In the end, two franchises with top team OVRs made it to the title game. The Kansas City Chiefs come in with the highest team OVR in football (90) while the Eagles fly in with the league's #3 rated OVR (88). However, the road to the Super Bowl has been anything but similar for these two clubs. The Eagles dominated play all season with three wins over the New York Giants and victories over the Baltimore Ravens, Tampa Bay Buccaneers, and Los Angeles Rams. Their 15-2 regular season slate was the best in the league and earned them the top seed in the NFC. Kansas City, on the other hand, was expected to be a top level squad, but often seemed to stumble along throughout the regular season. Still, they easily won the AFC West amd never seemed concerned or flustered during the down times. A week 11, 52-26, loss to Buffalo would be followed up with a shocking, 34-20, upset to the Los Angeles Chargers. Then, in week 16, the club would be shellacked by the Houston Texans in a matchup that marked the most points allowed in a game by any team in the league this entire season losing, 62-31! QB Patrick Mahomes would be sacked a league most 181 times including a 20 sack debacle in the loss to the Chargers! It seemed as if KC was going to be an early out come playoff time.

   But once the bright lights came on, the Chiefs suddenly unleashed their power and began a three game onslaught that now has them on the precipice of greatness. They would face the Texans again in the Wild Card Round but, this time, would avenge the regular season embarrassment with a lopsided, 42-19, rout. They would follow that win up the next week in the Divisonal Round crushing the upstart Indianapolis Colts, 32-6, and then upended the Baltimore Ravens, 38-27, to get to this point! The Chiefs have averaged an amazing 37.33 PPG in their playoff run. QB Patrick Mahomes has been spectacular throwing for 448 yards and 5 touchdowns in the win over Houston and is coming off an incredible 485 yard, 5 touchdown performance in the AFC Title game. He has accumulated 1138 yards passing, 11 touchdown passes, and averaged 379.33 YPG in the post-season! And, just when you think you have Mahomes cornered, up shows HB Isaiah Pacheco or the defense. In the Divisional win over the Colts, Mahomes would be limited to 205 yards passing, but Pacheco ran for 110 yards and the defense came up with 7 sacks, 2 interceptions, 2 forced fumbles, and 1 fumble recovery to seal the deal.

   Philly, of course, just kept on winning. They would use a staunch run defense and excellent second half to put away the rival New York Giants in the Divisional Round, 34-7, shutting down the New York running game allowing the Big Blue halfbacks to gain a mere 88 yards on 37 carries (2.28 YPC). At the same time, the running game, which had mostly under-achieved much of the year, exploded with HB Saquon Barkely blasting his way to a stunning 215 yards and 4 touchdowns on 27 carries. Barkley would also be a huge factor in the passing game hauling in 5 passes for 98 additional yards! In the Conference Championship matchup with the rugged Seattle Seahawks, QB Jalen Hurts would throw for 401 yards and 3 touchdowns, kicker Jake Elliott would crush a 61 yard field goal, and the defense would sack Seahawk QB Geno Smith 10 times. The defensive effort would be punctuated with a sack, strip fumble by Pro-Bowl LB Tyrel Dodson. Fellow Pro-Bowler, and NFC DPOY, DE Jalen Carter would scoop up the loose pigskin and rumble 44 yards to paydirt as the Eagles clipped the Seahawks' wings, 44-21. Philadelphia averaged 39 PPG in their two playoff wins and did it with both the pass and the run. 

    Any references to regular season stats would be moot at this point in time. Kansas City and head coach Possum Jason Hogan have clearly gotten their act together and are roaring along. Philadelphia comes in with an eye-popping 17-2 record. This is their second consecutive SB appearance and marks their fourth championship entry overall. The Eagles won the very first PFL title some 48 seasons ago and have dropped their other two showings back in SB XXXVI and in last year's SB XLVII to the New England Patriots. The Chiefs have been criticized in recent years for always having a powerful and talented roster completing excellent regular seasons only to fall flat in the playoffs. Their last SB appearance was 10 seasons ago when they were defeated by the Chicago Bears and current Cleveland Browns' HC Mike Russo. Russo is the brother of the late Pete Russo who's name was given, in his honor, to the PFL Championship Trophy. 

   Final Analysis: After being sacked 10 or more times in each of his last five games of the regular season and in seven of his final eight contests, Mahomes has not been dropped for double digit numbers in any of his three playoff games. He has, though, still been trapped 21 times in the playoffs and that could be a factor here. The Chiefs have been a big play machine with many explosive one-play touchdowns. Mercurial WR Rashee Rice raced away from Raven defenders last week for 13 receptions, 245 yards, and 3 touchdowns and will need to be held in check. As fast as Rice is, the Eagles will need to contend with the even quicker speeds of WRs Xavier Worthy (98) and Marquise Brown (95) and, of course, the electric potential of HB Pacheco. Worthy's speed showed up two weeks ago when he took a punt back for a score. A key matchup could be Chiefs' TE Travis Kelce going up against either SS CJ Gardner-Johnson or FS Reed Blankenship. On the other hand, Philly has shown it can get the ball to Barkley out of the backfield or spread out wide. That could lead to a linebacker like Drue Tranquill or Leo Chenal covering him. Expect big plays from both sides and, if one were to look at the total body of work this season, one would go with the Eagles. But KC is not the team folks saw during the regular season and are awfully hard to keep in check. Kansas City 32-26.