Super Bowl LVII was pretty great; hard to complain too much about 35-35 with a few seconds left. The ending was a little disappointing, but no one can say they were shocked by the refs playing a factor. A few takeaways.
The holding penalty. If you didn't have a huge rooting interest in the game, like many of us watching, it would have been nice to see that final flag not thrown. Kansas City kicks the field goal to go up 3 with a minute and a half left and we see if the Eagles are able to march the field for the tying field goal or winning touchdown. Watching it live, rooting for an exciting finish, it seemed a little ticky-tack. It was a jersey pull, but depending on how you choose to see it, it wasn't a terrible one. But if you're rooting for Kansas City, you'll say, "You concede it was a jersey pull, so..." The refs stood by it afterward, and James Bradberry in postgame interviews said, to his credit, It was holding. So I'm not gonna argue it. But objectively, it kind of soured the ending of the game. Nobody wants to see players take knees and intentionally not score touchdowns. Years from now no one will care, but it certainly takes away from what was otherwise a pretty awesome game.
The over. 73 points, no one can complain about the offensive performance. I think the big disappointment was that the Eagles defense did not play well, giving up lots of big plays, short plays, and generally not stopping Kansas City at any point. Credit to Patrick Mahomes, who did it all even while dealing with an ankle injury that got aggravated on a tackle right before the half, after which he presumably got some good drugs / skilled taping job / whatever so he could finish strong. There were even some scrambles, more so than expected. He deserves the MVP award, and Kansas City deserved to win.
But hats off to Jalen Hurts. Game wasn't too big for him, certainly; I'm not sure there have been many better Super Bowl performances by a guy who wasn't even certain to be the franchise QB back in August. He's going to be signing a huge contract this offseason, with the only uncertainty I suppose whether it will be him, Joe Burrow or Justin Herbert signing first. Hurts may have been limited by a shoulder injury, making that performance all the more impressive. As running quarterbacks go, few -- none? -- have had better Super Bowls, even in defeat.
Prop bets. Granted, I cherry picked the ones I liked, but a nice 7-1 day from my Saturday column. The only miss was Marquez Valdes-Scantling, which teaches me a lesson from going against my years-long belief that the guy just isn't very good. I guess Kansas City wouldn't have got there without his AFC Championship performance, so he earned his ring. But I will not be in the least surprised if Kansas City parts ways with him in the offseason, or at least forces a sizable paycut. Sadly, I missed out on a parlay that would have turned $10 into $350 by missing one of six bets, thinking Miles Sanders would go over 50 rushing yards. Philadelphia used all three running backs on the opening series. I messed up that one. Alas.
Kadarius Toney. Toney wasn't a big part of the offense, but had two big plays, a touchdown and a long punt return to set up another. Arguably that punt return was the biggest play of the game, at a time just after Philadelphia got stopped while on its way to maybe scoring and really controlling things. Toney will be back next year, and either Andy Reid will make him a huge part of the offense, or he'll be ridiculously overdrafted since he can't seem to stay healthy. But no doubt he'll be a popular sleeper next year.
Smith and Brown. Nice game for the Eagles wideouts. Much talk about Hurts and the Eagles defense, but the fact that they hit it big on both DeVonta and the A.J. trade in a short period of time is a huge part of this team's success, now and into the future. Smith is a smaller guy, so maybe injuries will be an issue. And they need a better No. 3 than Quez or Pascal. But what a duo, and both guys stepped up big yesterday.
Running backs. Nice game for Isiah Pacheco; Jerick McKinnon didn't do much of anything in the playoffs. (Yes he could have scored yesterday, but the Eagles wanted him to.) Clyde Edwards-Helaire was inactive, and maybe he wasn't fully healthy but even if he was he wasn't playing over Pacheco. Ian said last week he might be a top-20 running back next season and I think that's pretty reasonable. He might be drafted as more of a top-15 guy. Good player who ran pretty well yesterday, and of course any starting running back working with Mahomes is gonna see a few lanes.
How early can we draft Miles Sanders next year? He had a nice season, but the committee was increasingly an issue as the season wore on, and it was hard to predict when it would be a big game or when it would be Boston Scott or Kenneth Gainwell getting some key snaps around the goal line. Particularly with Hurts getting so much goal-line work, seems like Sanders will be overdrafted next year.
Rihanna is pregnant! So exciting amiright?
The future. The tendency is to say, well, we'll probably see these teams in a lot more Super Bowls. Usually, it doesn't work out that way; teams disappear. But these are two excellent, youngish or very young quarterbacks, with strong and stable front offices, secure head coaches, and some playmakers on offense and defense. Maybe Travis Kelce has only another year, maybe injuries strike, etc. But Reid-Mahomes getting back to another Super Bowl or two seems likely. The Eagles getting back seems likely. Neither team looks like the Rams and Falcons teams (as a for instance) who got to the Super Bowl and disappeared.
So that's the season. I think the best teams the first half of the season were definitely the best in the postseason, and hey, 38-35, can't complain too much. Lots of stuff will happen this offseason, and we'll talk about it here all along. But I think you're feeling pretty good as either a Kansas City or Philadelphia fan right now. Those teams are doing things right.