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The Philadelphia Eagles’ keen pass rush was the backbone of their success on defense in the 2022 campaign.
The Eagles tallied a league-leading 70.0 sacks in regular season play. They went on to make life difficult for both Daniel Jones and Brock Purdy in last month’s NFC playoffs. Overall, Philadelphia combined for 15 quarterback hits and eight sacks in its playoff victories over the New York Giants and the San Francisco 49ers.
The script flipped for the reigning NFC champions in their Super Bowl 57 defeat to the Kansas City Chiefs. The Haason Reddick-led Eagles defense failed to bring down Chiefs passer Patrick Mahomes, and the group logged a mere five quarterback hits.
Eagles head coach Nick Sirianni has already taken a look back at his team’s Super Bowl 57 loss, and during his end-of-season press conference on Thursday, he gave props to Kansas City’s offensive line for containing Philadelphia’s front seven group.
“A lot of different factors,” Sirianni said. “Obviously, first and foremost you have to tip your hat to Kansas City, how they got the ball out different ways, schemes to get guys open. Their offensive line did a good job. They did a good job. They have good players. And they’re in that position to play in that game as well.
“So, first, you always give credit there.”
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Sirianni added that the Eagles simply did not have much of an answer for Mahomes’ sound mobility in the pocket and tight end Travis Kelce’s ability to simply get “open quick.”
“We definitely had different games where we’ve had tons and tons of pressure,” Sirianni said. “And this one wasn’t one of those games. Now, there’s still some pushback, there was still abilities to get there, and we still got some pushback in the pocket and everything like that.
“But again, sometimes Mahomes scrambles, he sometimes got it away quick. [Travis] Kelce got open quick. I think you’ve got to give them a lot of credit there.”
The Eagles recorded an astounding 78.0 sacks over 20 total games played in the campaign, which was the third-most by any team in a single season in the Super Bowl era.
