Philly put on a show huh?

purplefaithful wrote:
That was quite the roster Roseman trotted out there last night.

I'm envious...

Eagles edge rusher Josh Sweat said he and his teammates realized early on that they had the Chiefs’ offensive line’s number.

“After a while, it’s just like – cannot go wrong with us right now,” he said. “I said this is just that day. It’s just who’s it gonna be, that’s all it was.”

Yeah, they got a little lucky though. Players like Saquon Barkley are rarely available via trade and Jalen Carter dropping to them in 2023 was similar to how Justin Jefferson slid past 4 teams to land in Minnesota in 2020. Drafting Mitchell and DeJean last year was huge for them. DeJean was considered a 1st rounder by many and fell to the Eagles at 40.

Vikings are only like 7 high quality player away. Interested to Kwesi make a draft trade so he can cut the players in 2-3 years.

Great roster construction. They got home repeatedly. Mahomes took a shot early in the first where his head hit the ground, no one seemed to check on him.

TRENDING: #NFL fans are speculating that #Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes may have suffered a head injury in the first quarter.

Mahomes head was violently slammed into the ground.

Pat has then had the worst game of career… could be an explanation whypic.twitter.com/dg1eoslFt2

— MLFootball (@MLFootball) February 10, 2025

Philly defense dominated. Impressive. There's not much doubt in my mind that if they played like that against us in the playoffs, we'd have been smoked too. Likely any team in the league would have. And I agree, they're set up very well moving forward.

I was sick of KC winning every year so good for the Eagles I guess. On to free agency!

Phily was able to pressure Mahomes with only their DL. Didn't blitz once the entire game.

Games are won in the trenches and both their lines dominated all night, I do not believe they blitzed once and still had 6 sacks and constant pressure. We had to rely on the blitz all year and it left our weak secondary exposed. Philly's formulae is to get the biggest OL possible and it has worked for them and a big reason for Barkley's success this year. KC looked lost and defeated from the start of the game, they just got completely overwhelmed.

As a side note, unlike their opponents like Buffalo who battled back and almost beat them despite so many bad calls going against them, KC had no response when calls finally went against them, just continued to wilt. Not so tough when they were on the other side of it.

The amount of talent Philadelphia has assembled the last few years has really been impressive. Hurts and Barkley are as tough as it gets in trying to defend something that's almost impossible to defend. Great weapons in the passing game. Massive offensive line and top it off with the #1 ranked defense.

I just look at that team and don't see them going anywhere for a while. How far away are the Vikings from being in that conversation? I'd say at least 3 to 4 impact starters. We have work to do this offseason.

Knucklehead wrote:
Phily was able to pressure Mahomes with only their DL. Didn't blitz once the entire game.

The D-line should have been the MVP

Howie Roseman has pretty much  hit on their top 3 picks over the last 4 drafts. That’s what we’re all looking up at now…  :angel:  Oh & Lewis Cine has a ring now.   :D

Kentis wrote:
Howie Roseman has pretty much  hit on their top 3 picks over the last 4 drafts. That’s what we’re all looking up at now…  :angel:  Oh & Lewis Cine has a ring now.   :D

That's a big part of going from near dead last on defense last year to dominating the superbowl the next.
Coaching has been huge for the Vikings recently, player acquisition in the draft has sucked.

The lessons continue:

1. This game is won, and lost, in the trenches...even when it's not obvious.

2. But it WAS obvious the Philly's defensive front basically neutered the NFL's top QB of the past several years.

3. Similarly, Hurts had eons the read/throw compared to Mahomes.

4. Yep, defense wins championships. Even Hurts said so in the postgame.

StickierBuns wrote:
Haven't seen any 'Andy Reid got outcoached' stuff from fans that usually appear after a beatdown in the playoffs/Superbowl. Guess that's just reserved for KOC? ;)

To some degree it also makes me think of Mahomes and Darnold, Mahomes played about as bad you could play and it seems that most of the blame has been on their OL.  Philly DL destroyed the KC OL and Mahomes was under a lot of pressure, but he made a lot of bad decisions.  During the game I was thinking Mahomes is the best in the game and he has that same dear in headlights look that Darnold had the last two games.  Obviously, Mahomes is going to get a pass because of his history where as Darnold's history works against him, but it does make think how much was Sam and how much was our OL getting completely dominated in those games.

