Madden NFL 23 Thinks the Eagles are an Underdog

PHOENIX - The Eagles remain the favorites in Super Bowl LVII, a nod toward the more well-rounded team against the superstar-laden Kansas City Chiefs.

That's an uncomfortable position for many in Philadelphia, who view the city through a blue-collar lens where a mythical movie character, Rocky Balboa, defines the underdog mentality.

With few avenues to turn to in an effort to bring back the 2017-18 underdog masks and time running out before Sunday's game, the answer may have been delivered by the iconic Madden video game.

The 2023 version of the game includes a simulator that allowed Fan Nation to run 100 games between the Eagles and the Chiefs, and Kansas City not only came out on top, the Chiefs won by a significant margin, 57-43.

In 27 of the simulations, the Chiefs won by 10 or more points and Kansas City often scored first, perhaps a nod toward Philadelphia's propensity to defer when winning the coin toss.

Much of the thought process behind the Chiefs' dominance is MVP Patrick Mahomes, who topped out with a 575-yard game during the simulations, something that would certainly have Jonathan Gannon back in the crosshairs with the Eagles' faithful.

Of the 43 times the Eagles' came out on top, 14 of them were by 10-or-more points.

Madden had four of the games going to overtime and testing the new playoff OT format and the Chiefs won each of those games.

Since 2004, Madden NFL's predictions have been accurate 13 out of 19 times when predicting just the Super Bowl winner.

On one occasion the game even predicted things perfectly for Super Bowl 49 in 2015, the last time the big game was in Glendale when New England upended the Seattle Seahawks 28-24 with a late-game Malcolm Butler interception sealing things.

When the Chiefs and Eagles have been involved it's been 50/50 for the predictive model. Madden correctly tabbed the Chiefs to beat the San Francisco 49ers in Super Bowl 54 correctly but missed by selecting the Chiefs over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers for Super Bowl 55. That miss could potentially be tied to offensive line injuries not taken into account, however.

As for the Eagles, Madden nailed the Eagles losing to the Patriots in Super Bowl 39 correctly but lost out when it was ssumed the Pats would win again in SB LII.

Predicting the Super Bowl 57 winner with 100 Madden NFL 23 simulations

https://videogames.si.com/features/madden-nfl-23-super-bowl-57-simulations-prediction

-John McMullen contributes Eagles coverage for SI.com's Eagles Today and is the NFL Insider for JAKIB Media. You can listen to John, alongside legendary sports-talk host Jody McDonald every morning from 8-10 on ‘Birds 365,” streaming live on YouTube. John is also the host of his own show "Football 24/7 and a daily contributor to ESPN South Jersey. You can reach him at jmcmullen44@gmail.com or on Twitter @JFMcMullen