This is the final analysis for our new Head Coach Jonathon Gannon, and as usual, the film reveals a lot. A lot that can paint the full picture, and after doing my final assessments, the Chiefs prevailed in Super Bowl LVII because this game was a total team effort, but the defense while taking all the blame is not all at fault, it was a team loss with the offense sharing the blame as well (us Cardinals fans should 100% be familiar with that).
I looked at the hard stats that are available for download on the NFL.com website but I will upload them below for anyone wanting to do the research.
So I’m gonna go with what the statistics show in the Superbowl game log first, pertaining to drives, plays, and time of possession (TOP). One of the biggest reasons for the criticism of Coach Gannon’s game against the Chiefs is that his defense “collapsed” in the 2nd half. There were a lot of factors as to why it looked that way, the game plan was solid against the Chiefs, but at the end of the day, this was the same Chiefs team that hung a 40 bomb on last year’s No.1 defense, the 49ers.
I had my notions about this but it seems as if I was right about my feeling, it really didn’t seem as if the Eagles defense was on the field all that much in the first half. A defense can’t give up points if they aren’t on the field.
These are the first half numbers:
The Eagles had 6 possessions.
4 minutes 51 seconds – 11 plays, 75 yards ended in a Touchdown.
2 minutes 11 seconds – 6 plays, 6 yards ended in a Punt.
2 minutes 32 seconds – 5 plays, 68 yards ended in a Touchdown.
3 minutes 39 seconds – 7 plays, 15 yards ended in a Chiefs Touchdown.
7 Minutes 19 seconds – 12 plays, 75 yards ended in a Touchdown.
1 minute 22 seconds – 8 plays, 40 yards ended in a Field Goal.
The 4th possession where the Chiefs scored the Touchdown with the Jalen Hurts fumble, if speaking on a pure “the difference in the game term” that was it right there. The Eagles were at the time ahead of the Chiefs by 7, and that turnover became the crucial mistake that allowed the Chiefs to tie the game without their offense being on the field.
One thing to note that is very important, this circumstance is why the first half looked good for the Eagles defense, not only was the Eagles offense chewing a lot of clock to the tune of 9 minutes 26 seconds in the first quarter, 12 minutes 28 seconds in the 2nd quarter, equaling 21 minutes and 54 seconds in the first half alone, it only allowed for 4 possessions by the Chiefs.
Those possessions were as followed:
3 minutes 12 seconds – 6 plays 75 yards ended in a Touchdown.
2 minutes 22 seconds – 7 plays 37 yards ended in a Missed FG.
1 minute 34 seconds – 3 plays 2 yards ended in a Punt.
58 seconds – 5 plays 14 yards then punt.
The Chiefs gained 128 yards in 7 minutes and 50 seconds. The domination is what set up the second-half collapse when the defense gave up 24 points. That was the story of the second half.
One thing to note with the first half: the time of possession by the Eagles was further aided by that fumble lost to the Chiefs, because it gave the Eagles back-to-back drives that totaled 22 plays, 86 yards, and 10 minutes 58 seconds straight where the Eagles defense didn’t see the field.
The second half was more of a back-and-forth battle. I will cover the 2 touchdown plays but what really bothers me is that the offense never seemed to take any type of blame for their part in the collapse which seems pretty strange given that this year the Cardinals won the time-of-possession battle 10 times, only losing it horrendously 3 of those 7 times, and the other 4 times the Cardinals lost it, it was by an average of less than 2 minutes, yet the blame was heavily on the Cardinals offense this past year.
Anyways, at the beginning of the 3rd quarter, the Chiefs went 10 plays 75 yards for a touchdown. On the next drive the Eagles answered with a field goal and that set the 4th Quarter up for back-to-back touchdowns in dramatic fashion.
