Thoughts about the last week
SB lix
The Eagles absolutely man-handled Kansas City on Sunday. The 40-22 final score makes it seem like it was so much closer than it actually was. The Eagles were up 34-0 until KC finally got on the board late in the third quarter. Those last two garbage time TD’s against the Eagles backups don’t mean much.
To highlight how badly Philly was beating KC; Philly had 24 points to just 23 yards for the Chiefs. As a matter of fact, the Chiefs didn’t even make it into Philadelphia territory until the third quarter drive that got them the Mahomes to Worthy TD.
I said in my previous blog post that the Eagles had to generate pressure on Mahomes to be able to win the game. And man, did they ever do that. According to Next Gen Stats, they generated a 38.1% pressure rate on Sunday; Without Blitzing! Which is really unheard of. They also sacked Mahomes 6 times and it feels like it should have been more. That defense was that good.
I read someone say a couple days before the SB that Jalen Hurts would have to outduel Mahomes for the Eagles to have a chance. I scoffed at that idea. I thought that they would have to dominate in the run game in order to win the game. The Eagles still ran for 135 yards but it was Hurts that did that damage. Saquan Barkley ran the ball 25 times, and typically he would get those 135 yards by himself if he ran that much. But he was bottled up. In fact, every rusher not named Jalen Hurts was bottled up.
The dagger in the game came from Hurts, who did indeed outduel Mahomes. KC was down 27-0 with a fourth down looming. They had to go for it to have any semblance of a chance to make a come-back. With just under 3 minutes to go in the third quarter, Patrick Mahomes throws a pass to a DeAndre Hopkins that fell incomplete. The announcers and most people watching assumed that the Eagles would just kill time. Nope. The very first play, Jalen Hurts uncorked a 46 yard bomb to DeVonta Smith for a touchdown that essentially sealed the game.
A masterclass from Philly in every facet of the game. And it was just reported this Tuesday morning that Kellen Moore is the new Head Coach for the New Orleans Saints. Good luck to him because that team is in so much cap hell that I don’t see them getting out of it for at least two years.
thoughts on the nba
The Lakers. Yeah I know, no one really wants to hear about them because they are over-saturated. I just think that it is important to note that they were playing good ball even before the Luka trade. After a three game losing streak from January 5th to January 13th, the Lakers, before Luka played his first game, were 11-2 in their last 13 games. The last of those three losses, the Lakers were 20-17 and seventh in the Western Conference standings. Luka played his first game last night (February 10, 2025), a Lakers win to push their winning streak to 6 games and a 12-2 record in the last 14. They are now 32-19 and fourth in the Western Conference standings. I am not a Lakers fan and certainly not a fan of LeBron but, I really hope that they win the title this year just to make Nico Harrison look that much more incompetent. And to beat the Mavs in the playoffs would be chefs kiss.
The Nuggets have won 7 straight games after a three game losing streak. And before that three game losing streak, Denver won 8 out of 9 games. 15-4 in their last 19 games. A reminder that this is still a dangerous team. I think they should have been active at the trade deadline though. They needed to add more defense. Come playoff time, when the court shrinks more and more, they will have to get stops. Of the current playoff teams in the Western Conference, they give up the most points per game at 115.8. They have a slim margin for error.
Speaking of a slim margin for error, the Golden State Warriors. They needed to do something at the trade deadline and that something was Jimmy Butler. It was reported a few days prior that Jimmy would not sign an extension with Golden State but, he apparently changed his mind. He agreed to a 2 year, $111 million extension that keeps Butler, Steph Curry and Draymond Green in GS through the ‘26-’27 season. All it cost them was Andrew Wiggens, Kyle Anderson, Lindy Waters III, Dennis Schroder, and some draft picks. Losing Schroder will be felt a bit because he allowed Curry to play off-ball some. They were able to keep Kuminga, Moody, and Podziemski; which is good for a team that needs to develop the young players for the post Curry teams. This is a team that was 12-3 at the beginning of the season before the wheels completely fell off. They still have Curry and now a guy in Butler that can be leaned on as a legitimate threat as a second scorer. Not sure they have much of a playoff ceiling, assuming they can even get there. But with Curry and now Butler, there’s always a chance.