Sunday, February 12, 2023, at 10:14 p.m. A painful time for Eagles fans. In fact, this was the exact minute the opposing AFC champion Kansas City Chiefs emerged victorious, defeating the NFC champion Philadelphia Eagles 38-35 in Super Bowl LVII.
Although it was arguably one of the most exciting in Super Bowl history, the end was nothing short of heartbreaking. It felt as though Eagles fans were watching the game expecting to win. We knew we were the better team though we still came up just short.
Disregarding the outcome, there are many things to look forward to, such as the fact that we most likely found a franchise quarterback in Jalen Hurts, most of our offense and a decent amount of our defensive players are young and talented, and we have a future of high draft picks thanks to the football genius Howie Roseman. However, that is (unfortunately) not what the focus of this article is.
The first half was excellent. Near-perfect if you ask me: Jalen Hurts came out on fire, and despite a costly fumble—which resulted in a touchdown for Kansas City’s Nick Bolton—he was still able to put 24 first-half points on the board. Patrick Mahomes and the opposition, however, looked like they had a lot they needed to fix. They did score a respectable fourteen points by the end of the half, but seven of those were thanks to the aforementioned Hurts fumble. In addition to this, Mahomes was subject to multiple three-and-outs in these final few minutes, and his already-hurt ankle appeared seriously injured after a powerful tackle. The Eagles were rolling.
It looked as though they were going to come out for the second half with matched intensity, and continue to poor it on those poor Chiefs. Well…they didn’t.
It looked as though they were going to come out for the second half with matched intensity, and continue to pour it on those poor Chiefs. Well… they didn’t.
The first drive of the second half for the Chiefs set the tone for the rest of the game. Patrick Mahomes drove down the field with ease, and Isiah Pacheco simply could not be stopped. But it was not this drive that put a dent in Philadelphia’s game, it was Jonathan Gannon and our defense’s inability to make adjustments to stop Kansas City.
So this continued throughout the rest of the game, and even though Jalen Hurts was near-perfect, we still lost the game. I don’t want to get too deep into the second half because it is a touchy subject, but I cannot go without mentioning one of the most controversial calls in the history of the game. Eagles cornerback James Bradberry gently tugged on the jersey of Chiefs wide receiver Juju Smith-Schuster, and although it does technically qualify for a hold, the referee should not have called the penalty, as it ended up deciding the game. The result of this play has caused many to look at Bradberry in a bad light, but he should be looked upon in any way but that. He had an all-pro year, and is one of the reasons why we were able to get to where we did.
Well, for all of you sad Eagles fans, the moral of the story is: we have a lot to look forward to in terms of a bright future, and we will be back.
You must be logged in to post a comment.