So here we are, another year of NFL football in the books, and we all patiently await the completion of the season and the crowning of the NFL champion. It was another great season with records being broken, huge comebacks and apparently for this time Tom Brady’s final retirement. And now we get ready to watch the AFC Conference champions Kansas City Chiefs, take on the NFC Conference Champs, the Philadelphia Eagles. But who has the advantage between these two excellent teams, let’s take a look…
Kansas City; 14-3 / 29.2 ppg / 21.7 oppg
Philadelphia; 14-3 / 28.1 ppg / 20.2 oppg
PASSING;
Kansas City
Patrick Mahomes
Obviously far and away better than Jalen Hurts. Anyone who can possibly compare Mahomes to Hertz and say that Hurts is better doesn’t understand what a great quarterback really is. Hurts is better with his feet, getting better, but this is a no brainer. He can definitely get out of some tight situations and he’s got good Vision when he takes off out of the pocket. But let’s be honest, Mahomes put up 41 TD passes with 5250 passing yards. He had 12 games throwing for 290 or more passing yards, including 14 games throwing for 2+ TD passes. For years he has arguably been the best QB in the NFL with 5 straight seasons with 4000 passing yards and 26 or more TD passes. And he is solidly the better quarterback of the two in this matchup.
RUNNING;
Philadelphia
This is a team who is bread and butter and has been moving the ball on the ground. Having racked up 12 games with 135+ rushing yards as a team. They have a dangerous running game, and Hurts adds a huge advantage. He helped tremendously in the team’s NFL leading 32 rushing TDs. Jalen Hurts on the ground, put up 760 yards, 13 rushing touchdowns and a 4.6 YD /carry, and Miles Sanders is far better than Isiah Pacheco – he ran for 439 more yards, and 6 more TDs. Even their RB2 is better with 4.5 /carry to 4.3 /carry for Kansas City. There is no question the Eagles running game is a far superior weapon.
RECEIVING;
Philadelphia
This may come as a surprise with the aforementioned stud quarterback Patrick Mahomes as the gunslinger for the Chiefs. But Philadelphia has much better wide receivers than Kansas City has. Philly has 3 guys with 700+ receiving yards and 55+ catches. Philly’s WR1 is far better than Kansas City’s WR1, JuJu Smith-Schuster, 1496 yards vs 933 yards. There’s just no comparison. TE Travis Kelce is the biggest threat for Kansas City in their passing game – but they still aren’t better with their next 3 WRs with just 9 combined TDs. Get your best odds at AmericasBookie.com.
OLINE;
Philadelphia
The Eagles are rated as one of the best offensive lines in the game pretty much across the board from almost every source. They stand strong, they open up big holes for the running game, and they give Jalen Hurts enough time. They have been very, very good this whole year. They gave up 44 sacks, with a team sack percentage of 7.6% which a lot of that comes from Hurts moving around to run. The team’s top 3 RBs who carried the ball picked up 4.7 yds /carry and 18 rushing TDs. They move other teams defensive lines around, and make sure that their backs have a place to go.
DLINE;
Philadelphia
I know that Kansas City has some very good defensive players like Chris Jones and L’Jarius Sneed, but the Philadelphia Eagles have had an absolutely devastating effect with their defensive front with 4 players racking 11+ sacks, 4 players with 16+ QB hits and 5 players with 10+ TFL. They have been an absolute nightmare for opponents to handle, you don’t know whether the pressure is coming off the edge or right up the middle with Fletcher Cox or Javon Hargrave. And a lot of the time you have any combination of any of them on your quarterback’s shoulders. They’re a real problem to deal with, and if an offensive line can’t hold their own, and the offensive coordinator can’t put together some good schemes, it makes a team’s chances of handling them that much harder.
SECONDARY;
Philadelphia
The Eagles have been ballhawks on defense with their secondary picking up 17 ints, landing them at 5th in NFL. Giving up a pitiful 4.9 net yards per attempt, again landing them in 1st place in NFL. Another thing is, because they have such a strong defensive line, that in turn, makes the secondary that much more effective. They work in such clean unison together it’s frightening. They had 3 players with 3+ picks and gave up just 3057 opponent passing yards, yet again putting them 1st in the NFL. Their pass coverage was so smothering, that they gave up 235 yards or more in the air, just 3 times over the whole season.
COACHING;
Kansas City
This to me is yet another no-brainer. You just can’t compare these 2 coaches, Nick Sirianni only has 34 games as a head coach in his career. Don’t get me wrong he has certainly shown to be a good coach he has completely changed the entire culture of the Philadelphia Eagles in the short time he’s been there winning 67% of his games. But, Andy Reid has 24 years experience. Almost a quarter of a century he has been coaching. With 17 years with 10+ wins, he has been a very steady force on the sideline for many years. He has also laid out 8 years with 10+ wins in a row. And a huge advantage, in my opinion, is the fact that he has coached in 37 playoff games. He knows all about the pressure he has had more than his share of games under the spotlight.
This game is going to be a really good game, and I know fans from Kansas City and Philadelphia are both going to be very excited for the outcome. Both teams have been great, Kansas City with their offense, and Philadelphia with their defense, but in the end you can get the best side, total and player props at VegasTopDogs.
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