JR44 wrote:

To some degree it also makes me think of Mahomes and Darnold, Mahomes played about as bad you could play and it seems that most of the blame has been on their OL.  Philly DL destroyed the KC OL and Mahomes was under a lot of pressure, but he made a lot of bad decisions.  During the game I was thinking Mahomes is the best in the game and he has that same dear in headlights look that Darnold had the last two games.  Obviously, Mahomes is going to get a pass because of his history where as Darnold's history works against him, but it does make think how much was Sam and how much was our OL getting completely dominated in those games.

All OLs get beat. But what's interesting here is that this was probably one of the NFL's best defensive lines against one of the NFL's best offensive lines. And the defense dominated. Chiefs boast Creed Humphrey at center, Trey Smith at guard, Joe Thuney--all of whom are elite level blockers, all of whom got beat. 

An "A" offensive line will probably beat a "C" and maybe even a "B" defensive line, but they don't stand a chance against an "A" defensive line. Defense always seems to win that matchup.

I commented in one of the FA threads how out athleticized OL are vs many DL these days. ITs almost unfair.

The OT's really cost The Chiefs in this one...I like what we have in CD and O'Neil to build upon. But they gotta go and do it one day.

MaroonBells wrote:

All OLs get beat. But what's interesting here is that this was probably one of the NFL's best defensive lines against one of the NFL's best offensive lines. And the defense dominated. Chiefs boast Creed Humphrey at center, Trey Smith at guard, Joe Thuney--all of whom are elite level blockers, all of whom got beat. 

An "A" offensive line will probably beat a "C" and maybe even a "B" defensive line, but they don't stand a chance against an "A" defensive line. Defense always seems to win that matchup.

Best offensive line?  I thought I heard that their LT was just moved there a few weeks ago because they were having issues.  He was an elite guard, but probably not at LT.

greediron wrote:

Best offensive line?  I thought I heard that their LT was just moved there a few weeks ago because they were having issues.  He was an elite guard, but probably not at LT.

Yeah, that's Thuney, and I read he held up pretty well out there. But with him moving outside, it left a weakness at left guard that the Eagles exploited. But even Pro Bowl right guard and star free agent Trey Smith was getting beaten. Just think a star DL will beat a star OL of a similar caliber most of the time.

As wide as that Philly D line was lining up, how come the Chiefs weren't exploiting those humongous gaps w/ some running plays? Should have been easy pickings & would have forced them to change their approach… 

Kentis wrote:
As wide as that Philly D line was lining up, how come the Chiefs weren't exploiting those humongous gaps w/ some running plays? Should have been easy pickings & would have forced them to change their approach… 

Andy had the same problem in the SB vs. Tampa.

As for this performance being an excuse for Darnold.. lol. Sam holds onto the ball like it's his first born child. No oline is going to hold up long enough to cover for his inability to process the field at NFL speed.

comet52 wrote:

Andy had the same problem in the SB vs. Tampa. 

As for this performance being an excuse for Darnold.. lol.  Sam holds onto the ball like it's his first born child.  No oline is going to hold up long enough to cover for his inability to process the field at NFL speed.

They sure did, back in 2020?

Next year they beefed-up the OL and bam...Just like Emeril. 

Vikings still need talent upgrades and I think they need to try and get younger too...I agree with the pundits who put us in the top 10, but not in the top 5 or 6. 

Big question for me is QB and how much (if any) step-back do we take passing the ball?

purplefaithful wrote:

They sure did, back in 2020?

Next year they beefed-up the OL and bam...Just like Emeril. 

Vikings still need talent upgrades and I think they need to try and get younger too...I agree with the pundits who put us in the top 10, but not in the top 5 or 6. 

Big question for me is QB and how much (if any) step-back do we take passing the ball?

And if we do take a step back, which is reasonable to assume... how screwed are we? Hopefully if the Vikings can beef up the OL we'll have more success on the ground but I'm kind of assuming we won't have anyone special at RB, unless the team surprises me or we get very lucky. The more yards the OL can get Cam Akers or whoever before contact, the better.

Our passing offense typically shoulders the load under KO and it will probably have to again, but my point is, a 20% decrease in passing efficiency will have a much a larger effect on our overall team than it would on most other offenses, since the passing game has been how we win more often than not.