Super Bowl

Wow, what a game! Lots of scoring, big plays, back and forth, 35-35 late in the 4th...really can't ask for more than that. Mahomes is an absolute warrior - he played a near-perfect game, on essentially one leg! One of the all-time great individual performances, and one of the most enjoyable Super Bowls I've watched.

Sucks that the game was decided by a penalty, but it was a legit call so I can't complain - it just would have been cool to see what the Eagles could have done with time on the clock and down by 3. I did want the Chiefs to win, so I'm fine either way but that could have been an epic finish and maybe even overtime!

Oh don't even get me started!!! Whoops, too late Brace yourselves, this is going to be a novel.

SO...I was leaning towards not watching at all, not because I "hated" either of the teams but because lately watching live sports just hasn't turned out very well for me (coughcollegetitlegamecough) so I felt if I watched then the game would be a dud and I'd end up turning it off at the half. But the GF pressured me into it. Seriously. And then I almost decided to stop watching anyway because they wouldn't let the game begin! No, they had to yammer on for nearly 15 minutes after the start time about the all-female flyover (I thought gender wasn't supposed to be real) and suddenly deciding to care about 911 (after Biden literally set one of the 911 collaborators free, yes this is a thing he did last week) and then the coin toss had to be dragged out, yada yada. I was literally begging the TV to JUST START THE DAMN GAME ALREADY.

SO...both teams get a TD on their first drive and I'm like, "Yeah, this is what I'm talking about!" but even at that point I made a severe mistake. I was stupid enough to...participate in a live game thread on the internet. In the 2020s. Seriously, WTF was I thinking?!?!

Oh, it was fine at first. But then I noticed something I had first detected right after the AFC title game. For completely insane, irrational reasons people absolutely DESPISE the Chiefs. Just HATE them with every fiber of their being. CONSTANT yammering about how the NFL was rigging the game in their favor--and this was in the first half mind you. Ndamukong Suh commits the most obvious illegal hands to the face penalty you'll ever see? NFL conspiracy!!! Now, I started off kinda rooting for KC just because Mahomes is my younger nephew's favorite player, but I never had anything against the Eagles. Hell, they have a couple of ex-Memphis Tigers on their team. But all of that ridiculous anti-Chiefs hate and the way people were carrying on and on and ON with it got me to the point where I would've been legit angry if the Chiefs had lost.

And then Mahomes injures his ankle and the Eagles go ahead by 10 at the half and I'm picturing the 49ers game all over again with Mahomes either unable to go or limping along unable to move or throw the ball properly and getting sacked like 5-plus times in the second half and I just couldn't take it anymore and shut the game off.

I do not regret this. If anything I am convinced that if I'd kept watching it would've been a boring blowout. I also do not regret telling one of the mods of that place that I have been posting on for years because MMA (it's a ginormous forum) that I was leaving and never coming back. Don't worry, I didn't do it in a mean way, this particular mod and I have no problems. This has actually been building for a long time. It's one of those places where people with a certain ideology can say whatever they want no matter how many times they violate the forum TOS with zero consequences but people like me get the book thrown at them for speaking truth. Like pre-Elon Twitter. I only went on there because for whatever reason I just felt the need to discuss the game live. Unless it's done here I will never EVER make that mistake again. 2020s internet is just too toxic.

So I didn't see a second of the second half. The GF sat there silently stewing because she did want to keep watching but everything's cool now. She went to bed after an hour and a half anyway. Finally around 9:30 I turned back to it just to see how much the Eagles had won by and of course was absolutely gobsmacked The exact same thing happened for Chiefs-Niners, only that time I waited until the 4th quarter before walking away. Maybe I should take credit for those two Mahomes comebacks since clearly he would never have pulled them off with me still watching. The way I see it he owes me big time

ANYWAY...about the actual game itself, I saw Hurts running all over the Chiefs D so much that at halftime I went scurrying to PFR to check something and found out that the Super Bowl record for rushing yards by a QB was 64 (Steve McNair) and Hurts had 63. At the half. I also found out that shockingly, astonishingly, the Chiefs were just the second team in Super Bowl history to win after trailing by 10 or more at the half!!! No, I did not know this when I turned the game off. They also ended up being just the second Super Bowl team to score on every drive in the second half. The first one was the Eagles VS the Pats. I cannot make this stuff up.

I did wind up seeing all the second half highlights so many times that I might not even watch the replay now like I was going to As far as The Penalty is concerned I have a couple of thoughts. This bullshit of "I don't care if it's legit, officials shouldn't call a penalty in the last 5 minutes of a close game ever so the losing team can send it to OT because muh feelings!" has to stop. It's the same ridiculous mindset that resulted in the NFL changing the postseason OT rules (that thankfully never came into play) because people "felt" that the "wrong" team won the Chiefs-Bills game last year. Hell, even Bradberry himself admitted he held!!! Which BTW earns him my everlasting admiration in a world where nobody ever admits or holds themselves accountable for anything. ALSO...the Eagles were only in a position for that penalty to be so huge because 1.) Hurts gave away a TD by literally dropping the ball and 2.) they'd already let the Chiefs go 3 for 3 on TD drives in the second half. God help us all if every time a team takes the lead on the final play the rules get changed to give the other team a chance to score anyway because "feelings".

