Ahead of the rematch, I found myself thinking about this past super bowl and how we let the game slip (I really try to never think about this game again…). Reviewing the game, it was almost identical to Super Bowl 52 with only one major difference.

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  • Eagles start out strong.
  • The Chiefs/Patriots missed a FG
  • Eagles had a turnover that led to Chiefs/Patriots closing the gap instead of breaking the game open
  • Eagles rebound strong going into halftime with a 10 point lead in both games
  • The Chiefs/Patriots got the ball first after the half and scored a TD. Eagles lead by 3
  • Eagles ensuing drive ends in a field goal. Eagles lead by 6
  • The Chiefs/Patriots score another TD and lead by 1 at the start of the 4th quarter
  • And here is where we get our big difference…
    • Super Bowl 52 Eagles face a 4th and 1 at their own 45, they go for it and get it, Eagles score a TD, go up 5
    • Super Bowl 58 Eagles face a 4th and 2 at their own 33, they punt. Chiefs score a TD, Eagles go down 8
  • The Eagles Super Bowl 52 Defense was schematically aggressive and stopped the Patriots on the ensuing drive. The Eagles Super Bowl 58 defense allowed the Chiefs to dink and dunk their way to a time consuming, game ending score (honorable mention to the refs and Bradberry for not understanding a penalty ends the game).

It’s kinda wild how similar these games were. The core difference here is in how aggressive the Eagles approach was throughout the game. Perhaps coming off of the big 28-3 comeback on Atlanta the year before, it was burned into everyone’s mind that you must stay aggressive against the Patriots. You can never let up. Go for it all. Whereas perhaps we didn’t give the situation or the Chiefs that same respect.

I’m not sure why we punted. I know the 33 isn’t the same as the 45. But it still felt antithetical to our approach as a team to not be aggressive. Not to mention for Super Bowl 52 we have the mic’d up of Schwartz telling Doug he will make aggressive defensive calls to get the ball back one way or the other. Either they score a TD quickly or a turnover and the Eagles get the ball back immediately either way.

It’s interesting how this year in the mic’d up we see Sirianni go up to Jalen during the Miami game and say I trust you that’s why I went for it. Just this past game agains the Cowboys he went up to multiple offensive players and repeated the same sentiment. I don’t know if he knows this was the wrong decision and is trying to correct, but it’s notable that he keeps harping on it. Hopefully Nick has really learned his lesson. It seems he has.

TL;DR: Super Bowl 52 and 58 have nearly identical game scripts/results except in the decisive moment Sirianni and Gannon were not aggressive enough, while Pederson and Schwartz were. Hopefully we see this rectified for our big games coming up and beyond. Bottom line we were better than the Chiefs last year but coaching errors cost us the game. I hope we have fixed our game management issues. Apologies for this long, perhaps useless, ramble. I just need that win on Monday