Many are eagerly anticipating the Super Bowl matchup between the Kansas City Chiefs and Philadelphia Eagles. The jury is out on who will come out on top, but San Francisco 49ers wide receiver Brandon Aiyuk recently made a bold claim that Eagles fans won’t love hearing.
Brandon Aiyuk on the Eagles: “I don’t know fully about that defense. They talk about them being a good defense — I’m not sure. I think this Kansas City pass game will expose what we thought we were going to expose before some unfortunate circumstances. They got extremely lucky.”
— Grant Cohn (@grantcohn) February 5, 2023
It seems that Aiyuk still hasn’t gotten over the fact that his team lost to the Eagles in the NFC Championship Game. However, his point that injuries prevented the Niners from executing their offensive plan against Philadelphia does have merit.
Starting quarterback Brock Purdy had to exit the matchup after sustaining an elbow injury in the first quarter. While he returned in the second half after backup Josh Johnson suffered a concussion, Purdy was clearly far from 100 percent.
Still, it’s unclear how much of a difference a healthy Purdy would have made for San Francisco, considering how well the Eagles have been playing this season. Philadelphia has displayed strong defense in the 2022 campaign, one that allowed the team to rank first in passing yards allowed and eighth in total points allowed in the league.
The Eagles’ defense, though, will be tested by an elite Kansas City offense that ranked first in several metrics. Former MVP Patrick Mahomes is leading the way for the Chiefs and has received plenty of praise as one of the best passing quarterbacks in the NFL in the past few years.
The 27-year-old will also be appearing in his third Super Bowl game, so experience will surely be on his side. It remains to be seen how Philadelphia plans on limiting the signal-caller, who took home Super Bowl MVP honors in the 2019 season.
Hopefully, the battle for football supremacy between the Eagles and Chiefs will provide fans with an entertaining show. The squads had the two highest records in the regular season. Furthermore, they feature two of the best quarterbacks in the NFL, with Mahomes going up against fellow MVP hopeful Jalen Hurts.
The game is set to take place at State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Ariz.
