Eagles Brandon Graham Takes Shot at Chiefs Super Bowl Win: 'They Got Blessed!'
Last season's NFC Championship game was over before it really started, when Philadelphia Eagles' pass rusher Haason Reddick forced a first-quarter fumble from the San Francisco 49ers, tearing quarterback Brock Purdy's right UCL in the process.
No one is suggesting a similar fate should have been expected for Kansas City Chiefs' quarterback Patrick Mahomes in Super Bowl LVII, but for the Eagles to be held without any sacks on a seemingly very slippery field at State Farm Stadium wasn't lost on observers either.
And while Eagles pass rusher Brandon Graham isn't directly blaming the field conditions for the loss by the Eagles, Philadelphia's longest-tenured player didn't mince words when discussing a typically ferocious pass rush failing to record a single sack in what ended up being a 38-35 loss.
“You need that traction to be able to get off the block and we were slipping a lot,” Graham told Derrick Gunn and Rob Ellis on Sports Take. “I don’t make excuses. I just know that that’s what was being talked about, us trying to get out of our own head a little bit, too.
“I’m telling you that O-line, they got blessed, I’ll say that.”
Consider this: Graham and Reddick were two of the four Eagles who finished the regular season with 11 or more sacks, with the latter leading the team at 16. Defensive tackle Javon Hargrave and edge rusher Josh Sweat also added 11 of their own. For good measure, defensive tackle Fletcher Cox had seven sacks as well. This wasn't just one of the better pass rushes in the league, it was the best. The Eagles finished the regular season with a league-leading 70 sacks.
The next closest team had 55, which just so happened to be the Chiefs. They sacked Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts twice in the Super Bowl. While the Chiefs may not have been as dependent on getting to the quarterback, they managed to find some limited success in doing so, despite the conditions of the field.
“When we finally looked at the film, I finally looked at it (and) was just like, ‘Man, oh man,'" Graham said. "... But you know, like I said, credit to Kansas City. It’s all love, you know what I’m saying. Them boys played too, they played on that surface too."
The Chiefs will welcome the Eagles to Arrowhead Field for a Monday Night Football matchup in Week 11. Even with Graham's acknowledgement that the Chiefs also had to deal with the same field conditions, you can bet his overall comments on the matter will be treated as bulletin-board material by the defending Super Bowl Champions.
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