As we see in other sports, the randomness of the postseason is too often used to support a long list of biased narratives. Not a single person raised an objection to the Texans hiring Ryans after his defense was torched for 31 points. Yes, I know - injured QB, etc. That's the point: it's a single random game in which haywire things happened and it's silly to draw any definitive conclusions from it. I have no opinion of Jonathan Gannon. But to suggest one game - in which, perhaps the three biggest plays were (mostly) out of Gannon's hands (the Hurts fumble, the punt return and the Mahomes scramble on a broken play) - is anything substantive is silly. The Eagles had a very good defense in 2022.
Well said. I don’t see how you can say a team that had the fourth most sacks (through the Superbowl) in NFL history, overrated.
He was very good as the Vikes OC 2 years ago. Cousins had a career year under Klint. What I'm really looking for is Gary finding the Texans next QB and Klint coaching him up.
Absolutely. But by the same token, being a good DC is not a monolithic thing. Gannon and Ryan's defenses were both awesome - but kind of in opposite ways. The 49ers initial gameplanning wasn't always great, but the adjustments they made as the games went on were absolutely amazing. As a result, their 1st half defenses were good but their 2nd start defenses were suffocating The Eagles, both throughout the season and during this game, were flipped. They tended to dominate first halves, but seemingly didn't adjust as well, and gave up more in the 2nd half. But as a result, they were also playing with leads more which let them control the game with the run, which paired well with their offense. Both are effective but different routes to the same end result of having great defenses. Unfortunately for them, the combo of KC being incredible at making adjustments and Philly maybe not so good at adjusting led to KC dominating that 2nd half.
Also, this is something that maybe isn't talked about enough: Patrick Mahomes may very well one of the 10 greatest QBs in NFL history. I know it's early, etc. etc. But no QB has had the success he's had in his first 5 years. The guy is 27 and if he retired tomorrow, he'd fly into the Hall of Fame unanimously. And... we've slept, I think, on just how good Any Reid is because he, for too long, couldn't win the big one. I don't know if he's better than Belichick - but he is clearly the second-best coach of the past... 50 years? (I'm going way off the top of my head, if I'm egregiously missing someone.) So, beyond the randomness of single playoff games, there's also the very real idea that Gannon was outcoached by two all-timers. No shame in that.
One of the best QBs in history (already) with one of the best offensive minds (Reid) mixed with a Top 5 offensive line.
