EAGLES ARE HEALTHIER — AND BETTER — THAN THE CHIEFS!
By Max Harper
The run-up to Sunday night’s Eagles-Chiefs Super Bowl has only been going on for 12 days, but it feels like 12 weeks because so much has been written, blabbed and blowharded.
It is amazing to me how little many of the experts seem to really know about the Eagles.
Casual blowhards think the Eagles schedule was too easy.
Or that Jalen Hurts will crumble under pressure.
Or that Andy Reid’s impressive record after bye weeks will be telling, as if this were a real bye week!
The real experts, like NBC’s Peter King, MNF’s Troy Aikman and ESPN’s Marcus Speers, all think the Eagles will win.
The minor statistical advantage anticipated for Kansas City was somewhat dulled by injuries to the team’s starters, top among them the ankle sprain Mahomes has contended with since Jan. 21. Coach Andy Reid said that Mahomes wasn’t yet 100 percent, but the quarterback has rehabbed enough over the past two weeks that he practiced this week with no restrictions.
Though the team placed receiver Mecole Hardman on injured reserve, both JuJu Smith-Schuster (knee) and Kadarius Toney (ankle/hamstring) were expected to play Sunday, and starting cornerback L’Jarius Sneed was cleared from concussion protocol.
Even with a hobbled Mahomes going up against the Eagles’ opportunistic defense, the market has set the total for this Super Bowl at 50 1/2 points, a sign that the adage about defenses winning championships doesn’t carry much weight here.