With a 1 minute, 45 seconds left in the 3rd Quarter, the Eagles were kicking off to the Chiefs with a 27 to 21 lead, this is the beginning of the collapse. Gannon Called 1 high six times and 2 high four times in this 10-play drive. So the way the Chiefs attacked each coverage at the beginning of the drive was to run the ball on 2 high coverages and in 1 high they went to 2 by 2 tight formations, I’m going to cover every play for the drive.
Great play recognition and tackle by TJ Edwards, this looked like Cover 1 Man except for the fact you have a corner on a tight end, so it’s most likely Cover 3.
The next play the Eagles were in another Cover 3 look, they do this to bring an extra defender in the box, so the Chiefs ran a quick underneath slant to pick up the first down.
On this play, the Chiefs noticed 2 high with 6 defenders in the box, so they decided to call a run play for another first down.
The Eagles gave the same look on defense essentially with a 2 high structure, a 5 man front, and what looks like 8 players in the box. The Chiefs choose to run again this time from under center getting another first down.
The Eagles go back to single high once again and the Chiefs go with a 2 by 2 formation, putting the defensive backs in a bracket-type alignment to handle the assignments. JuJu Smith-Schuster was able to come open on the dig route in the intermediate middle field for another first down. If you notice the defender “walled off” JuJu on his route, but either he was handing that route off or blew the assignment by not sticking with his man in coverage.
Prior to this play, the Eagles jumped offsides for a 5 yard penalty. The Chiefs motioned Kadarius Toney and did so again, eluding to the notion that they were gonna run the same play. Once again, miscommuncation happened when handling assignments.
This time the Eagles were in Quarters coverage, if I was to take a wild guess, my guess is that James Bradberry thought this was QQH (quarter quarter half) to the field side of the formation (his side). He and Gardner-Johnson both dropped into their deep Quarter assignment, while the TJ Edwards and the corner both ran to cover the flat, leaving JuJu again wide open for another first down.
You can see after the play Gardner-Johnson and the corner yelling at Bradberry indicating that Bradberry blew the assignment by not covering the out. This isn’t on just Bradberry as both #29 and TJ Edwards ran fast to cover the flat, that could’ve been because TJ never made the “push call” to the APEX defender (#29) in order to guard the flat, which could’ve set the events for this coverage being blown. This is what miscommunication looks like in a nutshell.
On this play, this was sound defense all around, everyone goes to their assignments, there was no confusion on where everyone needed to go. This crosser by JuJu was handled well by the corners, the defensive back with better leverage was able to make the tackle for a 3 yard gain. Even TJ was able to go fast to the flat to handle the No. 3 receiver without needing to make the push call. The next two plays determine the outcome.
This next play was not significant in itself, it was great sound defense once again. After being sucked in to defend the run, Marcus Epps (22) makes a great recovery to force the play out of bounds, as well as Bradberry not allowing JuJu to seal him out to make the stop. That’s not what was important however, what’s important is this:
The Chiefs have been using motion all game long, but here in the redzone it is important to be sound on defending motion plays due to the field being so condensed. It is known that a great way to beat man coverage in the NFL is by implementing motion in the redzone. As a matter of fact, us Cardinals fans should be very familiar with this concept, as it was used against us in this same building in Week 1 of the NFL season.
First and foremost, I will give credit to Alex Rollins who runs the YouTube channel by the same name, please check his channel out. The credit goes to him because he identifies the offensive play and the defensive technique to defend it.
This is the right way to defend a jet sweep in man coverage at the redzone. The defensive technique is called “rock and roll”, which is a switch of assignments from the corner to the safety, who has better leverage and a clear path.
Things to note: this is usually a man coverage technique that the corner and safety have to have communication on… Till the corner is able to confirm the WR crossed the formation. That “till” is very important because that was essentially the error and the deciding factor in the Super Bowl.
The fault on this play was on Darius Slay (#2), when asking for help and yelling the code word “rock and roll rock and roll!” to his safety Gardner Johnson, he needs to confirm the WR swept to the opposite side of the formation. As we saw from Kadarius Toney, he didn’t complete the jet sweep and was wide open on the pass for a walk-in TD.
