NFL Super Bowl LVII roundtable

This Sunday, Feb. 12 at 6:30 PM, the Philadelphia Eagles and Kansas City Chiefs will head to Glendale, Arizona to face off in Super Bowl LVII. While the Chiefs last played in the Super Bowl in 2021, this is the Eagles’ first visit to the Super Bowl in five years. 

There is quite some overlap between the two competing competitors. Jason Kelce, the starting center for the Philadelphia Eagles, will be playing against his younger brother Travis Kelce, the starting tight-end for the Kansas City Chiefs. Andy Reid, the coach of the Chiefs, coached the Eagles for 14 seasons prior to joining Kansas City. It will certainly be a competitive battle.

The writers of The News-Letter’s Sports section came together to predict the outcome of the big game. Each writer cast their vote and based on the results, writers Robert Cohen, Tad Berkery, Josh Felton and Tim McShea came together to provide insight.

Robert Cohen: 24–14, Chiefs

This season, the Philadelphia Eagles have performed nothing but phenomenally, demonstrated by the fact that they finished the regular season with the best record in the National Football League (NFL) with only three losses in seventeen games.

Led by quarterback Jalen Hurts, the Eagles are strong at pretty much every position. However, their pass-rush is truly exceptional exhibited by the fact that they racked up 70 sacks during the regular season, which is the third most in NFL history. The Eagles certainly have carried on their monstrous play to the playoffs this year shown by the fact they blew the New York Giants out by 31 in the Divisional Round and the San Francisco 49ers out by 24 in the National Football Conference (NFC) Championship. 

Nevertheless, I feel that Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs’ offense may be too much for the Eagles to handle, given that Mahomes and the Chiefs led the league in scoring and yards per play this season. Additionally, the Chiefs are just as strong on the defensive side of the ball, led by legendary defensive tackle Chris Jones, who racked up 15.5 sacks in the regular season. 

My official prediction is that the Chiefs will come out on top and win their second Super Bowl in four years, and the score will be 24–14. 

Tad Berkery: 27–24, Eagles

I’d love to make my Super Bowl winner prediction with great conviction. However, in reality, I have no idea who is going to win. That’s probably always true even when I’m confident in a prediction, but this marks one of those rare occasions where I actually recognize the uncertainty in advance. 

On one hand, “don’t bet against Mahomes and Kelce” seems like a tried-and-true strategy. Mahomes looked good against the Burrow-led Bengals, and that week off between the American Football Conference (AFC) championship could be huge for Mahomes’ ankle. 

On the other hand, if there’s a team that is going to knock off Mahomes and company, is it not the one led by superstar Jalen Hurts and a stellar offensive line led by, yes, another Kelce? 

I’ll go with the Eagles, but I could see this going either way. I could just as easily see the Chiefs winning this game 27–24. The real winners here are us fans: This should be a phenomenal Super Bowl.

Josh Felton: 20–16, Chiefs

The concerns for the Chiefs are valid. How serious is Mahomes’ injury? Will the lack of depth at wide receiver be an issue? As many questions and uncertainties that remain, I feel most confident picking the Chiefs to win this game because they are battle-tested. 

This is not the first rodeo for Mahomes, Reid and the Chiefs. They’ve been in the Super Bowl now three times in the last four years, so they are not strangers to the environment. Even looking at their playoff run to get here, they had to beat the feisty Jacksonville Jaguars and last year’s AFC Champion Cincinnati Bengals, a team that has had much success against Kansas City in the last few years. 

As great as Philadelphia has been all season, they haven’t faced a team remotely as good as Cincinnati this season. The Eagles pass rush will be the difference-maker in this game. Their defense has been stifling, and I believe they will have success stopping the Kansas City offense. Both defenses will be huge in this game, but in the end, it comes down to the Chiefs having the best player at the most valuable position.

Timothy McShea: 27–16, Eagles

While the Chiefs offense should not be underestimated, the wide receiver position is severely limited. This was already a problem during the regular season, but now with Mecole Hardman, Kadarius Toney and JuJu Smith-Schuster listed as questionable, against the Eagles' defense, which stifled much of the 49ers’ run game in the NFC Conference Championship, it is increasingly worrying. 

Obviously, Travis Kelce is a beast, and Mahomes is the better quarterback, but the Eagles have the number-one-ranked pass defense in the NFL, and it will be an uphill battle to get the ball down the field. In the AFC Championship against the Bengals, the Chiefs attempted to help aid the passing game by getting the ball to running back Isiah Pacheco; but in the NFC Championship, the 49ers, who make screens and short passes a priority, were unable to get much going offensively against the Eagles, so it is doubtful the Chiefs can achieve much more success. 

Defensively, the Eagles reign supreme, and as the saying goes, “defense wins championships.” The Chiefs will put up a good fight, but the Eagles will win time of possession and will be hoisting the Lombardi Trophy handily by the fourth quarter.