Back Breaker

The NFL’s gold standards will face off in Week 11 when the 8-1 Philadelphia Eagles take on the 7-2 Kansas City Chiefs in a Super Bowl rematch.

On the latest episode of “Inside The Birds,” Adam Caplan and Geoff Mosher previewed the biggest matchups and gave their final score predictions for the Monday night showdown. 

Even with a weakened receiving core, Chiefs QB Patrick Mahomes still causes major issues for defenses

Steve Spagnuolo

Geoff Mosher: “This year, the Chiefs defense is the show, ranked number two in scoring defense behind Baltimore. You are going to see a defense amount of man defense…what he does a lot of is late safety rotation going from one high to two high and folding them in with his pressures. What [the Eagles] need to do is have route concepts that make it easy for Jalen Hurts to get the ball to somebody underneath and not get caught having too many vertical routes and nowhere for him to throw the ball.”

Adam Caplan: “They play the seventh highest man coverage at 32%…I am interested to see what their plan is because they have not faced a lot of running quarterbacks and Hurts annihilated them in the Super Bowl.”

Chiefs D-Line

Mosher: “The Chiefs move their defensive linemen around a lot. Chris Jones plays tackle and end, (George) Karlaftis will line up at end and then sometimes move inside in nickel. They are very good and talented, but they do move around a lot to get advantageous matchups. So if the Eagles are facing third-and-five or even third-and-six, they are not afraid to run the ball in those situations and if they can catch times where they see Karlaftis and he is a little bit smaller, that might be a good opportunity for them on third down do be able to spring some pretty good runs.”

Caplan: “Getting Cam Jurgens back is huge. The Chiefs have a very good defensive line, this is a trenches matchup here.”

Chiefs Receivers

Caplan: “They have a deep receiving core, but there is clearly a mistrust here. Skyy Moore, who had a really good offseason, has been a non-factor, Kadarius Toney has been a non-factor. Whatever the case may be, Travis Kelce is their guy and Rashee Rice has been a pretty good second round pick, Penn’s Justin Watson is their shot play guy and that’s it…Their pass game has definitely regressed.”

Patrick Mahomes

Caplan: “Mahomes may be the best scrambling quarterback in the National Football League. It’s even better this season because he is not throwing it and he sees a void in space and finds it. It’s such a backbreaking play for a defense.”

Mosher: “If Mahomes gets out of that pocket, you have to be really big on your keys and scramble drills. You cannot let this guy kill you on second reaction plays.”

 Final Score Predictions

Caplan: “I have it the Chiefs 24, Eagles 27. I am assuming Bradley Roby is playing.”

Mosher: “I have the Eagles winning 26 to 21. This Chiefs offense is just not crisp and the Eagles are getting healthy. Last year’s Super Bowl doesn’t matter, it’s a different game, different teams, different year. But I do think this Eagles team needs to beat the Chiefs and Andy Reid because if they are going to meet again in the Super Bowl, you don’t want that feeling of you don’t know how to beat this team.”

– Benjamin Paul is a staff writer for InsideTheBirds.com.