Make no mistake, this was a blown coverage call, but this is where the blame is shared amongst all members of the coaching staff. The Eagles offense went 3 and out, strange Cardinals fans who were adamant that the offense held the defense back last year don’t call out what the Eagles offense did on this crucial drive.
Now the other part of this equation is how great of a job Steve Spagnuolo “Spags” did on defense. Once again, the Eagles going 3 and out after giving up the lead by 1 point with 10:40 doesn’t help your chances of closing out this game. Shane Steichen called zero run plays, called 2 pass plays that left defenders unblocked allowing for pressure to get to Hurts for 2 incompletions, killing the drive.
Here are the plays below in order:
The next play, Kadarius Toney returns a punt 65 yards to set the Chiefs offense at the 5 yard line.
This play was used more so as a play to set up the TD. On 2nd down, the Chiefs sent Skyy Moore on a jet sweep further confirming that the technique would stay in place. You can see they use the same “rock and roll” technique to handle the jet sweep. If the corner followed the receiver across the formation there is a good chance the Chiefs don’t even try to attempt the next play.
Gannon gets the heavy dose of the blame during the Super Bowl solely because of these 2 plays. The reality is at the end of the day while Mahomes did not have what you would call an explosive day, he was relatively untouched and had no turnovers. He definitely saw pressure, unfortunately, Mahomes is the type of quarterback that can complete passes on his way to the ground, he’s a hard man to sack.
You have to take into account that the Jalen Hurts fumble is the difference in the game, all while also acknowledging that after the Eagles offense went 3 and out the defense had to defend the Chiefs at the 5 yard line. The reason the numbers looked the way they looked had a lot to do with the situation in the first half, namely, the Eagles offense dominated the time of possession having consecutive snaps in the second quarter finished off by scoop and score by the Chiefs defense.
All in all, what worried me is the run game from the Chiefs was effective, but the coverage was sound the majority of the time, and the front 4 (while not looking like it) did combine for 14 total pressures. Haason Reddick alone had 7 of those (half) with 5 hurries and 2 hits. While it wasn’t the showing the Eagles defense expected after a great post season, you have to give them a break on being back on the field and defending the Chiefs at the 5 yard line right after the Eagles offense went 3 and out.
Of course, there’s the final drive where the Chiefs drove down the field, killed the clock, and secured the win with a field goal.
There are 2 plays and, of course, the hold on JuJu.
This was major miscommunication by the corner on the field side and the slot defender on that same side. It looks like to handle the sail concept (bottom of the screen) Darius was taking the deepest route which ended up being the No. 3 receiver, but in doing so left the No. 1 receiver open to the boundary.
That makes me believe that the slot corner was supposed to pick the No. 1 and the linebacker (hook) was tasked with the No. 2.
This was a problem that plagued the Cardinals and the Eagles defense as well. Once the defensive front flushed Mahomes out of the pocket, with everyone not rushing the quarterback engaged in coverage assignments, this play was the back-breaking play the Eagles defense couldn’t afford to give up.
The numbers are still the numbers though and the credit does have to go to an Eagles team that, although the Cincinnati Bengals defense has done a way better job against this Chiefs offense, lets not forget what these Chiefs did to the 49ers the same year. Patrick had 423 yards and 3 touchdowns in said game, both running backs averaged over 5 yards a carry, both Smith-Schuster and Valdez-Scantling went over 100 yards with a 17 yards per catch avg for JuJu and 37 yards per catch for Valdez-Scantling.
I get that was earlier in the season, but the numbers aren’t indicative of the actual game, more of the problems were situational, and yes that’s very important, but this game isn’t on Gannon, its on the team as a whole.
I’m excited to see what the Cardinals offense and defense will look like. So lets buckle up for the 2023 season!
