It’s not as if the Eagles were unaware of the threat presented in Super Bowl LVII by Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce — the bigger issue is finding a way to stop Patrick Mahomes’ most dangerous target. On Kansas City’s opening drive, Kelce caught both of Mahomes’ passes for 38 yards, and an 18-yard touchdown pass that tied the game at 7-7 with 6:57 left in the first quarter.
The touchdown came about as a lot of the Chiefs’ big plays come about — with pre-snap motion, and displacing defenders in matchup disadvantages. The Eagles were in Cover-1 against the Chiefs’ 11 personnel, and on the right side of the formation, cornerback Darius Slay and safety Marcus Epps were trying to deal with Kelce and receiver Marquez Valdes-Scantling. Kelce’s pre-snap motion inside put Epps instead of Slay on Kelce, and Epps just couldn’t keep up.
Short motion from Kelce isolates Epps one-on-one in single-high, the bump at the line only makes things worse. pic.twitter.com/vwsHlOGEZE
— Bill Barnwell (@billbarnwell) February 13, 2023
Epps tried to bump Kelce at the line, but you gotta do better than this.
WHO ELSE BUT KELCE 😉 pic.twitter.com/wqt5vG2Vgy
— Kansas City Chiefs (@Chiefs) February 13, 2023
The Eagles’ best plan for Kelce would be to put a linebacker on him from the snap (Kyzir White would be my suggestion), disrupting the timing of those plays, and preventing Kelce from creating space in the open field with his route understanding and ability to read and exploit defenses. So far, the Chiefs have the decided advantage in this case.
