Eagles Coaches Like How They Handled Amped Up KC Blitz

PHILADELPHIA - Any time Kansas City defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo is on the schedule, you know what’s coming.

The NFL’s resident blitz doctor generally starts sending pressure from the team bus, and that was only ramped up on Sunday when the Eagles persevered to top the Chiefs 20-17 in the early-season rematch of Super Bowl LIX.

According to NextGenStats, Spags sent extra pressure at Jalen Hurts on 16 of 25 dropbacks (64%), the highest rate Kansas City has unleashed since 2019, Spagnuolo’s first season with the Chiefs.

“Yeah, he definitely [amped it up],” Eagles offensive coordinator Kevin Patullo said Tuesday when asked by Eagles On SI about all the blitzing. “If you look at the Super Bowl and the previous games until this past one, he definitely did. But really, overall, the efficiency was high, which was a great sign.”

Hurts finished with only 101 passing yards on 15-of-22 attempts, but the Eagles’ only explosive play in the contest came on a zero blitz on third-and-10 early in the fourth quarter of a three-point game.

Hurts stood in against the swarming pass rush and unleashed a less-than-aesthetic ball on a go route to DeVonta Smith, who adjusted back to the 50/50 throw against Pro Bowl cornerback Trent McDuffie for a 28-yard gain down to the Kansas City three-yard line.

A few plays later, Hurts rode the tush push into the end zone, and the Chiefs were on life support.

“Obviously, the ball didn't go down the field as much,” Patullo said. “We did hit the one big time play to DeVonta, which was a really good answer to what they were doing and something we were able to kind of push through during the game. But overall, if you look at the efficiency versus the pressure, we did a really good job, which was encouraging when it turned into that kind of game.”

You live by the sword and you can die by it.

Sep 14, 2025; Kansas City, Missouri, USA; Philadelphia Eagles head coach Nick Sirianni looks on during the third quarter of the game against the Kansas City Chiefs at GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium. | Jay Biggerstaff-Imagn Images

“We were able to do some good things with it,” Sirianni said when asked by Eagles On SI how his team handled all the blitzing. “I felt like in the run game we were able to handle some of the things where they were all over coming from different spots, this and that, and I thought Jalen did a really good job getting the ball out of his hand in those scenarios.

“Also against blitz zero he hit the big play to Smitty on that third down. Also, there was a couple other ones that he got the ball out of his hands very quickly, our offensive line and our backs.”

Despite the shaky net passing number of 94 yards, Sirianni thought his QB was making the proper decisions. Hurts finished 9 of 14 for 77 yards and a 78.6 passer rating and was sacked once.

The Eagles also blitzed more than usual, and that had a much more profound effect on Patrick Mahomes, who was 3 of 10 for 42 yards with an interception and a 5.0 passer rating.

“I thought sometimes when you're in a protection -- when you see a team bring one more than you can handle in certain situations, that's what's going to be important and you get the ball out of your hands and Jalen did a really good job of that,” the coach said.

The other part of that is protection. Facing that much blitzing, there will always be some leaks due to the unaccounted-for rusher but the pass protection held up.

“Then the other thing there that was very obvious was you have one free runner sometimes, but sometimes when that happens, everyone else is one-on-one,” Sirianni said. “I thought our guys did a really good job of keeping it firm.

“So Jalen just had to beat the free runner, right? That was our backs and our offensive line. It was both of them. Our offensive line did a really good job there of now the ball's coming out quick on a lot of those, but they did a really good job of keeping it firm and the backs stepping up and protecting.”

In the end, it was a passing grade,

“I thought we made improvements on that from the week before, particularly with our backs,” Sirianni said. “Obviously, you're always going to want to play back here, play back there, but I thought we did a really good job as far as picking that stuff up, throwing high, the whole operation I thought against when they brought one more than what we could protect.”

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