One last thing: people always yammer on about "letting the players decide the game" but what they refuse to understand is that when a player commits a legit penalty he actually IS deciding the game by his own actions. It's just more modern-day hypocrisy where everybody wants the officials to ignore things right up until it happens to THEIR team, and then those same people are bashing and trashing officials for missing "obvious" calls. Again, maybe just maybe the Eagles shouldn't have allowed themselves to be outscored 21-3 to start the second half, or Hurts should've held on to the ball. Without that ridiculous scoop and score the Chiefs trail by 17 at the half and the rest of the game is COMPLETELY different.

Damn, that is a helluva story 316!

I had no idea that "Chiefs hate" was a thing, but I sure learned yesterday - with literally every single analyst piking the Eagles to win and the loud chorus of boos greeting the Chiefs at the beginning. I really don't get it...Mahomes seems like a good guy, Reid is a great coach and a cool guy...really nothing bad to say about the team.

As for the holding penalty, I completely agree - if it's a penalty, it should be flagged regardless of when and how it happens. Penalties are penalties. Now, if you want to argue that penalties are called inconsistently - absolutely, and that's a big issue. But I'm not going to complain when the right call is made.

And the Eagles had more to worry about than that penalty: the Hurts fumble for a TD, the Sanders fumble that should have been a TD, and of course the 65-yard punt return that set the Chiefs up to win. (BTW, I bet I'm not the only one that thought "Oh my God, that's so Dolphins!" when I saw the Eagles allow that return!)

This is funny: I had an argument with a friend of mine this morning via text who was pissed that the Chiefs purposely didn't score a TD on that last drive. He thought it wasn't fair because the Eagles didn't have a chance after that. I ripped into him, and he's actually not a football fan to begin with, but I hate that attitude of "it's not fair!" Fairness has nothing to do with it - it's football, and as Herm Edwards taught us, "You play to win the game!" Why the hell should the Chiefs help out the Eagles and potentially lose the game?? Anyway, my friend and I are cool now, but it is a great example of the world we live in today.

You actually just explained perfectly why the Chiefs are so hated by so many--Mahomes and Reid are literally TOO good. In the 2020s, everything is inverted. If they were both criminal jerkasses then they and the Chiefs would be adored. I'm not sure even the Pats were ever hated THIS much I actually forgot one thing. In that ill-fated game thread, right after Hurts fumbled people actually were saying the NFL put him up to it somehow! I wish I was making this up but no, they were actually using that play to support their facts feelings that the NFL wanted the Chiefs to win.

Here's the thing that really makes my blood boil: I've been pointing out how the NFL has been rigging games (especially for the Bills) for 2 months and was shouted down and had the "conspiracy theorist" label slapped on me, but 3 weeks ago these SAME PEOPLE suddenly decided the NFL WAS rigged after all. I'm guessing a lot of them are bitter Bills bandwagoners but there were actually people saying the NFL rigged the Eagles-49ers game too! It's like they decide on a team to randomly hate and then work backwards to come up with phantom reasons to justify it.

The Toney Punt Return was Thing of Beauty and I was telling My Wife why it was because he slowed down and let his Blockers do there Job instead of out running his Blockers and losing Yardage. It is Refreshing to see Teams Win the Super Bowl that have QB's that are easy to Root for like Mahomes & Stafford last Year not a ASSHOLE like Brady.

Well said, kev!

The punt return was wild...the entire Philly team took Toney's left, and once he reversed field he had the entire Chiefs team blocking for him on the right! Really crazy how that play unfolded.

I also loved the Toney and Moore TDs, with the defense totally biting on the inside pre-snap motion, leaving the receivers wide open outside. Just brilliant playcalling and execution.

Jags ran that same Play against the Eagles for TD also and Bienemy found it in his Film Study and showed Offense Saturday Night after thinking it would Work.

JMP wrote:Well said, kev!

The punt return was wild...the entire Philly team took Toney's left, and once he reversed field he had the entire Chiefs team blocking for him on the right!  Really crazy how that play unfolded.

I also loved the Toney and Moore TDs, with the defense totally biting on the inside pre-snap motion, leaving the receivers wide open outside.  Just brilliant playcalling and execution.

That was Moore's first and only score all season BTW.

https://www.pro-football-reference.com/players/M/MoorSk01/gamelog/

finskev wrote:Jags ran that same Play against the Eagles for TD also and Bienemy found it in his Film Study and showed Offense Saturday Night after thinking it would Work.

Not related to the Super Bowl directly, but how the hell does Bieniemy not even get an interview and yet the Eagles no-name coordinators, neither of whom have impressive backgrounds at all, get head coaching jobs? I get that Bieniemy has the benefit of working with Reid and Mahomes, but come on - his coaching career looks absolutely stellar compared to Steichen and Gannon. Bieniemy has that assault charge from like 100 years ago or whatever, so maybe that's it, but it just seems insane to me that he keeps getting passed over when unqualified bums get head coaching jobs. Bieniemy is supposedly interviewing for an OC job with Washington, so I guess that's something.