The Eagles had one of the best defensive lines in football this season but you wouldn’t know that if you only watched the Super Bowl. The Chiefs were able to handle Philadelphia’s pressure and protected Patrick Mahomes excellently.
The Birds had a league-best 70 sacks in the regular season with only the Cowboys holding them to no sacks in Philly’s 26-17 win in Week 6. They added another five sacks against the Giants and three sacks against the 49ers in the playoffs.
However, the Eagles’ d-line came up small and the Chiefs’ o-line came up huge in the Super Bowl.
Andrew Fillipponi and Danny Parkins of the Audacy Original Podcast “1st & Pod” discussed the Chiefs’ offensive line's dominating performance and the Eagles’ defensive line having an “all-time coming up small” moment.
“If I was the GM there I would feel like king s–t for the offensive line moves that they made since the last Super Bowl,” Fillipponi said (3:26 in player above).
Kansas City’s offensive line was exposed in Super Bowl LV against the Buccaneers. Just months later, the Chiefs went out and overhauled their offensive line.
After signing left guard Joe Thuney, they drafted center Creed Humphrey (second round) and right guard Trey Smith (sixth round). The Chiefs also traded their first-round pick for left tackle Orlando Brown Jr.
“And dude, (Andrew) Wiley, who’s a journeyman – how many times did we call Haason Reddick's name today?” Fillipponi continued. “That’s a guy that I circled and was like well, we’re going to be hearing his name a lot because he’s going to have to hold or do something to basically tackle these guys.”
Instead, the Eagles' defensive line was muted by the Chiefs’ offensive line.
“The thing that I’m still here shocked by is the Eagles have all these difference-makers on their defensive line. They bring a second wave like a line change in hockey of guys in and it’s probably the reserves could be an upper-echelon starting defensive line for other NFL teams,” Fillipponi said.
Much was made of the Eagles having four defensive linemen with double-digit sacks this season, but none of them made much of a difference on the game’s biggest stage.
“They got legitimately eight starting defensive linemen,” Fillipponi continued. “Did any of them make a difference in this game? Was there a batted-down ball? Was there pressure? No! That’s an all-time coming up small moment from an elite group.”
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