What Has Changed for Chiefs & Eagles Since Last Year’s Super Bowl?

According to the numbers, the stakes are higher for the Kansas City Chiefs. They are currently 7-2, and although are at the top of the AFC, the Baltimore Ravens are close at hand. The Philadelphia Eagles, on the other hand, are comfortably ahead of the rest of the NFC teams. But psychologically, the stakes are higher for the Eagles. They last faced the Chiefs in Super Bowl LVII and lost by just 3 points. A hard defeat to digest. Moreover, since Andy Reid took over the reins of the Chiefs as head coach, the Eagles haven’t won a single game against them.

Philadelphia is on a mission to end the losing streak against the Chiefs and reverse the Super Bowl defeat. They need to prove to themselves that they can slay the dragon. It’s been 9 months since the Super Bowl. What has changed for both teams in these 9 months?

Kansas City Chiefs vs Philadelphia Eagles: The changing landscape!

Since the Eagles and the Chiefs are from different conferences, this is a rare matchup. They get to play with each other only once every 4 years. And it seems a lot has changed since February. The Chiefs team used to ride on their offense, but that same offense has slipped from the number 1 position in yards per play, points per game, and yards per game to 5th, 13th, and 8th positions respectively. But their defense has been doing uncharacteristically well. From the 16th position in the points allowed per game metric, they are now tied for second. They have also moved up from 8th and 11th in yards allowed per play and yards per game allowed to 5th and 4th.

The Eagles, on the other hand, have fallen from 2nd in offensive DVOA to 9th. And in terms of turnovers, they’ve crashed from 4th to 18th. Their defense has fallen from 2nd overall to 14th. Their offensive yards per game last season was 404.3 yards, while this year it is 390.4. Not a stark difference.

“I don’t buy into Super Bowl revenge games,” Yahoo! Sports reported the words of Eagles center, Jason Kelce. “Nothing that goes out there and happens on Monday night is going to at all change or make different what happened last year.” But the sting of last year’s defeat is certainly going to be a factor on Monday Night Football. So, how do the leaders of the two teams compare so far in the season?

Numbers say that Mahomes has the upper hand over Hurts

Eagles’ QB Jalen Hurts has been overtaken by Patrick Mahomes in almost every metric. Mahomes’ 2,442 passing yards overtake Hurts’ 2,347. 271.3 passing yards per game. Mahomes even has 17 TDs this season as compared to Hurts’ 15. Jalen Hurts is also on a mission to prove himself the better QB.

Speaking of personal rivalries, another rivalry will be playing out on the sidelines. Nick Sirianni vs. Andy Reid. Sirianni was the wide receivers coach of the Chiefs in 2013, when the team hired Reid to be their HC. When Reid came over to the Chiefs, after a 13-year stint with the Eagles, he immediately showed the door to Sirianni. He found his way to the Eagles and was handed a defeat by Reid in February. He certainly has a chip on his shoulder and wants to make Reid regret his decision of firing him.

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“If the motivation is distracting you, then don’t use it,” Sirianni said. “But if you can use that for extra motivation, then go ahead. By all means, use it.” Kick-off is at 8:15 p.m. on November 20 at Arrowhead Stadium, Kansas City.

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