Defense key to Super Bowl win
The Eagles and Chiefs battle it out in the Super Bowl tonight and it’s likely going to be a close game that comes down to the defense.
Can defenses win titles? The Philadelphia Eagles executive Vice President and general manager Howie Roseman seems to think so. With two offenses as strong as the Eagles and Kansas City Chiefs, Super Bowl LVII may very well come down to which defense is stronger.
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Could the Eagles defense be key to winning the Super Bowl?
The Eagles molded Jalen Hurts into the quarterback who brought them to the Super Bowl this year, and meanwhile spent their time picking up defensive talents. They did the opposite of what most teams do, which is pick up a star quarterback and then mold the defense, and it has worked out well for them and could win them the championship.
When the Eagles finished this post season, they became the first team in NFL history to win consecutive playoff games scoring more than 30 points and allowing fewer than 10 points. The talent on offense is obvious, with players like Hurts, Jason Kelce, and DeVonta Smith…just to name a few. But they made huge signings on defense that made all the difference in their whole season this year - Ndamukong Sun, Linval Joseph, Chauncey Gardner-Johnson, James Bradberry, and Reed Blankenship were all significant contributors in getting Philly to the no. 1 seed in the NFC.
According to a study conducted by Bruin Sports Analytics, however, the saying “defense wins championships” is not always necessarily true. In that study, the results showed that the defensive ranking was not a better indicator of a playoff berth than the offensive ranking and that actually of the league’s top five offenses, a higher fraction made the playoffs over the last 20 years more than the league’s top five defenses.
Even still, the strategy of building the defense has indeed worked for the Eagles all season long and it could continue to work for them tonight against the Chiefs.