How Mahomes’ Chiefs Beat Hurts’ Eagles in Super Bowl 2023

Bill Barnwell, writing for ESPN:

One good way to measure offensive dominance is down set conversion rate, which looks at every time a team took the ball on first down and sees whether it turned that series into a first down or a touchdown. The Chiefs converted 93.8% of their first downs into another first down or a touchdown in the second half, and the only reason they didn’t hit 100% is because Jerick McKinnon slid down on the 1-yard line to set up the title-winning field goal. ESPN has data going back through 2000, and no team has ever done that in the second half of a Super Bowl before. Just three teams have done it in the second half of any playoff game.

There’s a lot to get to with this Super Bowl, but let’s start there. How did the Chiefs pull off a flawless second half on offense? After watching this game live and again a second time, there are a few things that stood out.

Fantastic recap/breakdown of yesterday’s game. Long story short: the Chiefs spooked the Eagles with motion that convinced the Eagles to commit to busting up would-be jet sweeps, and instead threw the ball to players in now-uncovered zones. The Chiefs were literally perfect in the second half and needed to be to win the game.

★ Monday, 13 February 2023