"Why Do I Have to Be From Philadelphia?"

As a sports fan, this title may seem humorous. After all, the Philadelphia Phillies recently played in the World Series, the Eagles are in the Super Bowl, and the 76ers have a good chance of making a deep playoff run.

Regarding the Eagles' matchup against the Kansas City Chiefs, it is said that playoff games are won in the trenches, giving the edge to the Eagles. Their offensive and defensive lines are stronger than those of the Chiefs. The Chiefs' offensive line is not exceptional and the Eagles' defensive line being more then able to throw a lot of fresh bodies at opponents, may be a challenge for the Chiefs. When Patrick Mahomes' protection broke down during the last Super Bowl against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, he looked human. This was the result of Coach Andy Reid's failure to provide a suitable replacement for all-pro left tackle Eric Fisher when he was injured, dereliction of duty, to be sure.

The Chiefs' secondary is young and the Eagles have exceptional receivers in Smith, Goedert, and Brown. The question is whether Hurts will be able to throw accurately enough to reach them. Hurts did not have a good game against the San Francisco 49ers. The best that can be said about him is that he did not turn the ball over. However, he attempted five passes longer than 20 yards and failed to complete any of them. This could have been due to his shoulder injury, but Hurts averaged four such throws per game during the season. This suggests that his shoulder was feeling relatively OK. I'm concerned that the injury has caused old doubts to resurface in Hurts and that he may be worried about his many preseason detractors blasting him should he fail. It's normal to have some self-doubt and be derailed following an injury like the one Hurts sustained. Coach Nick Sirianni's failure to give Hurts the full five weeks off to recover was also a dereliction of duty.

As previously mentioned, the quarterback who played against the 49ers bore no resemblance to the MVP candidate from just two months prior. It is unknown whether he will regain that form against the Chiefs.

The X factor in the game is, of course, Mahomes. If he has continued to make progress on his high ankle sprain, it is anyone's guess what will happen. In Mahomes' favor is that he is facing Jonathan Gannon's defense. When he last faced the Eagles in 2021, he torched that defense for 40 points. It is unclear whether Gannon has learned anything since then. We will see on Sunday.

I hope that Coach Sirianni's high-strung nature does not rub off on his players for this game. The Eagles' offense commits far too many stupid penalties, negating touchdowns and long gains. Players like Kelce, Dickerson, and Johnson are to blame! It is unbelievable that players of their caliber would make such mistakes. What is causing the players to jump offside and held so frequently? I haven't looked it up, but I would guess that the Eagles' offense is in the bottom third league-wide in terms of offside and holding penalties. This could well be due to Sirianni's plays being too confusing to his lineman.

People say that the Eagles have a strong defense, citing their 78 sacks this season. However, most of these sacks seem to occur on first and second down. The opposing quarterback then completes a third and long pass, such as in the Dallas game where Dak Prescott completed a third and 30 pass. A sack is not that useful if it doesn't get the defense off the field. This will be something to watch closely on Sunday.

Another factor that will reveal whether Sirianni is a truly good coach is his decision regarding the punter. The current punter was injured in the 49ers game and was not performing well. Siposs has been gradually recovering from injury. Sirianni needs a reliable punter. Again, remember that when the Bucs defeated the Chiefs in that Super Bowl, Reid had an unreliable punter. Dereliction of duty again. Will Sirianni follow suit? On the defensive side, one of Gannon’s big challenges will be to reign in Reed Blankenship. I love Blankenship’s aggressiveness and speed, but he takes too many crushing penalties.

I think we will know a lot about how the Eagles will perform in this game based on their first two offensive and defensive series. If they can keep it close, or even take the lead, it bodes well, though no fourth-quarter lead is safe against Mahomes. If they are down by 10 or 14 points after the first two series, forget it.

I know I keep trashing Sirianni, but their left tackle Jordan Mailata explained that he was unprepared last year when the Eagles made the playoffs and played the Bucs. In that first series, Mailata recalls seeing an alignment he had never seen before and panicking, along with the rest of the line. This speaks to Sirianni's lack of preparation. There should have been a doomsday call when noone knew what was going on, or using a timeout even that early. Simply running basic plays into the line or going for checkdowns is unacceptable.

I guess from the above, it's clear that I am not a fan of Sirianni, Gannon, or Reid. I am an Eagles fan, so I hope that Sirianni and Gannon make fewer mistakes than Reid and that the Eagles win, but I cannot say for sure.