Philadelphia Eagles Jason Kelce 'Not Buying Into Revenge Games' With Super Bowl Rematch vs. Kansas City Chiefs
PHILADELPHIA – Super Bowl rematch, what Super Bowl rematch?
Philadelphia Eagles head coach Nick Sirianni shrugged off comparisons between Monday Night Football’s heavyweight clash between his team and the Kansas City Chiefs and what transpired between the two teams just nine months in the biggest game of them all, the Super Bowl.
“You could turn any week in the NFL into, I’m going to get up for this one right here,” said Sirianni as the Eagles returned to work on Thursday following their bye week. “Our job is, it’s mentally challenging and you have to mentally tough to get up for every game the same every single week, and we try to pride ourselves on being mentally tough.
“You look for any ways to find motivation, but it is important that each and every week that you’re locked in and have that mental toughness to go to work whether you’re playing team A or the team that beat you in the Super Bowl last year, you have to have that mental toughness to go about your business that way.”
Many of the players felt the same way, though left tackle Jordan Mailata had said earlier in the week that this game was personal.
Not so for center Jason Kelce.
“It’s not the same game,” said Kelce. “I’m motivated to win the game. I don’t need the Super Bowl to get motivated to beat my brother or Andy Reid. I never beat them in my career. I’m motivated maybe by that, but I don’t buy into Super Bowl revenge games.
“Each season is different. This team is not the same, that team’s not the same, nothing that goes out there and happens on Monday is going to at all change or make anything different about what happened last year.”
Andy Reid and Nick Sirianni embrace after the Chiefs beat the Eagles, 38-35, in Super Bowl LVII
USA Today
Both teams are different this season than they were just a short time ago in the Chiefs’ 38-35 win over the Eagles in Super Bowl LVII.
For instance, the Chiefs’ defense is playing lights out, usually turning the lights out on other teams’ offense. They are allowing a league-best 15.8 points per game.
The Eagles own the top-ranked run defense. In the second half of last year’s Super Bowl, the Chiefs collected 119 yards of their 158 yards on the ground in the second half. This year, Philly’s run defense is surrendering 66.3 yards per game.
Chiefs head coach Andy Reid was asked on a conference call with Eagles media on Thursday for the reason why.
“Well, they drafted a really good player (Jalen Carter) and No. 91 (Fletcher Cox) doesn’t get old,” he said. “Those cheesesteaks are working.”
Despite some differences in personnel and coaching, Sirianni said he has rewatched last year’s Super Bowl tape and showed it to his team as well earlier in the week.
“It’s just part of our preparation,” said the coach. “We’ve used that, we’ve used the tape, we used the preparation going into it, and there are things I’ve been watching thing it feels like man it feels like I just watched this stuff not too long because I did.
“So, there was some deja vu there. We use everything that can help us prepare for a game and obviously, the preparation we did going into it and also that game helped us a lot.”
Watching the tape, though, wasn’t easy for some.
“It stings for sure,” said tight end Jack Stoll. “It does suck watching some of that film, getting some of those memories kind of flood back, but it’s an awesome opportunity to go out there, and it’s a new season.
"The past is the past, so you just let those emotions float over your head and keep rolling with it. It’s a new year and we’re looking forward to it.”
Even for Sirianni, there were some painful moments.
“There will be things where look man that as a really good play or oh man I wish we could have that one back,” he said. “Do you find yourself sometimes doing that?
"Yeah, but you have to remind yourself that hey, our job is to get prepared for this game, what happened in the past happened in the past, we’ll learn from our mistakes, we’ll get better from the things we did well, but I’d be lying if I wasn’t like, ‘Ahhh, if this would’ve just happened or that would’ve happened,’ every once a while but we’re not dwelling in it.”
