Chiefs, Eagles ride their pass rush to Arizona

Chris Jones

The fastest way to a Super Bowl is through the chest of the guy who is assigned to shield the quarterback.

The Philadelphia Eagles piled up 70 sacks this year to lead the NFL. They are the NFC champions. The Kansas City Chiefs amassed 55, second in the NFL. They are the AFC champions. They can call the upcoming Super Bowl the Kelce Cup or the Reid Bowl, but it also will illustrate how the QB position now requires an escape mechanism similar to that of The Fugitive. When the pocket caves in, the game only begins for Philadelphia’s Jalen Hurts and Kansas City’s Patrick Mahomes. It’s no country for old, stationary men.

The Eagles and San Francisco were headed for an unforgettable brawl on Sunday when Haason Reddick dictated the terms. He collared quarterback Brock Purdy in mid-throw. Purdy suffered an elbow injury, possibly a ligament tear, that rendered him useless. Josh Johnson, who played quarterback at Division III USD when Jim Harbaugh was his coach, came in and eventually got concussed by Ndamukong Suh.

Since John Brodie and Y.A. Tittle weren’t available, the 49ers sent Purdy back out there, even though everyone knew he couldn’t throw. The game pretty much devolved from there, as the Eagles kept finding open runways in San Francisco’s defense, previously the NFL’s best against the run. They won, 31-7.

The Chiefs and Cincinnati actually did offer rich drama, as they always seem to. Bengals’ quarterback Joe Burrow had the 20-20 game in his sights with 2:30 left. He connected with Hayden Hurst to pick up a third-and-16, overcoming an intentional grounding call. He only needed 30 yards or so to put kicker Evan McPherson in a winning position. But on third-and-eight, Chris Jones pushed Bengals’ guard Max Scharping downfield and then sacked Burrow with 0:41 on the clock.

It still took two massive plays for the Chiefs to avoid overtime. Rookie Skyy Moore came up with a 29-yard punt return, and Mahomes, dragging his sprained ankle to his third Super Bowl, chugged his way to a first down with 0:17 left. Both his feet were well out of bounds when Cincinnati’s Joseph Ossai pushed him deep into the Cincinnati bench. That 15-yard penalty allowed Harrison Butker to kick the 45-yard feld goal that won it, 23-20.

As the mercury dipped to 12 degrees in Arrowhead Stadium, Ossai wept on the bench. He had played vigorously, with five tackles, two quarterback hits, a tackle for loss and a pass defensed. There are many consequential errors in games like that, some made by those in helmets and an unsettling amount by those in stripes, and Ossai just made the final one.

In truth the Bengals began losing this game two weeks ago when tackle Jonah Williams and guard Alex Cappa were hurt in a Wild Card game against Baltimore. Lael Collins, the other guard, was already out. The Bengals ssurvived it in Buffalo because they activated their run game early and got a lead. They probably should have harder to do that against the Chiefs. A sturdy as Burrow is, he won’t be what he can be if he is sacked 41 times each season.

NFL teams averaged 40.5 sacks this season, up from 38.9 in 2021, the first year of the 17-game schedule. They also averaged 95 quarterback hits, up a tick from 94.1. This isn’t a great departure from the norm, especially since more teams are passing. In 1984 Chicago set the NFL record with 72 sacks, but Washington, the Raiders and Philadephia had 60 or more.

Pass protection is always complicated and dicey. Jordan Gross, the former Carolina guard, said the goal of the protectors is to “lose slowly.” But when the game is so much more quarterback-dominant than it was 40 years ago, the losses are coming fast and furiously. The virtual disappearance of the fullback has not helped. Neither is the evolution of the tight end as a fourth wide receiver, Sixty-six men started at the QB position this year for the 32 teams, a record.

Jones has been a star for a while. He set the NFL record by getting at least one sack in 11 consecutive games, four years ago. This season he tied his previous high of 15 1/2 sacks, but also handled the run and, according to Pro Football Focus, was the NFL’s best defensive player. He was a nationally coveted recruit when he came out of Houston, Miss. but signed with Mississippi State, where he played with Dak Prescott. He took a while to get serious about the game, or achieve the proper “desperateness” in the eyes of coach Dan Mullen, and lasted until the second round.

The Chiefs dig up talent as well as anyone, and their 2022 draft may become a league-wide barometer. George Karaftis had a sack, Joshua Williams and Jaylen Watson had interceptions, and Bryan Cook tipped the ball that Williams picked. All are rookies, as are Moore cornerback Trent McDuffie, the first of two first-round picks (with Karlaftis), and seventh-round pick Isiah Pacheco, who has become the featured running back.

The Eagles had four players with 10 or more sacks, and Reddick was the leader with 16. They signed him as a free agent from Carolina, but they also welcomed him home, since Reddick played at Temple and was from nearby Vineland, N.J. Reddick broke his leg in high school and wasn’t significantly recruited, so he walked on at Temple, as a running back, and languished without a scholarship until Matt Rhule became the coach and saw the fast-twitches that Reddick would later display at the NFL Combine. On Sunday the 49ers tried to stop Reddick with backup tight ends, in deference to the threats posed by Brandon Graham, Josh Sweat and Javon Hargrave. By doing so they grievously wounded their chances, and probably forced Purdy into surgery.

At some point, NFL coordinators will have to shelve their creative reputations and prioritize the health of those whose salaries are equal to the gross national product of some protectorates. Meanwhile, Mahomes gets two weeks to doctor up his ankle and Hurts gets two weeks to silence the barking in his shoulder. The one who is kept upright more often, in an Arizona dome on Feb. 12, will be getting a ring instead of a sling.