who have more guys than the chief. There's not much you can do when you don't have a guy. The Eagles didn't even need the monster performance of DT Jalen Carter! He was relatively quiet, but Edge Josh Sweatt stole the show. The depth and ability to drive out the waves of linemen that can be gained after QB is almost unprecedented in the NFL.
Let's get to the Fungio side of this. Playing as many two shells as the Eagles did on Sunday, they are banking on both fronts dominating the run game, deflated yards after catching in the RPO/quick game. There are many ways to cut sandwiches, but the Eagles were able to shut down the run (when the Chief actually tried to do it). Having DBS trying to tackle in space can increase defense from great to elites, with Philadelphia inserting CBS Cooper DeJean and Quy Nhon Mitchell into the lineup. No one in Kansas City could not separate when Philadelphia went to human coverage. Dejan was that star and harassed all the games to Terravis Kelse.
People try to find out the reason why the Chief was throttled by looking for schematics and exotic blitz and fronts, but the game is easy.
