The Hangover

As great as winning Super Bowl LII was, losing SB LVII feels that level of bad. The outcome of the game doesn’t change all the fun of the season, but it made for one miserable Monday. I’ve felt hungover all day, but alcohol wasn’t the issue. The older I get, the less I let sports affect my emotions. But losing that Super Bowl that way. Yikes.

After the game I talked about the Eagles having a bright future. Les Bowen wrote a piece and talked about how you shouldn’t gloss over what a wasted opportunity that was. He is absolutely right and that is a valid point. Getting to a Super Bowl is hard. The Eagles had a loaded roster. They played the easiest schedule in the league. They stayed pretty healthy. Things will change next year and into the future. We don’t know if they’ll be back.

Still, you can’t just be negative. The Eagles played well overall. They lost to an outstanding team by three points in the Super Bowl. It isn’t as if they got blown out or didn’t live up to the moment. The Chiefs played a great game. They made a couple of more plays and that’s the difference.

The 2004 team got to the Super Bowl and had a letdown game. Donovan McNabb threw three INTs. The Eagles only ran for 45 yards. Deion Branch had 11 catches and the Pats also had success with screen passes. You could see the Patriots were clearly the better team. I didn’t get that feeling watching LVII. The Chiefs won, but the difference was a play or two.

This loss will gnaw at me for a while. I looked at Twitter today and got angry with all the Super Bowl analysis. Some was good, but there were also some ripping the Eagles and that bugged me. If you didn’t care who won, that was a compelling, entertaining game. I spent the past 20 some-odd weeks reading a ton about the Eagles. I was a lost soul today. I didn’t want to read much about football. I read this story on the Rift Valley to occupy my sad little brain. No mention of that guy who wears #15. He’ll go nameless today.

One of the reasons the loss is so tough is that this was such a likeable team. Vets like BG and Jason Kelce. The Batman receivers. The singing OT Jordan Mailata. Haason Reddick coming home. Jalen Hurts emerging as a QB and the face of the franchise. They were fun to watch on the field and just as entertaining off it. Plus, this team had a chance to be special. They might have gone down as the best Eagles team of them all.

No more.

You only get that disctinction if you win it all. The 2022 Eagles can now argue with the 1980 and 2004 teams about who was the best not to win the Super Bowl. The 2002 team is the best not to make the Super Bowl. The 1991 team is the best not to make the playoffs. Enough of that tangent for now.

The 2023 Eagles will be interesting. They might have a new offensive and defensive coordinator. Jonathan Gannon is talking to the Cardinals. Shane Steichen is expected to be named coach of the Colts. We’ll find out about those moves in the next day or two.

There will be lineup changes. Hurts will get a mega-deal and the team has a slew of free agents, which means they can’t bring all of them back. The Eagles do have pick 10 and pick 30 in the upcoming draft. They’ll need those players to help make up for some of the guys who do leave. This won’t be a rebuilding job. The Eagles have a strong core of young players to build around. And we’ll see young backups becoming key players. Reed Blankenship, Milton Williams, Nakobe Dean and Cam Jurgens are among some who might become starters in 2023.

As long as you have Nick Sirianni and Jalen Hurts, you’ve got the key pieces to build around. It is fair to point out that we said some of the same things in 2018. Carson Wentz turned out not to have the mental and emotional toughness to handle the situation. That will not be an issue with Hurts. He is a very different person. As for Doug Pederson, he struggled to handle some of the difficult personalities and that led to issues. Sirianni has really connected with his players and has been able to get them to buy into his ideas.

There used to be talk of a Super Bowl hangover. The losing team would struggle the following season. Didn’t happen to the Bucs in 2021 or the Bengals this year. It did happen to the 2005 Eagles, but I think that had more to do with TO going nuclear than losing the SB. They also had a brutal run of injuries. By the end of the year you had Mike McMahon throwing to Darnerian McCants. Not ideal.

I’ll have high expectations for the 2023 team. The offense should score a lot of points. The defense will have new faces, but still should be solid with the guys they have coming back.

I am genuinely excited to see what Hurts does going forward. He had a great season in 2022, but losing the SB will eat at him. Hurts will be more driven than ever to improve. He’ll work relentlessly to get this team back to the top. He may not be as physically special as McNabb or Wentz, but when it comes to intangibles he is in a class of his own. That will serve him and the Eagles well moving forward.

*****

I do love the offseason. It will be fun to talk about all the moves that will or could be made. The Eagles won’t be making splashy signings. They’ll focus most of their money on trying to keep the guys they want. After that, they’ll need to be smart shoppers.

I do wonder if there will be a Hurts effect. He might be the kind of compelling presence that draws some players to Philly.

_