Editor’s note: This is the Monday, February 13, edition of the “Game Day with Kevin Modesti” newsletter. To receive the newsletter in your inbox, sign up here.
The day after the Super Bowl, it’s hard not to keep thinking about the penalty that helped the Kansas City Chiefs to beat the Philadelphia Eagles 38-35 by kicking a late field goal. How to think about it? Read more below.
First, other news:
Not even the Eagles claim the Chiefs weren’t deserving winners of Super Bowl LVII yesterday in Glendale, Ariz. The Eagles controlled the ball, but when the Chiefs had it, they led 6.4-5.8 in yards per play, usually a telling stat. The Chiefs are totally legit, coach Andy Reid and quarterback Patrick Mahomes leading their second championship in four years.
Deep in Eagles territory after Mahomes’ 26-yard run on a bad ankle, the Chiefs were bound to go ahead with a field goal even if the flag for defensive holding against cornerback James Bradberry hadn’t flown as Mahomes’ pass landed in the end zone far beyond wide receiver JuJu Smith-Schuster (Long Beach Poly, USC) on third and 8 from the 15 with 1:52 on the clock.
But the penalty changed the endgame by giving the Chiefs first down at the 11. After Jerick McKinnon’s 9-yard run, Mahomes was able to kneel twice to run the clock down before Harrison Butker nailed a 27-yard field goal with eight seconds to go.
Without the penalty, Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts would have had at least a minute and a half to try to drive for a tying field goal or winning touchdown, and fans would have enjoyed the chance for one more twist in an entertaining Super Bowl between the football’s two best teams.
Bradberry partly defused controversy by saying after the game that the penalty was legit: “It was a holding. I tugged his jersey. I was hoping they would let it slide.”
But can you partly defuse a bomb?
By then, social media was ablaze with ridicule for the call, which was the only holding call against either…
Read the full article here
