Hello readers! Another week of National Football League action is in the books. The 2022 NFL season ends with a great game in the Super Bowl. Of the two teams, the Kansas City Chiefs and Philadelphia Eagles, the Chiefs emerge from the carnage with their 3rd Super Bowl championship in franchise history. In this post, I'll talk about the game, the commercials and the halftime show, and a recap of my predictions prior to the start of the regular season. We have a lot to talk about so let's get to work!
Super Bowl LVII Recap
Kansas City 38, Philadelphia 35: TW: Eagles; CV: Chiefs
The Chiefs outlast the Eagles to capture their 2nd Super Bowl title in four seasons. Patrick Mahomes was limited in the first half due to the ball control and sustained drives of the Eagles. He would take a shot to the ankle that has plagued him for nearly half the season close to halftime. He finished the game with 21 of 27 pass completions for 182 yards with three touchdowns. Isiah Pacheco was going to be utilized in the game as he rushed for 76 yards on 15 carries with a touchdown run. Pacheco wasn't used much during the first half due to the Eagles ball control as well. After halftime, he would go on a run that was needed. Patrick Mahomes had 44 rushing yards including a 26-yard run that eventually set up the go-ahead field goal late in the 4th quarter. Jerrick McKinnon had a good game running the ball with 34 yards rushing. The Chiefs put up 340 total yards in the game. They utilized their running game well enough and their defense was bend but don't break. Travis Kelce, Kadarius Toney and Skye Moore were the players that caught the three touchdown passes from Mahomes. Special teams could make and break you especially in the big game. One such bad special teams play was Harrison Butker's doink of a field goal in the 2nd half. That really killed the hopes of the Chiefs early in the game by leaving points on the board. A great special teams play was the punt return from Kadarius Toney that started deep in Chiefs territory that ended up inside the Eagles 10 yard line. It was also a Super Bowl punt record. Defense would also get on the scoring action with a fumbled ball by Jalen Hurts that was recovered by Nick Bolton. With the game tied at 35, it would come down to a Harrison Butker field goal try from 27 yards. The kicker found redemption and hit the field goal that eventually led to the final result.
Jalen Hurts was just magical in this game as he was a force on both the pass and run. Hurts hit 27 of 38 passes for 304 yards with a touchdown pass and rushed for three touchdowns. If you had him on fantasy football, he'd give you 43 points. Devonta Smith had a solid day catching the ball with seven catches for 100 receiving yards. AJ Brown made the most of his Super Bowl appearance with six catches for 96 yards receiving. Big takeaways in this game was the total yards for the Eagles with 417 yards and the time of possession that at one point controlled the ball for nearly 22 minutes in the first half. They used quarterback sneaks that looked like rugby scrums that pushed the Chiefs defensive front away like flies. They really had ball control that put pass plays on the early downs and then rushing plays in the later downs. They really were a force to be reckoned with and they nearly won the game. Unfortunately, nearly doesn't get it done in the NFL.
I feel the holding call should be talked about. It was not a great call especially that late in the game. Certainly it can be argued that there was contact on the play. Was there enough contact on the play to warrant a flag? That's where the ticky tack aspect of it is. Officiating wasn't the best in this game despite Roger Goodell's assurance that "officiating has never been better" (perhaps a bit of paraphrasing, you get the picture. There was a no-call false start on Philadelphia, a no-call on a defensive pass interference on Philadelphia, then there was that questionable challenge on the Dallas Goedert catch and then the holding call. Safe to say, the ratings for the Super Bowl is going to be good, and we fans can be our worst enemies. The reasoning behind that statement is that we will keep watching these games regardless of how bad the officiating is. As long as we keep watching, nothing will change.
Commercials
Well how about those commercials. Those commercials for this Super Bowl were just not that great compared to last year. Some of them were decent. I do like the PopCorners commercial with Aaron Paul and Bryan Cranston reprising their roles in the TV show Breaking Bad. Other than that there just wasn't a lot of great ones that were memorable. I feel they were more over the top instead of just trying to be a commercial that tried to sell a product. If I gave it a grade I'd give it a C-.
Halftime Show
If the commercials were a disappointment and you were an Eagles fan then maybe you found some solace in the Halftime performance done by Rihanna. Rihanna hadn't performed in seven years and it looked like she didn't miss a beat. Plus, she did it all on her own along with performers. I don't seem to recall a performance where the halftime act did it all solo. Maybe Prince did it or Katy Perry did it but suffice to say it was a great performance. I don't think it'll top Prince but I think has to be at least Top 3 with Prince and Snoop Dogg + Eminem rounding out the two. I'd give it a grade of A-, I'd give it a plus if she did "Disturbia."
