This year at the Super Bowl, no last-minute guest, no team that snuck into the playoffs through the back door, no underdog surprised to find themselves in the Finals. Nor “Super Bowl before the letter” played two weeks too early, as when the cream of the league is concentrated in a single conference.
No, in 2023, the hierarchy was respected. The eternal “chôqueux” (Bills and Vikings, who trail a combined record of zero wins and eight losses in the Super Bowl) have disappointed again. The serious contenders, Bengals and Forty-Niners, surfing on respective streaks of 10 and 12 victories, bowed in the conference finals. And this Sunday, the two best teams in the NFL will face off, period. Two formidable football machines, quite frightening on paper, which collide to dance a kind of stormy square set whose combination combines pure strength and high precision. The clash should be interesting.
The best aerial offense (Chiefs) against the best anti-pass defense (Eagles). With the two best players, ex-co-leaders of the race for the Most Valuable Player (MVP) trophy awarded on Thursday, in the role of conductors: Patrick Mahomes and Jalen Hurts. And these elite quarterbacks — Mahomes with his magician tricks, Hurts capable of transforming into a running back without warning — will be pitted, coincidentally, against the two best groups of quarterback hunters in the NFL. A symmetry nothing less than promising…
And speaking of quarterbacks, the change of guard announced since the emergence of Josh Allen, Joe Burrow and other Justin Herberts, which has become this cliché blithely denied, on the ground, by the performances of a pair of glorious grandpas in their forties or not far away, this brief generational renewal now seems accomplished. Tom Brady, who poses in panties, hand on the package to brag about his line of underwear, obviously has better things to do, in his new skin as the most coveted bachelor on the planet, than to get hit by guys of 150 kilos.
With Aaron Rodgers, it’s always a bit complicated. He has just announced his departure for closed retirement, in complete darkness for four days, to think for the umpteenth time about his future. If I were his general manager, I’d be afraid he’d come out of that new-age sweat lodge with, in fact, visions, dollar signs in his eyes like last time, and I’d promote Jordan right away. Love, 24 years old, all his teeth, and who must start pawing.
The average age of starting quarterbacks in the conference finals was 25. However, the vigor of their young years does not make them invulnerable. Among the memorable scenes of the doubleheader on January 29, we will remember Brock Purdy sent back to the turf with a torn elbow ligament, forced to insure for a decimated Niners at quarterback, but unable to pass the ball (I would have been better than him with his left arm tied behind his back), much to the delight of opposing linebackers.
And then, Pat Mahomes who, playing on one leg, nevertheless manages to reach the touchline by trotting on his sprained ankle to stop the clock in the last seconds of the match, but also – and this is the finest — to draw on the head of a frustrated defender what looks like the most costly and unnecessary penalty in the history of American football: fifteen yards for hitting a near-invalid already out of play, the difference between a risky placement and a comfortable victorious precision kick.
Finally, Jalen Hurts, against the Forty-Niners, did not seem very comfortable in his role as a permanent threat on the ground (13 ground touchdowns during the regular season). He gave me the impression of saving his right shoulder (the one with which he throws the ball), injured during the fifteenth week of activities.
Quarterback hunting season ends this weekend, and we probably won’t be the only ones thinking about Jalen’s shoulder and Patrick’s ankle. Of course, since the system of “injury bonuses”, of shameful memory, introduced by the Saints (!) at the turn of the 2010s, the very idea of deliberately crippling a player is taboo in the NFL. But how do you know when a mountain of muscle is rolling over you? Let’s just hope the umpires protect passers a little better than Purdy’s replacement against the Eagles, Josh Johnson, who was concussed after tackle Ndamukong Suh appeared to add to it when smashing him down under an avalanche of 140 kilos of meat.
On Sunday, Mahomes, in addition to Suh, will be facing four guys who have amassed more than ten quarterback sacks apiece in the regular season — an NFL record — and a defense that has totaled 68, for a frightening average of four. per game. And to harass the pivot of the Eagles, the big Chris Jones will probably not give up his place. It is tempting to predict that the outcome of the match will be decided there, in the trenches.
If the Chiefs fail to curb the ground game, if their slightly green secondary drops a few big plays against the fiery tandem of AJ Brown and DeVonta Smith, if Isiah Pacheco cannot take advantage of Philadelphia’s weakness against the run , if Travis Kelce for a moment ceases to have a knack for catching every balloon that comes up in heavy traffic, and if our Saint Patrick suddenly runs out of miracles, it could be a long Sunday night in Arizona.
But that’s a lot of ifs. The Chiefs by a field goal.