Roob's Observations: Eagles lose heartbreaker to Chiefs in Super Bowl LVII originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia
GLENDALE, Ariz. – A brilliant first half followed by a catastrophic second half, and it added up to a 38-35 Eagles loss to the Chiefs in Super Bowl LVII at State Farm Stadium.
Teams with double-digit leads at halftime were 26-1 in Super Bowl history – the one loss was the Falcons in overtime against the Patriots in 2016.
Now they’re 26-2.
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A true heartbreaker.
1. Everything went right for the Eagles. They controlled the clock. They kept the Chiefs off the field. They converted third and fourth downs. They got big plays from their stars. They got a magnificent performance from their young quarterback. The plan worked perfectly. It just didn’t work long enough. The Eagles built a 10-point halftime lead over the Chiefs doing exactly what they wanted to do, but they couldn’t finish. They stopped making plays. The pressure they were getting on Patrick Mahomes early dried up. They started missing tackles and blowing coverages. They lost their magic, and the Chiefs began playing with confidence, and by the fourth quarter, K.C. was dominating both lines. The Chiefs beat up the Eagles up front the whole second half. You can’t let a team like the Chiefs come up for air. When you have them down, you have to finish, and the Eagles just couldn’t do it. Their superstar players didn’t make superstar plays. The Chiefs’ stars did. And that was it.
2. Defensively, this was just a disaster in the second half. You knew Mahomes was going to make some plays at some point, but you don’t expect him to have receivers wide open near the goal-line without a defender within 10 yards. A complete breakdown by a unit that was so good all year. They had never faced a quarterback like Mahomes because there isn’t anybody like Mahomes. But like we said all week, if you can’t pressure him, you have no chance. Mahomes completed only eight passes in the first half, the Chiefs ran only 20 plays -- but in the second half, he was 13-for-14 with two more TDs and a couple big runs. The Chiefs scored on all four of their second-half possessions -- three TDs and the game-winning field goal. The Eagles’ defense has been brilliant all year, but this was a complete meltdown.
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3. Let’s talk about Jalen Hurts. Yeah, they lost. Yeah, he had that terrible fumble that wound up giving the Chiefs the winning margin of victory. Just an unfortunate play. But my God what a masterful performance by the Eagles’ 24-year-old quarterback. He threw for 304, he completed 71 percent of his passes, he ran for 70 and three touchdowns, threw the longest Super Bowl TD pass to a wide receiver in Eagles history, went 5-for-5 on keepers. Nobody this young has ever played this well in a Super Bowl and really nobody has come close. Hurts on Sunday became the first quarterback in Super Bowl history to throw for 300 yards and complete 70 percent of his passes without an interception. He stood toe-to-toe with a two-time MVP, two-time Super Bowl winner, already a certain Hall of Famer, and he played like a champion.
4. I never dreamed we would look at the the sack column and see none for Haason Reddick, none for Brandon Graham, none for Josh Sweat, none for Javon Hargrave, none for Fletcher Cox. The Chiefs’ offensive line played the way you expected the Eagles’ offensive line to play. The Eagles had a few decent pressures -- Reddick had a couple, Sweat and Jordan Davis had one apiece -- but when you’re the best defensive line in the NFL in 35 years, you’ve got to do better. It’s that simple. The Chiefs’ offensive line is decent, but the Eagles recorded the third-highest sack total in history. So to get blanked is hard to believe.
5. I was just as shocked the Chiefs were able to run the ball the way they did against the Eagles – 156 yards and 6.8 yards per carry, 117 of those yards after halftime – as how much the Eagles struggled running it against the Chiefs. Hurts picked up yards in bunches but the running backs – Miles Sanders, Kenny Gainwell and Boston Scott – were a combined 17-for-45 for 2.7 yards per carry. The Chiefs just blocked really well in the running game, and the Eagles didn’t. The Eagles have run it at will the second half of the year, but they just never got the running game going. They didn’t have a run longer than nine yards by a running back and that’s not their game. Second half, the Eagles just got out-muscled up front, and that’s shocking.
6. Quez Watkins. Brutal. Catch the freaking football. I had such high expectations of him this year, but he just keeps making plays to hurt the team. You’re playing in a Super Bowl, you’re open, you have a chance at a 35-yard catch down to about the Chiefs’ 7-yard-line and instead of running to the ball, you leave your feet and let the ball fly through hands? Give me a break. Those are opportunities you can’t squander in any game. You’re getting one chance to make a big play in the biggest game of your life. Catch the ball. Inexcusable.
7. Exactly what we feared. A special teams gaffe in the worst possible moment. The Eagles had one of the worst special teams in the NFL all year, and you just feared that it would bite them at the worst possible moment. And it did. First of all, why change punters when Arryn Siposs hasn’t played in two months? Brett Kern hasn’t been so awful that the Eagles should have been desperate to activate Siposs when he hasn’t kicked since the first Giants game. So then Siposs hits a low line-drive punt that Kadarius Toney returns back to the 5-yard-line, the longest punt return in Super Bowl history. The Eagles got away with terrible special teams play all year and Sunday night it cost them big-time.
8. We talked all year about giveaway-takeaway ratio, and you don’t beat a team like the Chiefs if you’re minus-one. First eight games this year, the Eagles had 18 takeaways. The last 12 games, they had 13. First eight games this year, the Eagles committed three turnovers. The last 12 games, they had 17. This team is talented enough to get away with a negative turnover ratio against most teams, but against this team and this quarterback and this coach, you’re just not going to win if you’re minus-one. You might keep it close -- and they did -- but the lack of takeaways and the one costly turnover have been a problem for a while and it sure was Sunday night.
9. That last penalty on James Bradberry was a ridiculous call -- especially in that situation -- but penalties did hurt the Eagles much of the game. Offensive pass interference on Zach Pascal wiped out a nice gain by Kenny Gainwell. An illegal use of hands on Ndamukong Suh gave the Chiefs a first down. The false start on Isaac Seumalo was really damaging because it turned a 3rd-and-1 into the 3rd-and-6 when Hurts fumbled, so that one was critical -- without the penalty, there is no fumble. There was a delay of game, an offside on Sweat on the Chiefs’ first 4th-quarter TD drive and finally the ticky-tack Bradberry penalty that gave the Chiefs a fresh set of downs before the game-winning field goal. You expect more discipline than that on this stage. Penalties, turnovers, big plays on special teams -- it all adds up.
10. It’s absurd that the State Farm Stadium turf was in such terrible shape. Just about every play somebody was slipping, and it hurt both teams equally. How do you play a Super Bowl on a field that’s unfit for football? How does the NFL allow that to happen? Several Eagles players changed their cleats to try and get some better tread, but it didn’t seem to help all that much. I just don’t get how you have this billion-dollar event, the biggest sports event in the U.S., and you can’t play it on a suitable field?
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