To get to 9-1 against the Kansas City Chiefs, the Philadelphia Eagles just kept swinging.
By Chris Murray
For the Philadelphia Sunday SUN
ABOVE PHOTO: Philadelphia Eagles cornerback Darius Slay celebrates after they beat the Kansas City Chiefs in an NFL football game, Monday, Nov. 20, 2023 in Kansas City, Mo. (AP Photo/Reed Hoffmann)
In the first half of Monday night’s nationally televised Super Bowl rematch against the Kansas City Chiefs (7-3), the Philadelphia Eagles (9-1) looked as battered and bruised as a fighter that’s one big punch away from taking a ten-count on both sides of the ball.
But when the dust settled, the bloodied, but unbowed Eagles somehow came away with an improbable 21-17 win thanks to Jalen Hurts’ tenacity, the Birds relentless defense, and a little bit of Lady Luck thrown in for good measure.
“I think that the thing that you can’t test or quantify is the resilience that a team has,” Hurts said. “The ability to persevere and see through things and overcome things. We haven’t had a performance up to our standard, but we continue to find ways to win. When you win games like we’ve won games, it builds a tone of character.”
After watching how poorly the Eagles played as a team in that first half, there was very little optimism that the Eagles, who have had their share of struggles this season, were going to pull off this win against the best team in the American Football Conference.
After the teams exchanged touchdowns in the first quarter, the Chiefs dominated the first half by rolling up on 121 yards rushing on an Eagles defense that came into the game as the NFL’s No. 1 ranked defense against the run.
Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes was carving up the Eagles’ defense in the passing game, avoiding sacks and finding his receivers for a pair of touchdown passes. The Birds gave up 190 yards of total offense.
Meanwhile, the Chiefs defense was all over Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurt like a cheap suit. Thanks to a variety of exotic blitzes, the Chiefs sacked Hurts five times. The Eagles offense was 0-for-3 in third-down conversions. The Eagles had just 78 yards of total offense-23 yards rushing and just 46 passing.
Kansas City had a 17-7 lead and needed a couple of scores to put the Birds away. But it never happened.
For one thing, the Eagles’ defense pitched a shutout against the explosive Chiefs offense in the second half, allowing just 146 yards. The Birds held the Chiefs to just 2-of-10 on third conversions in the second half.
After a 10-yard touchdown run by Hurts late in the third quarter cut the Chiefs’ lead to 17-14, the Eagles defense came up with arguably the biggest play on KC’s next possession.
The Chiefs had moved the ball from their own 25 down to the Eagles 14. On first down, Mahomes completed a pass to tight end Travis Kelce at the 9, but Eagles cornerback Bradley Roby stripped Kelce of the football and linebacker Nick Morrow recovered the ball at the Eagles 10-yard line.
Ever since the Eagles loss to the New York Jets, Hurts has managed to will his team to win games, especially during the part of the game when the team needs a big play to swing the momentum of the game. Whether it was throwing clutch touchdown passes in the win over Miami or throwing four TD passes against the Washington Commanders.
Midway through the fourth quarter and trailing by three, Hurts and the Eagles offense faced a third and five at the Kansas City 42-yard line. On that play, Hurts dropped back and threw a deep pass to Devonta Smith, who caught the ball at the Chiefs one-yard line. One play later, Hurts scored a one-yard touchdown “Brotherly Shove” quarterback sneak play.
Eagles head coach Nick Sirianni said Hurts called an audible at the line of scrimmage to switch to the pass to Smith.
“It ended up being the right call at the right moment,” Sirianni said. “That’s what good quarterbacks do. They make three or four plays to change the game with their mind. They gotta do a great job throwing ball and running the show, but they make three to four checks a game that can make differences and Jalen did that tonight.”
For the rest of that fourth quarter, the Eagles defense kept the Chiefs out of the endzone but got a little help from the football gods. With under two-minutes left in the game, Mahomes found a wide-open Marquez Valdes-Scantling in the endzone for what should have been a 49-yard touchdown pass. But the Chiefs receiver dropped the ball in the end zone.
On the Chiefs final offensive play of the game on fourth and 25 from the Chiefs 34, Mahomes found a wide-open Justin Watson near midfield, but like Valdes-Scantling he dropped a pass that would have given the Chiefs the first down.
Sirianni applauded his team’s resilience and effort in the win over Kansas City.
“Whoever was going to win that game was to do it gritty, grimy and it was going to be that way, and other adjectives,” Sirianni said.
You might throw in lucky as well.
The Eagles are back at Lincoln Financial Field on November 26 for a game with the Buffalo Bills. Game time is 4:25pm and you can catch the game on CBS-3 or on 94.1 WIP.
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