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Stop me if you’ve heard this one before: the Kansas City Chiefs are returning to the Super Bowl after beating a promising team that’s seen a massive jump in the last few years. Chances are you said pause after “Chiefs are returning to the Super Bowl.”
For the third time in less than five years, quarterback Patrick Mahomes has lead K.C. to the Super Bowl, where instead of a veteran quarterback who played under Bill Belichick at one time, he’ll be squaring off with a third-year star in Jalen Hurts and Philadelphia Eagles. The winner of this game not only gets the privilege of hoisting the Lombardi Trophy, but the honor of which quarterback who replaced a first-overall pick in the draft is better (Mahomes replacing Baker Mayfield at Texas Tech in 2014 and Hurts replacing Kyler Murray at Oklahoma in 2019).
After having an impressive 14-3 regular season, Kansas City was awarded a first-round bye and sat out the wild card round. After sending away another up-and-coming team in the Jacksonville Jaguars, they came face-to-face with a familiar foe in the Cincinnati Bengals. Similar to last year, the two faced off in an epic battle that came down to the final drive. Kansas City came away with the win, 23-20.
Key To The Game:
If Kansas City is going to keep up, it’s going to have to start with their defense finding away to contain the run. Despite missing two games, Hurts threw for 3,701 yards, but he also ran for over 750 yards. Add that to halfback Miles Sanders’ 1,269 yards (fifth in the NFL) and Kenneth Gainwell’s 160 postseason rushing yards (fourth amongst playoff eligible backs) and you have the King Ghidorah of rushing attacks in the NFL. Neutralizing it will be a challenge but Kansas City was eighth against the run this year, providing a potential Godzilla to stop this attack.
For this offense to get anything going, Mahomes is going to have to play smart. Philadelphia had the best passing defense in the NFL this year and were third in turnover differential. Mahomes is an elite quarterback but even he has a tendency to go into gunslinger mode. If he does that, Philadelphia will trap him and more likely than not, it won’t end well.
X-Factor:
Middle Linebacker Nick Bolton: How do you keep an athletic quarterback honest? You have the middle linebacker work him. Whether it’s spying, playing zone in the middle of the field or blitzing, Bolton is going to have to be the field general against Hurts. If he can’t stop him, then Kansas City may be in for a long day.
