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Chris Berman
Chris Berman has returned to make his choice for the Super Bowl Lix among the Kansas City and Philadelphia Eagles bosses.
Berman has chosen the winner in five of the last six years, and in each of the last three Super Bowls, he has chosen the winner correctly AND The exact margin of victory.
Odds courtesy of ESPN Bet.
Kansas City Chiefs (-1, 48.5) vs. Philadelphia Eagles
Sunday, February 9, 6:30 pm et, Caesars Superdome, New Orleans
Fifty -nine super bowls! A lot of history. This game, however, could have a richer story than most.
As most of you know, Kansas City Chiefs are trying to be the first team to win three consecutive Lombardi trophies in the Super Bowl era. What you could No He knows that since they started playing NFL championship games in 1933, only a team, Green Bay Packers of Vince Lombardi, has won three consecutive championships (1965 to 1967).
However, when it was time to win three consecutive Super Bowls, they fell short. Like the Miami Dolphins, Pittsburgh Steelers (twice), San Francisco 49ers, Dallas Cowboys, Denver Broncos and New England Patriots. Give the chiefs a lot of credit. They are the only ones trying three mobs that returned to the Super Bowl.
Here is the side of the history of Philadelphia Eagles. Saquon Barkley is the ninth player to run for 2,000 yards in a single season. Of the other eight players to do it, only Terrell Davis of the Broncos in 1998 arrived at the Super Bowl in that season.
This is really a “Super” Super Bowl. The bosses have lost only one real Game from Christmas Day in 2023. After all, most of their headlines sat in the defeat of week 18 against the Broncos.
Some question as They won this season. They took victories for a foot nail against Baltimore, a blocked field goal at the end of the game against Denver, a raiders ball in recent seconds and a doink in an attempt at the game of the game winning the game face the chargers, only To name a few. However, when you have won 17 consecutive games of a score, more recently the AFC championship game against the Buffalo Bills, those questions should have stopped a long time ago. It is not an accident.
To not be left behind, Eagles only have a loss since the beginning of October. Chief coach Nick Sirianni has said several times: “We don’t care how we won.” Again, victories are not always associated with style points. The conclusion is that the two teams with the least amount of interrogation signs in their list arrived at the Super Bowl and, looking back, that is not a surprise. Another interesting note: these teams won the first two games of the season, the Chiefs in the first game on Thursday night and the Eagles on Friday night in Brazil, and are now playing in the last.
Two years ago, they played in a fabulous Super Bowl LVII in Arizona, a game that I called “The Roaster in the Taster” (I call the Cardinals House Stadium “The Big Toaster”). Kansas City won 38-35 in recent seconds, naturally by a score. I don’t think this game is so high score. However, I hope both teams write in the neighborhood of the superiors.
What can we take from that game two years later? For the Eagles, obviously Barkley is now the corridor. The offensive line has suffered a couple of changes: Jason Kelce now works for ESPN, but they are still outstanding. Tush’s thrust is alive and well. Interestingly, the Eagles have changed both coordinators twice Since then, with Kellen Moore calling the offensive and Vic Fangio calling the defense. A quick look at that Super Bowl shows that the QB Jalen Hurts, who played brilliantly that day, hit Devonta Smith seven times and connected with AJ Brown and Dallas Goedert six times each. Everyone is still there. The general manager Howie Roseman deserves huge congratulations for making a strong and younger strong defense. His first round selections of 2023, Jalen Carter and Nolan Smith Jr., have highlighted in front, and the two best teams last year, Quinyon Mitchell and Cooper leave, have stood out in the defensive field. He also changed to Zack Baun, adding him to a first level unit. The result: the Eagles are more 10 in turnover differences in their three victories of playoffs alone.
In the other bank, Andy Reid and Patrick Mahomes have already written their names in the NFL tradition as one of the great coach/QB duos of all time. Torvis Kelce has also done, which had six receptions and a touchdown in the Super Bowl LVII. Kelce caught 97 passes during the regular season 2024, a year “deactivated” for him. In the receiving department, apart from Kelce, the Chiefs have adopted a “everyone eaten” approach, mainly due to injuries since the summer, forcing Reid and Mahomes to Ad-Lib quite a lot. The Chiefs are now as healthy as they have been throughout the season, which means that Hollywood Brown is back in the open receiver and Isiah Pacheco is back in the corridor (although Kareem Hunt could get more hauling in this game). The greatest change has been on the O line, where Pro Bowl’s guard, Joe Thuney, has been playing the left Tackle for the need. Clearly, that has gone well.
Last season, the Chiefs won the Super Bowl in the Defense Force of Steve Spagnuolo. This season has followed a similar formula, since Chris Jones, Nick Bolton and Trent McDuffie give KC an unconditional at all levels. The true closing corner of L’Arusius Sneed went to Tennessee in the low season, but the appropriate spagagnuolo bombings have worked once more. That was evident in the last minutes of the AFC championship game against the Bills when McDuffie’s bombard last year, it affected the third Brock Purdy pass.
So … who wins on Sunday? The biggest confrontation I will be seeing is what the Chiefs defense will do to keep Barkley with another outstanding performance. Remember, he ran for 205 yards against the Rams and more than 100 in the other two Eagles playoff victories. This is very intriguing because we have not seen a season for runners as we saw with Barkley and Derrick Henry in approximately a decade, when Adrian Peterson was running this fort for the Vikings of Minnesota. I am sure that Spags did not forget how to defend the big runners, it is just that we have not seen this for a while, especially in the Super Bowl. For the Eagles, if Barkley runs, say 115 yards, will it be enough to sprout everything else?
Then there is the ball bearer of whom very few people speak, but one who continues to confuse opposite defensive coordinators. His name is Patrick Mahomes. I call it the “electric eel”, because it will slide for a third key race in the most important moments of the game. His arm and his ability to find Kelce, or the correct receiver at the right time, are still something to contemplate. I have wondered the whole season if the Chiefs could bear their search for three consecutive Super Bowl titles from beginning to end. If so, understand that we will never see this again. I am a fan of history, I specialized in Brown, and I certainly don’t mind seeing him from time to time.
Kansas City 27, Philadelphia 24
PD: Maybe I am also a softer for a mob of three, which I have done in this column. If the swami can do it, I thought the bosses can also.