3 reasons the Eagles will win the Super Bowl

Super Bowl LVII is inching closer and closer to kickoff.

Soon, the time for talking will be in the past, and the fate of the final game of the 2022 NFL football season will rest in the hands of the players and coaches.

Until then, however, there are still a few more hours of talking left.

Here at SB Nation, we are doing our best to cover Super Bowl LVII from every angle. We have community scouting reports on both teams, a look at how Haason Reddick could win Super Bowl MVP, deep dives into both quarterbacks, themed menus, and more.

Now let’s talk about who is going to win.

Here are the three reasons the Philadelphia Eagles will win Super Bowl LVII.

Speaking of the Philadelphia pass rusher.

One of the most overused responses to a question about which team can win a football game starts with the phrase “the one that can get pressure with four.” People like me use it all the time in advance of a game like Super Bowl LVII.

But for the Eagles, that statement is true. Philadelphia is one of the best teams in the league this year at getting pressure with just four, and that plays into what they do defensively. During the regular season, according to data from Sports Info Solutions, the Eagles recorded 203 pressures this season when rushing four or fewer, the sixth-most in the NFL during the regular season. They pressured the passer on 34.6% of their snaps when rushing four or fewer, fourth-most in the NFL.

In the playoffs, Philadelphia managed to kick this up a notch. When rushing four or fewer, the Eagles pressured opposing passers a stunning 60.5% of the time.

With the ability to get home with just four up front, defensive coordinator Jonathan Gannon can play with a numbers advantage in the secondary, constricting throwing lanes and making life difficult on the opposing quarterback.

Of course, when the opposing quarterback is Patrick Mahomes, the difficulty level is different. Mahomes has seen every coverage a defense can throw at him, and his evolution as a quarterback this season is worthy of note. His willingness to attack underneath, and “take what a defense gives him,” is a big reason why the Chiefs are in Super Bowl LVII. As Benjamin Solak described him this week in a wonderful piece at The Ringer, Mahomes “is the methodical dragon, the incremental beast. He’s evolved.”

Yet, the methodical dragon faces its biggest challenge yet, in a defensive front led by Reddick that will make life difficult for him.

Very difficult.

One of the biggest questions facing the Eagles this season was quarterback Jalen Hurts. Could he live up to the expectations facing him, expectations placed upon him by his head coach and general manager at last year’s NFL Scouting Combine? It was just a year ago when both Nick Sirianni and Howie Roseman addressed the media at the Combine, committing to Hurts and making the case for his development as a quarterback.

We saw that development this year, as the third-year passer put together an MVP-level season. Three huge reasons for that? A.J. Brown, Dallas Goedert, and DeVonta Smith.

As highlighted at the start of the playoffs, one of the biggest areas of growth for Hurts this season was attacking the middle of the field. Where Hurts was at times reluctant to attack over the middle in 2021, that part of the field has become a weapon for the Eagles this year, thanks to Brown:

With Brown stressing defenses inside, Smith can stress defenses along the boundaries, and Goedert gives Hurts another option anywhere on the field. The result? The opposition is forced to “defend every blade of grass.”

Tasked with defending those blades of grass this weekend is a Chiefs secondary that is, well, young. Kansas City relies heavily on rookie cornerbacks Trent McDuffie, Jaylen Watson, and Joshua Williams, along with rookie safety Bryan Cook. The group combined to play more than 2,000 snaps this season, a baptism in the tough waters of the NFL. They have fared well to date, but face yet another tough test this weekend.

When did the football world take Philadelphia seriously?

For me, that question has a rather simple answer. It was the start of December, and the Eagles were coming off wins over the Green Bay Packers in Week 12, and the Tennessee Titans in Week 13.

Those two wins told me everything I needed to know about the Eagles.

In Week 12, the Eagles faced a Packers defense that to that point in the season had struggled to stop the run. So what did Philadelphia do on Sunday Night Football? They ran, early and often. To the tune of 363 rushing yards, and 500 total yards. It was a brutally efficient performance on the ground, as the Eagles averaged 0.31 Expected Points Added per Rushing Attempt and 0.33 EPA/Rushing Attempt on first and second downs. It all added up to a 40-33 win for the Eagles, the perhaps rare example of an NFL team winning a shootout on the ground.

The following week the Eagles faced a different challenge in the Titans, a team that had been able to stop the run. So what did they do? They threw the ball, early and often. Hurts completed 29 of 39 passes for 380 yards and three touchdowns, without an interception. In the Eagles’ 35-10 win, Hurts posted an EPA/Dropback of 0.56, including an EPA/Dropback of 0.65 when throwing on early downs.

Over those two weeks, the Eagles showed that they are a complete football team, that can beat you in a number of different ways.

That is exactly what they showed during the playoffs when their defense chipped in with a pair of impressive performances.

Philadelphia is the more complete team, and that will be a big difference this weekend.