Iggles Blitz

by Tommy Lawlor

Gameday – PHI at KC

Posted September 14th, 2025 | No Comments »

The two biggest kids on the block are about to do battle again. The winners of the past three Super Bowls will face each other at 4:25 today in Arrowhead Stadium. The Eagles are more talented. The Chiefs are more desperate. It will be interesting to see how those things play out. KC does not want to drop to 0-2 so they may approach this game with a greater sense of urgency.

If you think back to February, it was mind-blowing to see the Chiefs offense struggle the way they did. They didn’t cross midfield until the third quarter. The Eagles had more points than they did yards at halftime. That was fun, but also an anomaly. Do not expect anything like that today.

The Chiefs think they have fixed their OL and that makes a big difference. They also can study that tape to get a good feel for how Vic Fangio covered them. The Eagles have a rebuilt secondary. The guys who locked up KC back then are not all back. You know Andy Reid and Patrick Mahomes are excited to attack Adoree Jackson. I’m sure they want to test rookie Drew Mukuba as well. The Eagles do catch a bit of a break with several key Chiefs receivers out for this game. Great plays only work if you have the guys to execute them.

Fangio is masterful with his gameplans. He’s also great at teaching his players. The defense should play better than they did in the opener. Getting Jalen Carter back will make a big difference. Adding Za’Darius Smith will help as well. The rushers do need to play under control. Mahomes used his legs a lot in KC’s opener. You need to collapse the pocket and try to keep him in there. Power rushes will be the key to getting after Mahomes.

It will be critical for the Eagles to be prepared for Steve Spagnuolo’s blitzes. His LBs and DBs do an outstanding job of getting after the QB when they are turned loose. The Eagles did a pretty good job vs the blitz last season, but had issues with it in the past. Dallas had some success with blitzes last week. This is an area where Kevin Patullo and Jalen Hurts need good answers.

Dallas Goedert is out for the game. What might that mean for the offense?

Interesting note.

The national reporters all said this morning that the Eagles are expected to target AJ Brown early and often today. Someone on the Eagles leaked that intentionally. Might have just been a PR move. Also might have been something to get inside the Chiefs head. Do you now come out and pump fake to AJ, then throw to DeVonta or someone else? We’ll see.

Rookie DT Ty Robinson will make his NFL debut today. Tank Bigsby will make his Eagles debut. Epps helps them on STs and possibly defense. Veteran edge rushers Azeez Ojulari and Ogbo Okoronkwo are inactive again.

This is a fascinating game. The obvious angle is the SB rematch. Neither team looked great in the season opener so we aren’t sure what to expect from them today. One of the key reasons for that is lots of changes on both rosters. Today’s game will give us an idea of which team found better replacements for the guys that left in free agency.

The intangibles all point to the Chiefs, but the tangibles point to the Eagles. I’ll go with the Birds, but I do expect this to be a tough game.

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