Laddie Morse
The biggest game of the year is coming up one week from Sunday. Super Bowl LVII (SB 57). Everyone has an opinion about who will win or who should be favored. I haven’t really decided yet and that’s part of the reason for this piece. It’s been suggested that the Philadelphia Eagles haven’t really faced anyone tough this year, while almost every team the Kansas City Chiefs have faced have been hard-nosed and at the very least coming in with an attitude.
The Chiefs have faced 10 teams who’s QBs had a Rating in their contest of 99.3 or higher. In the meantime, the Eagles have faced just two teams with QB Ratings of 99.3 or higher and those QBs were Dak Prescott and Justin Fields.
Why mention them? Because of where they rank during the 2022 season. Marc Sessler of NFL.com has an article called: “NFL QB Index: Ranking all 32 teams’ primary starting quarterbacks at the end of the 2022 regular season” in which he ranks the QBs and here’s his ranking,
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I would agree that Patrick Mahoems belongs at the head of this list, but Jalen Hurst second? I’m not so sure yet. Here’s a list of the QBs and their rank (in Blue) by Marc Sessler at NFL.com. Since Sessler only listed 32 QBs, some are not listed (X) as noted:
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In any event, I just want to use this ranking for the purpose of showing which team has faced the tougher QBs this season. Below is a list of all the quarterbacks the Eagles have faced this season:
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Next, lets take a look at the quarterbacks the Chiefs have faced this season:
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The Eagles faced QBs with a 1,384 total and an average Passer Rating of 82.0. The Chiefs faced QBs with a total of 1,612.7 and an average Passer Rating of 94.9. Is the Eagles lower QB Passer Rating due to their stiff defense? If you’re from Philly, you’d likely answer yes. Is the Chiefs higher QB Passer Rating due to their poor defensive performance? After all, they do have a boatload of rookies playing there.
The Strength of Schedule (SoS) projected before the season started was offered by The Athletic and the Chiefs were tied for 5th place with the San Francisco 49ers at .533% SoS. The same projection had the Eagles with the 30th most difficult (easiest?) schedule at .464% SoS.
What does it all mean? It means the Chiefs have faced a much more difficult schedule this season than the Eagles, not only based upon the quarterbacks they went up against, but based upon the winning percentage of the teams they faced as well. Even if the Chiefs have faced tougher QBs this year, the experience and confidence gained by the Eagles players based on winning the games they did play, is something that can’t be measured.
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On the other hand, both teams have the exact same 14-and-3 record… and… scored the same number of points.
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The other difference I’m hearing a lot about is the running game of the Eagles which is ranked much higher than the Chiefs and the run defense of the Chiefs, which is not up to par. So, it’s assumed the Chiefs won’t be able to stop the Eagles three headed rushing attack: Miles Sanders (1,269 yards), Boston Scott (217 yards), and Kenneth Gainwell (240 yards).
We’ll cover the Running Game difference in another piece.
What do you think Chiefs fans? Do you think the Chiefs have an advantage by playing a tougher schedule and a tougher set of quarterbacks?
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Laddie Morse — ArrowheadOne
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