Preseason Predictions + Awards Recap
Prior to the Week 1 Picks post last September, I made a preseason predictions post where I picked where the 32 teams will finish in the standings, the playoffs, the Super Bowl matchup and winner as well as the Awards winners. It's a fun way to look back on where I was right and where I was wrong. This will be probably painful haha. Let's take a look:
Regular season predictions
AFC:
East
Buffalo Bills: (Picked them to finish 1st) Correct
Miami Dolphins (Picked them to finish 2nd) Correct
New England Patriots (Picked them to finish 3rd) Correct
New York Jets (Picked them to finish 4th) Correct
North
Baltimore Ravens (Picked them to finish 1st) Incorrect
Cincinnati Bengals (Picked them to finish 2nd) Incorrect
Pittsburgh Steelers (Picked them to finish 3rd) Correct
Cleveland Browns (Picked them to finish 4th) Correct
South
Indianapolis Colts (Picked them to finish 1st) Incorrect
Tennessee Titans (Picked them to finish 2nd) Correct
Jacksonville Jaguars (Picked them to finish 3rd) Incorrect
Houston Texans (Picked them to finish 4th) Correct
West
Kansas City Chiefs (Picked them to finish 1st) Correct
Los Angeles Chargers (Picked them to finish 2nd) Correct
Las Vegas Raiders (Picked them to finish 3rd) Correct
Denver Broncos (Picked them to finish 4th) Correct
NFC:
East
Philadelphia Eagles (Picked them to finish 1st) Correct
Dallas Cowboys (Picked them to finish 2nd) Correct
New York Giants (Picked them to finish 3rd) Correct
Washington Commanders (Picked them to finish 4th) Correct
North
Green Bay Packers (Picked them to finish 1st) Incorrect
Minnesota Vikings (Picked them to finish 2nd) Incorrect
Detroit Lions (Picked them to finish 3rd) Incorrect
Chicago Bears (Picked them to finish 4th) Correct
South
Tampa Bay Buccaneers (Picked them to finish 1st) Correct
New Orleans Saints (Picked them to finish 2nd) Incorrect
Carolina Panthers (Picked them to finish 3rd) Incorrect
Atlanta Falcons (Picked them to finish 4th) Correct
West
Los Angeles Rams (Picked them to finish 1st) Incorrect
San Francisco 49ers (Picked them to finish 2nd) Incorrect
Arizona Cardinals (Picked them to finish 3rd) Incorrect
Seattle Seahawks (Picked them to finish 4th) Incorrect
So overall I got at least 19 of 32 correct. That is a 59% grade that would make it be a fail. Oh well. By comparison I got 15 of 32 right last year.
Playoff Predictions
AFC
1st seed: Buffalo Bills (incorrect)
2nd seed: Kansas City Chiefs (incorrect)
3rd seed: Indianapolis Colts (incorrect)
4th seed: Baltimore Ravens (incorrect)
5th seed: Los Angeles Chargers (correct)
6th seed: Las Vegas Raiders (Incorrect)
7th seed: Cincinnati Bengals (Incorrect)
Wild Card:
Chiefs over Bengals (incorrect)
Colts over Raiders (incorrect)
Chargers over Ravens (Incorrect)
Divisional
Bills over Colts (incorrect)
Chiefs over Chargers (Incorrect)
Conference Championship
Bills over Chiefs (Incorrect)
NFC
1st seed: Tampa Bay Buccaneers (Incorrect)
2nd seed: Los Angeles Rams (Incorrect)
3rd seed: Green Bay Packers (Incorrect)
4th seed: Philadelphia Eagles (Incorrect)
5th seed: San Francisco 49ers (Incorrect)
6th seed: Dallas Cowboys (Incorrect)
7th seed: Minnesota Vikings (Incorrect)
Wild Card:
Rams over Vikings (Incorrect)
Packers over Cowboys (Incorrect)
49ers over Eagles (Incorrect)
Divisional:
Buccaneers over 49ers (Incorrect)
Rams over Packers (Incorrect)
Conference Championship:
Buccaneers over Rams (Incorrect)
Super Bowl LVII:
Buccaneers over Bills (incorrect
So I was way off in my playoff predictions. Safe to say it is easier to predict the regular season than the playoffs. Suffice to say that Buccaneers and Bills game would've been good to watch if it happened. Let's look at the Award Predictions.
Award Predictions:
MVP: Justin Herbert (incorrect)
Offensive Player of the Year: Justin Jefferson (correct)
Defensive Player of the Year: Nick Bosa (correct)
Offensive Rookie of the Year: Christian Watson (Incorrect)
Defensive Rookie of the Year: Aidan Hutchinson (Incorrect)
Comeback Player of the Year: Christian McCaffrey (incorrect)
Coach of the Year: Brandon Staley (Incorrect)
Didn't do as hot in my Awards Predictions but at least I got the Offensive and Defensive player of the years right. Thanks Justin Jefferson and Nick Bosa for at least making me look good. I don't know what I was thinking about Brandon Staley getting Coach of the Year. Shame past me.
Well my friends, this post closes out yet another season of blogging the NFL. Hopefully you had as much fun reading these posts as much as I did writing them. I would like to keep doing blogs during the offseason but the time usually slips on by. No guarantees but I would like to do a Free Agency blog and a Draft blog. Who knows. Until then see you all very soon. Thanks.
-Tom
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