The Philadelphia Eagles came within one defensive holding penalty from winning its second Super Bowl in franchise history, and its second in six seasons.
Instead it was the Kansas City Chiefs winning their second Lombardi Trophy in four seasons, in the team’s third Super Bowl appearance in the past four seasons.
Coming into the game all the talk was about the two offenses, who ranked No. 1 (K.C.) and No. 2 (Philly) in total offense for the 2022 season.
And while the offenses were elite, the other side of the football is where both also thrived.
The Eagles and Chiefs also ranked second and 10th, respectively, in total defense. Those rankings were a direct result of each team’s ability to get to the opposing team’s quarterback.
Defense Was Limited By Field Conditions
The Eagles led the league with 70 sacks, while the Chiefs finished second with 55. So, coming into the Super Bowl, the belief was whoever could keep their signal-caller upright best would win.
In the end neither defense was able to gain much traction in getting to quarterbacks Patrick Mahomes and Jalen Hurts.
In fact, there was only one sack in the entire game, and that was more about Hurts stepping out of bounds as he scrambled than a Chiefs pass rusher getting to him.
Since the loss, several Eagles players have made reference about the poor condition of the playing field at State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Arizona.
The latest to do so is veteran edge rusher Brandon Graham.
Graham Says Slippery Field Hindered Eagles Effectiveness In Pass Rush
During a recent appearance on the Sports Take podcast, Graham was pretty adamant that the field conditions cost Philly a title.
Graham first started by saying the team “could not believe it” when edge rusher Josh Sweat went down.
Graham says the slippery stadium turf was then entrenched in their minds the rest of the way.
“You need traction to be able to get off the block and we were slipping a lot,” Graham said. “I don’t make excuses. I just know that that’s what was being talked about, us trying to get out of our own head a little bit, too…. I’m telling you that O-line, they got blessed, I’ll say that.”
For someone who says he doesn’t make excuses, that’s exactly what Graham is doing here, and it sounds like sour grapes.
Didn’t the Chiefs have to play on the same surface?
So that means they were hindered as well, but they made enough plays to pull out a 38-35 come from behind win.
Eagles Defense Got Out-Coached And Out-Schemed
In the end, the Eagles defense lost this game in so many different ways. And it wasn’t just from the lack of pressure or sacks of Mahomes.
Eagles defensive coordinator Jonathan Gannon, who’s now the head coach of the Arizona Cardinals, picked the worst time to coach his worst game of the season.
On numerous occasions the Chiefs under Andy Reid and former offensive coordinator Eric Bieniemy caught them napping, and that resulted in touchdowns on the same identical play, from opposite sides of the formation.
Also let’s talk about Mahomes having one incompletion the entire second half, and that was on a throwaway that looked to be on purpose to get the look they wanted for the next play.
That play resulted in a touchdown and put KC up 35-27 late in the fourth quarter.
So maybe Graham should look at that, and do less complaining about field conditions which impacted both teams, because one just handled it better than the other.
